As I am writing this review in 2014, this movie celebrates its 80th anniversary. Some years ago it was considered the greatest movie ever. It's a pretty good movie indeed, but claiming it as the best ever is a perfect nonsense. As the movie is celebrating its 80th anniversary, the critics seem to be a little more reasonable, considering it now the 12th greatest movie ever. Claiming it as the 12th greatest ever is a nonsense too, but better that than claiming it as the greatest of all.That said, this is a movie with significant historical and sentimental value. It was the first and last full-length film directed by the promising young director Jean Vigo, who was taken away from us too soon. Jean Vigo only directed two documentary movies ("À propos de Nice" and "Taris, roi de l'eau") and one controversial featurette ("Zéro de conduite"). "L'Atalante" would be his first and only full-length motion picture. He always had a fragile health but his illness worsened considerably when he directed "L'Atalante" and that finished him off. Although he knew he was going to die soon, he still wanted to make the movie until the end. You can say that he gave his life to make this movie. Despite his short movie career he left his mark and later influenced french directors such as François Truffaut and the French New Wave."L'Atalante" was also released under the interesting alternative title «Le chaland qui passe». It's as simple and basic as a movie can be. Even though it takes place mostly inside a crude river barge, it also has nice sights of some french village in the beginning and later some lovely sights of the gorgeous city of Paris. And a good thing they did that, because if the whole thing was inside an ugly cargo ship, it would have been boring.Generally speaking, the characters are nothing too special, despite the good performances by the respective actors.Jean Dasté is Jean, whom I have a divisive opinion about. On one hand he is quite funny at times, but on the other hand he shows he is impulsive and bossy. To be honest, sometimes he really is a douche, especially towards the cats and his wife.Dita Parlo is Juliette (Jean's wife). She isn't particularly charming and not really hot in nature, but she is usually a decent woman and fine-looking rather than a "fatal attraction".Michel Simon is Père Jules, an eccentric old sailorman. While his moral nature is questionable (well, you wouldn't expect anything but lack of politeness from a sailorman), he is a fun and entertaining character. Louis Lefebvre is the cabin boy with a bizarre voice. Not much of a character, although there are some funny scenes with him.Gilles Margaritis is the street peddler. He is the funniest character of the film. I know that he wasn't supposed to have much of a role, but still it's a shame that his role wasn't bigger. Plus, in a way I think that Juliette should have ended up with him instead of going back to Jean.The soundtrack is nice, especially the Main Theme and the music that is played in the nightclub where Jean and Juliette meet the street peddler.The french of this movie can be really difficult to understand. Extra-attention is required to understand it as much as possible, because the language is often spoken very quickly. That characteristic is particularly notorious on Michel Simon, although part of the reason could be his nationality (he was swiss, and the swiss french has its peculiarities).In theory that is not so bad if you've got subtitles, but if you don't... on the other hand, even with subtitles, for people who want to understand, feel and learn the french, it can be quite hard to understand the thunder-paced french in this movie.Title in Portugal: 'O Atalante'.

L'Atalante is one of those films I've heard of a lot in the well respected critics list, as you can see, it's highly ranked in They Shoot Pictures Don't They's list, but I've never known enough about it besides the fact that the director, Jean Vigo, died after making it at age 29. It is a truly unique, poetic and dreamy film and does deserve its acclaim. At the core, it's a film about the differences between men and women and how the frustration and anger of that tension drives them together and apart. It's surprising to see a film from pre-1950s to feature such vulgarities as a picture of a naked woman, the use of the word "pussy" referring to a vagina and frequent references to sex and sexual pleasure. But perhaps I haven't seen enough pre-1950s films to truly judge.The relationship between the main couple, Jean and Juliette, is incredibly passionate, even if the jealousy and worry can seem ugly on them. Their separation during the second half is upsetting and the audience really wills them to be together. While it plays with surrealism and faux- surrealism - such as the ambiguity of the second mate Pere's gender and showing him play a record on his finger that turns out to be the cabin boy playing the accordion - the eccentric side characters, including Pere, bring a special layer to the film, even making it genre breaking with slapstick and musical moments. The second half of the film is significantly better than the plodding first half though, where the cinematography is more creative and features excellent framing with lots of high and low angles, use of reflections and silhouettes which give the film a marvellous texture and adds to the atmosphere. It is a really complex film which I know I won't grasp on a single viewing and analysis but an excellent film nonetheless. 8/10

I don't remember when I saw this the first time but it left a magical impression.I was thrilled to find it again on TCM. I liked it but didn't love it this time around.Dita Parlo is interesting to watch...the scenes of her and her new husband coming back from the wedding are joyous. It is semi-interesting seeing her adjust to barge life, and the insidiously growing jealousy and brutality of the skipper. After a while you have to wonder what holds this odd couple together.After the blow-up, and "la patronne's" innocent whirl around Paris, you can see it's all about the sex. That's what keeps them together.Pere Jules is an interesting character and I enjoyed his acceptance of the "full-treatment" offer from that fortune teller.I had thought there was more to this. But what I got was OK.

I didn't realise that director Jean Vigo only made four films before dying at a young age, this film and Zero for Conduct are the two that appeared in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so naturally I had to watch. Basically the L'Atalante is a canal barge, and the captain Jean (Jean Dasté) has married Juliette (Dita Parlo), despite not meeting much, and after a march they start their trip together. They are travelling between Le Havre and Paris on the barge with a cargo delivery, while on honeymoon, and there are tensions between the hardly used crew members. But the bigger conflict with tempers flaring and things smashed comes when Jean is jealous of Juliette having an affair with first mate and obsessive cat lover Père Jules (Michel Simon). Another argument and scuffle comes while in Paris and a Peddler (Gilles Margaritis) who wants to run off with Jean's wife, but having become tired of barge life she runs off anyway. Jean starts suffering near-catatonic depression having furiously left Juliette behind after casting off, and he tries a few things to try and get over it, but they do not work. Juliette meanwhile has found nothing but despair and crime since going onto the mainland, and it is only after Jean tries to kill himself jumping into the river that they are both reunited, and in the end they are happy once again together. I will be absolutely honest, and say that this explanation for what happens in the film is not something I would have recalled myself. Also starring Louis Lefebvre as Cabin Boy, Fanny Clar as Juliette's Mother, Raphaël Diligent as Raspoutine, Juliette's Father and René Blech as Best Man. I did not understand everything that was going on to be honest, but the relationship between the main characters was good, the realistic documentary style material for life on the barge is alright, and I can see that it did start influence the French New Wave of cinema, from what I did understand it is a most watchable romantic drama. Very good!