L'Atalante

In Jean Vigo's hands, an unassuming tale of conjugal love becomes an achingly romantic reverie of desire and hope.

Jean (Jean Daste), 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.