L'Atalante

Rating:
Summary: a truly sublime piece of cinemaa
Review: Vigo's "L'atalante" is often placed among the published lists of the greatest films ever made and this status is fully deserved. The story of the film is simple, a young couple aboard a boat experience trouble in thier young marriage before coming together at the end, yet it is Vigo's style of narration and the way the film is told that makes it stand it. Vigo catches the humanism of his story through an incredible dream like, surreal and anarchic style of photgraphy and editing(featuring some of the most beautiful images ever) to compel and move the viewer beyond belief, as countless sublime moments truly capturing the essence of young love fill our screens. The performances are of the highest standard, notably from the beautiful Parlo (also to be seen in Renoir's "La grande illusion") and the poetic quality of the images unlike anything captured before or since. On the evidence of this, and his earlier "Zero De Conduire", Vigo would surely have become the greatest director of the sound age hads it been not for his death at the age of 29.

Rating:
Summary: a truly sublime piece of cinemaa
Review: Vigo's "L'atalante" is often placed among the published lists of the greatest films ever made and this status is fully deserved. The story of the film is simple, a young couple aboard a boat experience trouble in thier young marriage before coming together at the end, yet it is Vigo's style of narration and the way the film is told that makes it stand it. Vigo catches the humanism of his story through an incredible dream like, surreal and anarchic style of photgraphy and editing(featuring some of the most beautiful images ever) to compel and move the viewer beyond belief, as countless sublime moments truly capturing the essence of young love fill our screens. The performances are of the highest standard, notably from the beautiful Parlo (also to be seen in Renoir's "La grande illusion") and the poetic quality of the images unlike anything captured before or since. On the evidence of this, and his earlier "Zero De Conduire", Vigo would surely have become the greatest director of the sound age hads it been not for his death at the age of 29.

Rating:
Summary: "Great Film" seems dated
Review: We seem compelled to make lists. As we aproach the end of the century, it's hard to open a newspaper or magazine without finding out who were the top 10 supermodels of the '90s or the top 10 chicken soup recipes of all time. So of course, the question of the best films of all time keeps popping up, and most critics agree; this is one of those films. It was released in Paris in '34 just days before its 29 year old director died. Moviegoers were still excited by pictures with sound in them at this time, and the art of film making was evolving rapidly. As a result, good films released then earned their "great" status based on how deeply they influenced the future. The film remains a very good movie, but in the opinion of this reviewer it has been surpased in the 65 years since its release.