Three surrealism-tinged shorts and one feature are the sum of Jean Vigo's work before he died aged 29 from tuberculosis, yet they secured his status as a directorial great.
The tale of a young bride joining her husband on the barge where he works with the coarse, ursine Père Jules (Michel Simon), L'Atalante is rooted in a pungent, earthy naturalism that, in Vigo's hands, becomes the springboard for flights of film poetry. Estranged by boredom, then separated when Juliette (Dita Parlo) flees for the excitements of Paris, the film visualises the lovers' mutual longing with sensuous immediacy, as when Jean dives into the Seine and imagines his lost love in the water alongside him. Vigo's open-air spontaneity and low-budget lyricism were a key influence on the French New Wave of the late 1950s and 60s.
Also included are the director's two documentary shorts, A Propos de Nice(1930) and Taris (1931), and his comedy-drama short set in an oppressive boarding school, Zero de Conduite (1933).
