Episode 8 - L'ATALANTE (1934), Directed by: Jean Vigo

The first and last feature film by vivacious French director Jean Vigo before his untimely death at the age of twenty-nine, L'Atalante was poorly received upon its release in 1934, but now appears in the top ten of every recent critics' poll of the greatest films ever made. Initially a commercial and critical failure, (one prominent critic called it "amateurish, self-indulgent and morbid"), the film was largely forgotten by the late thirties, but after being re-released in New York in 1947, it received rave reviews. In the years since, restored versions and screenings the world over have perpetuated the mythology surrounding the film and its director, whose influence continues to reverberate today.