Spine 578: The Complete Jean Vigo - Part 2

We finish up the Complete Jean Vigo boxset and the year 2023 this week, covering Vigo's final film L'Atalante. Vigo pressed himself for his first feature length, and perhaps too hard, dying of complications of tuberculosis before the premier. The studio took the opportunity of his demise to re-cut the movie, add different music, and try desperately to make it a pop culture smash in an era where France was obsessed with stories of barges. Despite the studio's efforts, a slightly restored L'Atalante and the other works of Vigo went on to be a major influence on the French New Wave, namely Truffaut who speaks with Eric Rohmer about L'Atalante in one of this boxset's special features.