L’Atalante
Packed with unforgettable, dream-like images, this is a film about love – and a film for anyone in love with cinema.
Juliette and Jean, a pair of young newly-weds, and crusty old seadog Père Jules, travel aboard the Normandy freight barge L’Atalante, en route to Paris.
The journey they make is full of cinematic magic and poetry. A rapturous underwater sequence featuring Juliette as a kind of water sprite and a scene in which she and Jean, though miles apart, ‘make love’ by dreaming erotically of each other, are high points in the art of cinema. And even Titanic owes a debt to one of the film’s most iconic shots.
L’Atalante was Vigo’s only feature – he died, aged just 29, a few weeks after its release. And over 90 years later, it still feels both radical and extremely modern.
PS It’s also one of the great cat films!
France 1934. Director Jean Vigo. With Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, Michel Simon. 85 mins. PG
Tickets from £5. 10% off for BAC Supporters
Dates & Tickets
| Date | Time | Ticket |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday 7 May, 2026 | 7:30pm | Buy Tickets |
Reviews
★★★★★
Jean Vigo's sole feature-length film is a masterpiece of sophistication, technique and human feeling.
★★★★★
Laced with melancholy, yet curiously uplifting in its precious, intangible beauty, L'Atalante is one of those rare things: a movie that moves.