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© DR - L'ATALANTE de Jean Vigo (1934) p6
25/11/2012 03:53
Différents titres, différents montages, différentes versions
L’Atalante a été monté par Louis Chavance, sous la direction de Jean Vigo, déjà malade et alité. La Gaumont, inquiète après l'interdiction de Zéro de conduite-film précédent du cinéaste-décida de remplacer la musique de Maurice Jaubert par la chanson à succès de Lys Gauty Le Chaland qui passe (« Imaginez qu'au milieu d'une représentation de Pélléas, l'orchestre exécute soudain « Parlez-moi d'amour »,s'était insurgé Claude Aveline)
Le film est sorti sous le titre de cette chanson. Des scènes furent supprimées, le film étant monté par le même Chavance. De 84 minutes, la durée, raccourcie de 19 minutes, devient 65 minutes. Suite à l'échec commercial du film, les exploitants de salle coupèrent à leur tour dans la copie pour l'« améliorer », ce qui était habituel au temps du cinéma muet, mais encore plus destructeur avec les films sonores.
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© DR - L'ATALANTE de Jean Vigo (1934) p7
25/11/2012 03:57
Différents titres, différents montages, différentes versions (2)
En 1940, le nouveau détenteur des droits et ancien actionnaire de la Gaumont, Henri Beauvais, présenta une version la plus correcte possible (une reconstitution partielle, du mieux qu'il pouvait) avec le titre et la musique originales du film qu'il avait lui-même mutilé. Malheureusement, le négatif de cette copie fut détruit pendant la guerre.En 1950, Henri Langlois et la Cinémathèque française se baseront sur cette version de Beauvais qu'ils corrigeront avec différentes copies trouvées çà et là, et en rencontrant l'entourage de Vigo. La qualité technique de cette restauration est médiocre.
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A Gentle, Contemplative Classic
Author: Snow Leopard from Ohio
16 November 2004
There aren't many classics that are as deceptively simple as "L'Atalante". Its gentle, contemplative tone - punctuated by occasional stretches of Michel Simon's antics - conceals a carefully made film with some worthwhile themes that go beyond the story itself. The lavish praises that it sometimes receives have perhaps created unrealistic expectations, which is unfortunate, because it is a fine, though understated, classic.
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Jean and Juliette, the two main characters, both have strengths and weaknesses that make them believable. Jean is responsible and disciplined, while Juliette is easygoing and gregarious (which makes her the easiest of the two to appreciate and to sympathize with). But Jean's rigidity and his occasional impatience, in combination with Juliette's naiveté and her occasional impulsiveness, make for difficulties in their relationship.
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If they seem boring when compared to the couples in many other movie romances, it is precisely this that makes the film worthwhile. It focuses closely on two ordinary people, without distracting frills or forced social commentary. Most of us are not all that interesting to others, and our lives and problems are usually important only to us. It is part of Jean Vigo's achievement that he takes two such commonplace characters and makes them worth caring about, and by implication he tells us that we are all worth caring about, even if we and our lives may not matter much to others.
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By keeping most of the action on board the boat, Vigo not only creates an atmosphere, but also forces the attention onto the characters. Simon's rather exaggerated character is used both to vary the pacing when appropriate, and to respond to the traits and actions of Jean and Juliette. The photography and the score are also used to round out the picture.
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It may be true that the film is sometimes over-praised, but in large part that is simply an over-reaction to the unfortunate lack of attention that this kind of classic must so often endure. In an era when so many very weak recent movies have received regular television airings, special edition DVD's with all kinds of pointless "extras", and undeserved critical acclaim, it's all too obvious that movies requiring more effort to appreciate are too often ignored entirely.
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Many recent romance movies have tried to use lavish production values, disaster or crisis settings, trendy techniques such as "non-linear" story-telling, and other such devices to cover up a lack of substance. Movies as different as "Titanic" and "The English Patient" (just to name two of many possible examples) use such methods in an attempt to pass off a romantic couple as heroic or admirable, when the characters in actuality are usually self-absorbed, vapid, and truly less worth caring about than Vigo's Jean and Juliette are.
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Jean and Juliette, like most of us, know that they are not important in the grand scheme of things, and they are probably rather well aware of their own weaknesses. They are neither saints nor sinners, neither victims nor heroes, they are just human, and therefore worth caring about. "L'Atalante" itself is not "the greatest movie ever made", especially since there is no such thing anyway, but it is a thoughtful and carefully crafted classic that stays with you well after you have seen it.
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© DR - L'ATALANTE de Jean Vigo (1934) p8
25/11/2012 04:01
Différents titres, différents montages, différentes versions (3)
En 1983, un jeune réalisateur, âgé de 23 ans, Jean-Louis Bompoint apprend que la Cinémathèque française est, depuis peu, en possession d'éléments inédits récemment retrouvés. Il voulait lancer une nouvelle restauration, mais Vincent Pinel, conservateur au sein de la Cinémathèque française, l'envisageait déjà secrètement.
