Newly married couple Juliette and ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'Atalante along with the captain's first mate and a cabin boy.
Direction
Vigo's only feature—he died at 29 and still outdirected most careers.
Cinematography
That foggy Seine cinematography invented 'miserable but gorgeous'.
Acting
Michel Simon's Père Jules: unhinged, tender, possibly feral.
Director
Jean Vigo
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Vigo was so sick during filming that he directed some scenes from a stretcher; he died of tuberculosis months after completing it at age 29.
The original 1934 release was butchered by distributors into a commercial failure; the restored 1990 version revealed the masterpiece critics had missed for 56 years.
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