L'Atalante is the work of French director Jean Vigo. This text is part of the "BFI Film Classics" series. Each volume in the series presents a personal commentary on the film, together with a brief production history and a detailed filmography, notes and bibliography.

Acknowledgements.- Prologue to the new edition.- Prologue to the first edition.- 1. The Wedding.- 2. At Close Quarters.- 3. The Barge.- 4. Dirty Washing.- 5. The Skirt of Le Pere Jules.- 6. In the Wunderkammer.- 7. Vigo and Surrealism.- 8. The Pedlar.- 9. The City of Modern Life.- 10. Love Regained.- 11. Le Bande a Vigo.- Notes.- Credits.- Bibliography.

The last film in Jean Vigo's tragically short career, L'Atalante (1934) was indifferently received at first but has now achieved almost legendary status. Exploring the many ways in which the film's greatness lies not in the story but in the manner of its telling, Marina Warner provides rich analysis of its historical, cultural and biographical contexts to show how Vigo's extraordinarystyle – as fresh, original and beautiful today as in 1934 – owes something to Surrealism, but is also uniquely his. In this reissued edition, updated with a new foreword and featuring original cover artwork by Richey Beckett, Warner argues that the quality of this luminously strange, poignantly tender and constantly surprising ciné-poem has only strengthened in the eighty years since it was made.

“The core of the book is unchanged but still spot-on in its tribute to this masterpiece of French cinema and the man she calls the `Rimbaud of cinema’. The illustrations are good, the text thorough, and the background to the film’s production and subsequent restoration excellent.” (Jon Davies, The Media Education Journal, Issue 61, 2017)

"An indispensable part of every cineaste's bookcase" - Total Film "Possibly the most bountiful book series in the history of film criticism." - Jonathan Rosenbaum, Film Comment "Magnificently concentrated examples of flowing freeform critical poetry." - Uncut "The series is a landmark in film criticism." - Quarterly Review of Film and Video "A formidable body of work collectively generating some fascinating insights into the evolution of cinema." -Times Higher Education Celebrating film for over 30 years The BFI Film Classics series introduces, interprets and celebrates landmarks of world cinema. Each volume offers an argument for the film's 'classic' status, together with discussion of its production and reception history, its place within a genre or national cinema, an account of its technical and aesthetic importance, and in many cases, the author's personal response to the film.