L'Atalante (1934)

 Jean Vigo's "L'Atalante"

After watching Jean Vigo's 1933 short film "Zero for Conduct," I was thoroughly excited for his next film, "L'Atalante." What instilled even more excitement in me was the highly lauded praise of the film from various film appreciation platforms. Some even consider it the greatest film of the 1930s, while many others hail it as one of the greatest films of all time. Suffice to say that I was ready for something incredible. However, after watching the film, I was a little underwhelmed. The film itself was a good watch, as I found myself enjoying the twists and turns in the life of this newlywed couple. However, perhaps I hyped the film too much in my mind. So, I returned to the film a week later to reevaluate. Even still, I found myself wanting more. Perhaps this is a fault in myself, but it could be that I was looking for something far deeper. And maybe that is the point of the film anyway.

The film centers on a newly married couple. Jean, the captain of the canal barge L'Atalante marries a woman named Juliette. Juliette has only ever lived in her small village and desires a life outside of what she's used to. Similarly, Jean must acquaint himself with a new way of living by being a married man. Jean, being a canal boat captain, is used to not being tied down to one port. The couple board his canal barge to make a delivery to Paris and use this as a makeshift honeymoon. On the way, the couple experience frustration, as life together does not meld perfectly. Jean is not used to having a wife aboard, and the couple begin bickering. On top of this, Jean's boatmate, the scruffy and eccentric Pere Jules, along with seemingly infinite quantity of pet cats, continues to annoy them. That is until Juliette discovers Pere Jules' cabin quarters, which contains a variety of knickknacks and obscure and interesting objects that Pere Jules has collected from his travels around the world. However, after Jean finds Juliette getting friendly with Pere Jules in his quarters, he goes into a jealous rage and begins smashing things. Things get more frustrating when they finally arrive in the Paris port. Jean promises to take Juliette out. However, after Pere Jules leaves to go see a fortune teller, Jean tells Juliette that they cannot leave the barge unattended. Even after Pere Jules returns, their trip into Paris is wasn't what they expected as they are annoyed by a street peddler who continues to flirt with Juliette. Juliette is fascinated by him, much to Jean's anger. He becomes so angry with Juliette that he takes her back to the boat and leaves her there while he returns to the mainland. In a fit of anger, Juliette decides to leave Jean behind and make it on her own in Paris. Jean goes into a deep depression, while Juliette fails to find work, as well as getting mugged. After longing for each other once again, Pere Jules find Juliette and brings her back. 

One of the things that surprised me about the film was the beauty found within the film's blend of realism and fantasy. With his cameraman, Boris Kaufman (brother to famed director Dziga Vertov), Jean Vigo was able to capture some of the most mesmerizing images and sequences I've seen from an early 1930s film. Vigo, along with his French contemporaries, utilize a form of poetic realism in their work. The visuals are purely concrete, while the camera is able to capture them through such a poetic lens. There is even a sequence at the end of the film that visually captures Jean and Juliette's longing for each other. As they lay in bed, they toss and turn in their sleep, while Vigo captures their longing through a blend of stylized lighting as well as a separate dream sequence in which Jean sees Juliette floating in water like a spinning angel. These shots are included below, along with some others that really caught my attention.

While I was captured by the simple beauty of the film's visuals, the depth of the film left me feeling wanting. The film was not what I expected and I felt a light let down because of it. However, after sitting with the film, I've come to realize that lack of fulfillment with something I had an expectation of is the same frame of mind the characters go through in the film. Juliette desires a life outside of her small village: something exciting somewhere far away in the big city. However, when she finally gets to the big city, she is slammed in the face with its cruelty and its overwhelming presence. The homeless are sleeping on park benches, men are waiting in unemployment lines, a pickpocket attempts to steal her purse, and a crowd of people attacking that pickpocket. Likewise, Jean's expectations of his marriage were not met. He has difficultly in dealing with Juliette. He becomes insanely jealous over Pere Jules and the street peddler. His controlling attitude is also challenged when he realized that he cannot control what Juliette does. He goes into fits of anger over situations not going as he planned. After Jean loses Juliette, he begins to realize how much he's lost. The freedom he previously had is now granted again, only this time he is unhappy. Both Jean and Juliette are unhappy and must come back to each other once again. In each other on L'Atalante, they at least were able to find small moments of happiness along the tenuous and winding river. 

Although I did not find much while watching the film, my retrospective opinion of the film has grown significantly. Why was I expecting so much from the film? Like life, the film was not going to be everything I wanted it to be. Like this newlywed couples' marriage and honeymoon, I have placed far too much value on my own expectations and perceptions. While watching the film, I did find myself simply enjoying spending time with the characters, including the wildly likeable Pere Jules, played brilliantly by Michel Simon. I found myself simply enjoying the ride, rather than whatever prescribed notions I had about the film coming into it. Like the characters, I began to realize that I should have just enjoyed the ride all along. The world is a bumpy place and moments of happiness are not granted. Rather, you must find happiness in whatever little circumstances you can. Because of this, I have become far more endeared to "L'Atalante" and its poetic expression of the freedom you can find from life just by experiencing it and not holding on to the notions of what it is 'supposed' to be.