Jean Vigo was born to fugitive parents; his father was a militant anarchist. Therefore, much of his early life was spent hiding from the authorities with his parents. His father died in jail when he was twelve years old but the officials tried to cover it up as suicide. He spent his teenage in boarding school under an alias name for safety purposes. He married at twenty-six, had a daughter and died at twenty-nine due to tuberculosis that he had suffered for eight years. As a filmmaker, he is considered as having been instrumental in establishing poetic realism in cinema and would inspire many of the French New Wave directors almost three decades later after his death. Despite not living that long, Vigo’s work is steeped with life and offers deep insights into human existence
In this village, Jean has just married Juliette, and he takes her with him to begin a life of canal travel on the barge L’Atalante. She fashions their new home on board Jean’s narrowboat with poor Pere and Jules, his odd friends. For these other men having a lady around is weird but they are trying to make their small cabin comfortable for her. When they arrive in Paris, John promises his wife an outing together that night; however, since somebody has to watch over the boat and both performers consult soothsayers that Juliette could not join them. Later on, she gets her opportunity but it is ruined when a street seller flirts with Jean who subsequently forcibly pulls her back into the boat. In response she sneaks away in anger only for John to allow the ship leave without her. Their love looks imperiled but this is a fairy tale and something will happen anyhow.
Tragedies are a common theme in classical fantasy stories or fables which are passed down from generation to generation. Such themes were meant to articulate a moral, thus leading to some sad and happy moments. Their parents leave them, however, and they almost get eaten by a witch, but there’s a happy ending for Hansel & Gretel. Love is an important part of these stories about the human condition. On occasion, love can turn into a burden that is too heavy to bear. For others though, they might feel that the fire of love has been extinguished forever completely. Reduced scale makes such tales more sensitive than those which dramatize wider complex processes every single day. This will lead to lots of conflicts as two newly married people will stay together in an unconventional environment for many years. In particular, this movie loves the dirtiness of life and how chaotic it could be at times
For a long time, the public was not able to see the director’s cut of L’Atalante. Instead, from 1934 up until 1990, what was available was only a version lasting for 65 minutes, with an original duration of 89 minutes. However Vigo has chosen to exclude interesting aspects: such as the wedding. In the first scene we meet Jules and Juliette coming out of the church and walking towards his barge awaiting them on shore. The townsfolk follow waving goodbye and exuding sadness for their departing daughter. This also means that there is no courtship between these two lovers either. When you see where they live it becomes obvious that Juliette must actually love Jean and choose to live like this.
Juliette has never been in Paris so just by traveling around in this weird way her life turns exotic and exciting. But that’s what the movie is about, how those things which tantalize us from afar all glinting before our eyes become washed out and uninteresting after we examine them closely enough. Furthermore, Jean does not consider what it means when he brings her into his world or lives like this. As a result, “L’Atalante” becomes less of a story driven film than one about human interaction.
You cannot completely know an individual, even if you marry them, but you know them over time. I understand Ariana more now compared to when we began dating almost sixteen years ago. More of a complex human being than merely the person I adore myself with. She knows me better than anyone else in this world. Love has grown in these years and we are genuinely committed to each other. But along the way there have been bumps in the road, much like this film has too. These bumps are what determines whether it’s love that holds you together.
The camera dissolves by Jean Vigo have a profound impact as they allow two pictures to merge partially and communicate new ideas through such combination. Jean & Juliette kissing on the barge deck is partly dissolved into Jules wrestling himself for comic effect. Starting from 1934, L’Atalante camerawork also suffered due to Vigo’s declining health during production showing real beauty of cinema. L’Atalante is one of those early films which was part and parcel of cornering the first wave movie making era back then. In today’s movies I wish there would be still this kind of poetry in them.
Jean Vigo does indeed dissolve images with his camera so that they only partially dissolve and give rise to new ideas that come from merging with others altogether anew ones. While Jean kisses Juliette on the barge deck, Jules struggles against himself for laughs sometimes disintegrated.. About 1934 though, Vigo shows us some beautiful cinema made despite his worsening health throughout filming L’Atalante; Joseph Roth’s critique of Germany to emerge later this year was another testament to how much control could be exercised over art through brutal dominance: “anything good will always be compromised.” L’Atalante is one such film produced at the beginning of cinema industry development which defined its own segment.
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