Wednesday, March 15, 2017
074 - l'Atalante, 1934, France. Dir. Jean Vigo.
If you look into the water, you can see the reflection of your true love.
Juliette knows.
She saw the reflection of her true love in the water one year before she met him.
When she met him she already knew him.
When she met him she already loved him.
When she met him, she had already seen him.
She had seen his reflection in the water.
Her true love is Jean, a barge skipper.
On the barge christened l'Atalante.
When we meet them, they are exiting the church.
Just Married.
Walking.
She in her white wedding gown. Open veiled. Carrying her bouquet.
He in his suit.
Walking to the barge.
She has chosen to live her life on the canals.
Where you go, I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people shall be my people. . . .
She is asking for it.
His people are rough. Working men. Sailors. Seamen. Canal men.
His first mate, second in command, is Le Pere Jules, Father Jules, a mongrel of a man. Large. Rough around the edges. Blunt. Earthy. A tempest in a china shop. A bull in a teapot.
Jules drags the cabin boy behind him. He is called The Kid. This is 13 years after Charlie Chaplin's silent feature came out, called The Kid, starring Jackie Coogan as The Kid.
Child actors have bank accounts called Coogan accounts. They are named after Jackie Coogan. They are named after The Kid.
Yesterday we observed that in Zero for Conduct (1933) (073, March 14), the beloved teacher imitated Charlie Chaplin to entertain the boys. Vigo stated that Zero for Conduct was based on his own experiences in boarding schools. Including thirteen years before.
One of the four main boys from yesterday's film, Caussat, is played by Louis Lefebvre. He returns today in the role of The Kid.
Jules and The Kid are trying to prepare the barge for the arrival of the Missus.
They have their own bouquet of flowers to give her. Jules drills The Kid on what to say.
They struggle. They knock over the flowers. The flowers fall into the water. The bucket falls into the water. Jules' hat falls into the water. Jules is down in a dinghy trying to retrieve it all when the bride arrives.
Meanwhile, The Kid has pulled a pile of weeds to hand to her.
He hands her the weeds.
The bride, the Missus, Juliette, looks sober.
What has she gotten herself into?
She watches her groom swing out to the barge.
To get to the barge you swing out on a steel boom arm. There is no gangplank. Jules puts the Missus on the steel boom arm. In her silk wedding gown. The delicate bride folded over onto the cold rust.
He pushes.
She swings out over the water. Onto the barge. Where her husband awaits her. Having gone first. Already changed from his suit to his workman's clothes. He was changing on the deck in front of the wedding party while she was swinging over.
There is no reception. The wedding party will not be dining.
The bride walks like a ghost across the top of the barge.
The groom comes to the bride in the bow of the boat. In a moment like the one made famous sixty-four years later in Titanic (1997).
They consummate their marriage on the bow of the boat. On the top deck.
Cats roam freely on the barge.
A mother cat has kittens in their wedding bed.
She asks about the linens.
They have not been changed. Or washed. In weeks.
Welcome to your new life.
Juliette tells Jean about her dream.
If you look into the water, you can see the reflection of your true love.
I loved you before I knew you. I knew you before I saw you. I saw you before I met you.
In the reflection in the water.
He laughs at her.
Silly girl.
He ducks his head in a bucket. Like bobbing for apples.
Where is my true love? Is she in here?
She is exasperated.
She asks him to stop.
He escalates.
He drops into the dinghy. Dunks his head into the canal. The dark water. Murky. His head cuts the film that sits on the surface. Makes the water roil. Opens a space.
Where is my true love? Is she in here?
She gives up.
What is wrong with men?
For the next several scenes we watch the couple try to adjust.
Jules complains that Jean is too busy with his wife for his work.
"All day long it's either smoochin' or squabblin'."
Juliette complains that Jean is too busy with his work for his wife.
"It's like this every night."
Jean promises to take her out when they stop at port.
Jules keeps getting in the way.
Jean does not take her out.
Juliette is practical. She works hard. But she struggles. This life is hard.
Meanwhile, we have seen these folks before.
We have seen both Jules and Juliette before in Jean Renoir films.
Jules is played by none other than Michel Simon.
Michel Simon is back!
We saw him in La Chienne (1931) (056, February 25), as the put-upon husband who becomes the put-upon suitor, and in Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) (057, February 26), as Boudu the homeless man. Who loves the river. How fitting.
Juliette is played by Dita Parlo. We saw her in Grand Illusion (1937) (061, March 2), as Elsa, the German farm woman with whom Jean Gabin and Marcel Dalio hide during their escape from prison camp. The Frenchman loves the German woman, but it is World War I. It impossible for them to be together.
Here she is married to a Frenchman and speaks French. Is she playing a French woman or a German woman married to a Frenchman? I do not know. Perhaps my European friends can help me.
Finally, Jean Dasté, who plays Jean here, played the beloved teacher in yesterday's film, Zero for Conduct, who imitates Charlie Chaplin!
Michel Simon is larger than life. Somewhat like a French Anthony Quinn or Charles Laughton. He uses his frame to command the screen. He dominates this screen.
He believes in luck. He prays to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, but he also keeps horseshoes, goes to fortunetellers, has his cards read, plays cards and checkers and cheats to win, worries over a broken mirror, and keeps cats. For luck.
He collects things from ports where he has stayed.
She wanders in. Handles them.
"I never imagined your cabin was like this." / "It's a regular curio cabin."
A cabin full of knickknacks. Paddy whacks. Bric-a-bracs.
His puppet from Caracas. An advertising sign from Canada. An object out of frame from Havana. A tusk from Africa. The phonograph. The fan from Japan. All done by hand. A Navaja. A razor. His friend's hands preserved in a jar.
What?
His body is covered in tattoos. They keep you warm. He lights a cigarette and sticks it in his belly button. Which is the mouth of the tattoo of a face on his belly. His belly button smokes the cigarette.
He plays the accordion.
She combs his hair.
They are close. They are intimate. Yet it remains innocent.
Jean enters and blows his lid. He has a jealous streak. He tears up the place. Throws cats. Breaks plates. Breaks the mirror.
Jean and Juliette will finally go into town.
To a restaurant. With a dance floor. With a Junkman.
And The Junkman, a peddler-magician-dancer, will put on a show for them. And dance with her. And mesmerize her. And Jean will be jealous again.
Jean will get them out of there.
The Junkman will go to the barge. And invite her out again.
To Paris.
Without her husband.
Jean loses it.
She goes out. Without her husband. Without The Junkman. Alone in the city.
And discovers how harsh the city can be.
Jean has lost his wife.
Jean has lost his love.
There is only one place to find her.
The groom, the Mister, Jean, looks sober.
He knows what he must do.
He dives into the water.
This time he takes it seriously.
If you look into the water, you can see the reflection of your true love.
He looks.
Will he see her?
Will he find her?
Will she return?
* * * * *
Jean Vigo prepared for this film with his film Taris, where he had filmed the swimmer under water.
Here he films . . . something . . . the character Jean's quest . . . under water.
Making this film would kill Jean Vigo.
It was a harsh, cold winter.
He shot exteriors on location. Outdoors. And pushed hard to get the shots. Long days. Long nights. In the cold.
Vigo was loyal to the crew. The crew were loyal to him. He inspired them. They loved him. They worked hard.
He worked sick.
He was 29 years old.
He made one feature and three shorts.
A total of 163 minutes of film.
And became the patron saint of French film.
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