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Tales of the riverbank
Author: Gary170459 from Derby, UK
29 August 2004
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My big problem with "L'Atalante" is how much of what we see and hear was really Jean Vigo's intention (as he didn't finish it) when he was making it? The restored version is the only version and was reconstructed from many disparate bits about 15 years ago, meaning it has had running order interpretations foisted upon it. I think most of the film we see came from the BFI in London, remixed with other clips into some kind of logical sequence by Gaumont in Paris and sold as a Forgotten Masterpiece.
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Well, if you can call such luck ending up as a masterpiece it was purely unintentional by Vigo - he didn't see what we do now.What we have though is definitely a series of relentlessly beautiful, thought-provoking, impressionistic black and white images hung together for 87 minutes with a very flimsy story of 3 people on a barge. The kid was background fluff and doesn't really count. Simon was his usual farcical self, I wish he'd been background as well.
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Daste and Parla were both later in "La Grande Illusion", can you really forget her as the German widow Elsa in favour of this? The framings and compositions are wonderful to see - how important was it to include distant shots of power stations, cranes etc? Why did Daste stare right into the underwater camera? How come every available surface seems uncomfortable or strewn with bizarre objects or people?
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Why just the one short aerial shot? And so many other questions which are either pointless or beyond my intelligence; somebody somewhere must know!I find every time I watch "L'Atalante" it grows on me - I thought it was pants in '91, now I think it's brill! We all move at different speeds - some people will never be able to see this as anything but boring while some people thought it was a classic before they saw it! Whereas I'm still on the voyage of discovery with this one and will definitely watch it again, but not as an indispensable film, more as akin to a trip to the Art Gallery.
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© DR - L'ATALANTE de Jean Vigo (1934) p9
25/11/2012 04:05
Différents titres, différents montages, différentes versions (4)
En 1990, dans le but de conserver ses droits sur l'œuvre qui allait bientôt tomber dans le domaine public, la Gaumont sortit une version restaurée. Elle fut produite par Michel Schmidt et dirigée par Jean-Louis Bompoint (qui a entre temps reçu le soutien de Luce Vigo,fille du cinéaste)et Pierre Philippe.Cette restauration, présentée au Festival de Cannes, est dite enfin « complète ». Mais cette version intègre des rushes inédits qui n'étaient pas montés dans la version de 1934, comme le fameux"plan de l'iceberg"qui montre Jean Dasté sucer un glaçon.
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To See Paris and ...
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Author: Galina from Virginia, USA
5 May 2005
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"People are strange when you are stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked when you are unwanted
Streets are uneven when you are down…" by Jim Morrsion (1963-1971)
…And city of light and love is dark and depressing when you are there without your beloved. Director Jean Vigo died young (at 29, of septicemia) just after he finished his third and last film, "L'Atalante" which is one of the screen's great romances, about a young barge captain Jean (Jean Daste), who takes his bride Juliette (Dita Parlo) to live aboard his boat. They are in love, they fight, she disappears to see Paris, he goes searching for her, can not find her, they are both desperate and miserable until the first mate (Michel Simon in a superb comical performance) decides to find her and bring her back…
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The film has many magical moments, such as the young man searching for his sweetheart under water or the movie's most erotic scene that display both Jean and Juliette tossing in their lonely beds during one aching night of separation searching for each other, longing for each other, realizing how painful and meaningless life is without the one they love.Vigo knew that he was dying – "I am killing myself with L'Atalante", he said. His death at 29 is one of the cinema's great losses.
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We can only imagine what masterpieces he could've created. L'Atalante with its simple compelling story, humanity, intense, lyrical romanticism and candid eroticism shows that Vigo was a visionary and experimentalist of outstanding quality.Filmmakers as diverse as Francois Truffaut and Lindsay Anderson have acknowledged Vigos's influence on their work.Highly recommended: 9/10
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© DR - L'ATALANTE de Jean Vigo (1934) p10
25/11/2012 04:09
Différents titres, différents montages, différentes versions (5)
Les restaurateurs ne savaient pas où coller ce plan onirique, certes splendide, qui fut donc placé au milieu du film. De surcroît, ce nouveau montage va dans le sens d'une grammaire plus moderne du langage cinématographique. Le film est alourdi. Un ralenti est même ajouté au plan final qui, de plus, est resserré.La même année, une copie de travail de L’Atalante de 1934, proche de la version finale, avait été retrouvée à Londres par Jean-Louis Bonpoint, mais les restaurateurs de 1990 n'avaient pas eu le temps de s'en inspirer complètement.
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