Shot inbetween the two World Wars, this movie is a masterwork and a piece of cinematographical history as for the personnality of Vigo than his movie direction.
Far from a simpleton approach, Jean Vigo tells us about the complexity and the confinement of a love story in an enclosed place as a boat, especially when there is a third character as the Father Jules (played by the great french actor, Michel Simon). The action is taking place on a barge, and the first interest of the movie is the direction ; the realistic, social aspect of the life of the young couple. If you refer yourself to the period (1930’s), just that simple fact would be a good justification.
But there is more, the political views of Vigo, his personnality, radically changed the original script, wich was a simple, almost inane love story. Jean Vigo, previously at “L’Atalante”, has already been censored with his previous short movie “Zéro de conduite”, so wishing to shoot, he rewrited the scenario, introducing many subtle changes, undermining any form of idealism in the movie. He turned a basic story into a social chronicle. The mark of a great.
It’s a shame he died just after the movie.
