Atalante, L' (1934)

Jean Vigo: master of masters!
L' Atalante (1934), name of the mythical Goddess, specialist in getting away of men, means for Truffaut, one of his ten preferred ones. Its unlucky story has known multiple obstacles, beginning with the death of Jean Vigo, once the footage was over, the changes made by its producers as well as the successive restorations, being the last one in 1990, that carved in relief a violent film, tormented, fevered, filled of ideas and fantasy, featured by an exacerbated romanticism, almost devilish but profoundly human.

Very few films have been able to depict with such poetry and conviction, the quotidian details, images hovered by an enraptured lyricism, in that hard to achieve dimension in which the real and the imaginary are blended with mesmerizing results.

Extraordinary and majestic film.

five stars for everyone involved
Suberb cinematography, direction, acting, etc. Visually, an absolutely georgeous film. Photographed by the same cameraman who emigrated to Hollywood and did On the Waterfront. Great writing and directing. Not a single wasted moment. The acting is everything you could ask for; it's thoroughly "modern." The sound is beautifully integrated into the film, especially for such an early effort in the sound era. And it contains one of the great cinema "sex scenes" of all time...particularly since the male and female leads are miles apart as it takes place! I had been unaccountably unaware of this film until recently....its now one of my top 10 favorite films of all times and places.

Excellent but too hard a hype to live up to
I waited until I watched this movie a second time before I decided to review it. I had bought the movie because it was listed on "Sight and Sound's" all-time top ten best movie lists. I realized (after watching it the first time) that I had just seen an excellent movie but not one of the greatest movies of all time. I gave it a lot of thought and just let it go. Several years later, I put my movie up for sale on Amazon.com and it went quickly. I decided to watch it one last time before I shipped it off the next day and I enjoyed it again. However, as beautiful a story as it truly is, this is NOT one of the greatest movies of all time.

This is the story of young love (i.e.: innocence). We start with a wedding of barge captain and small-town girl. Everybody follows the couple to the barge expecting a reception of some sort. However, the captain merely signals that it is time to shove off and the wedding guest stand there puzzled with the abrupt end of the celebration. This and many other scenes really do tell an intimate story and it is the sum total of all of these intimate glimpses that have given the movie its' fame. The love story reaches out to us and we smile at times and shudder at other times when the newly weds make the newlywed mistakes. The development of trust and understanding, the assertion of who's boss, the realization that being right is no fun if it means being alone, etc, etc, all come together in a beautiful movie. BUT it's still not one of the greatest movies of all time!!!

My problem was in anticipating something greater than I got. It wasn't the first time nor will it be the last. However, maybe my efforts to tone down the praise will give others a chance to watch it without expectations. I'm sure my review would have been a lot different had I been able to see "L'Atalante" that way.