Jean Vigo's only full-length feature is a poetic masterpiece on the theme of passionate love. In telling of a young barge captain and his peasant bride in their first days together on his barge, and of their separation when she sneaks off to Paris, L'Atalante surprises realism with surrealism, much as Jean is surprised by his wife's desire. Shot against a backdrop of the Parisian canals, the film anticipates the methods of neorealism by almost fifteen years, particularly in the acting. Michel Simon as the grisly, tattooed P?re Jules, and Dita Parlo as the bride Juliette, are unforgettable.