L'Atalante
In Jean Vigo’s hands, an unassuming tale of conjugal love becomes an achingly romantic reverie of desire and hope. Jean (Jean Dasté), a barge captain, marries Juliette (Dita Parlo), an innocent country girl, and the two climb aboard Jean’s boat, the L’Atalante—otherwise populated by an earthy first mate (Michel Simon) and a multitude of mangy cats—and embark on their new life together. Both a surprisingly erotic idyll and a clear-eyed meditation on love, L’Atalante, Vigo’s only feature-length work, is a film like no other.
Starring Michel Simon, Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, Gilles Margaritis, Louis Lefebvre, Maurice Gilles, Raphaël Diligent, Claude Aveline, René Blech, Lou Bonin
Watch "L'Atalante" from streaming services Criterion Channel, Amazon, Kanopy released in 1934. It's a drama and comedy movie, and has a rating of 7.8 out of 10 from Imdb which is usually fine for this kind of movie.