f329927d-9e1f-4647-b95f-5ab2c3d33df2_20260401130540 20260401130540 Thoth distribution@thoth.pub Thoth Florian Deroo Vrije Universiteit Brussel https://ror.org/006e5kg04 Ghent University https://ror.org/00cv9y106 On Jean Vigo's "L'Atalante" Waves washing up against the hull, a bed and a small stove, the deck hatch sealed shut — the vessel is the ultimate dwelling. How to live together in cramped quarters? How to create a microcosm against hostile surroundings? In Barge Life, Florian Deroo tackles these question by looking at a mythical classic of French cinema: Jean Vigo’s 1934 film L’Atalante. A work brimming with the energies of surrealism and anarchism, L’Atalante follows a young couple, two shipmates, and a clowder of cats who dwell in the belly of a river barge. Deroo offers a wide-ranging essay on the film, revealing how it invokes a small group that withdraws from the rhythm of modern life to establish a different kind of existence elsewhere. In L’Atalante’s most riveting moments, the river barge becomes a vehicle for a powerful fantasy: a flexible collective life, lived in sensuous interdependence. Combining film criticism, philosophy, and biography, this book reconsiders a forerunner of the French New Wave and the early death of its director. Drawing readers into the living spaces of L’Atalante, Deroo explores the allure of retreating into a self-sufficient shelter, along with its intractable problems. 1 07 03 2025 978-1-68571-192-4 978-1-68571-193-1 punctum books Earth, Milky Way https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ 10.53288/0480.1.00 https://punctumbooks.com/titles/barge-life-on-jean-vigos-latalante/ https://books.punctumbooks.com/10.53288/0480.1.00.pdf https://books.punctumbooks.com/10.53288/0480.1.00.pdf https://books.punctumbooks.com/10.53288/0480.1.00.pdf https://books.punctumbooks.com/10.53288/0480.1.00.pdf https://books.punctumbooks.com/10.53288/0480.1.00.pdf https://books.punctumbooks.com/10.53288/0480.1.00.pdf 10.2307/1209357 10.2307/1212277 10.1080/00397709.1973.10733198 10.1080/17409292.2017.1396748 10.2307/1209412 10.4000/books.igpde.3265 10.3167/hrrh2009.350205 10.4000/map.3110