Tuesday | March 13, 2007 7:00 pm

L’Atalante

Screening on Film

Directed by Jean Vigo.
With Jean Dasté, Dita Parlo, Michel Simon.
France, 1934, 35mm, black & white, 89 min.
French with English subtitles.
Print source: New Yorker Films

One of the most cherished films among cinephiles, L'Atalante was the sole feature film made by director Jean Vigo, who died at age twenty-nine from tuberculosis just as the work premiered. Under Vigo's sensitive direction, the simple story of a young woman's stormy initiation into married life on a river barge is told with a mixture of naturalism and surrealist fantasy that infuses everyday life with startlingly magical moments.