"L'Atalante" is about two newlyweds that start their marriage on the husband's (Jean) boat. Juliette has never left her hometown, and she desperately wants to go to Paris, envisioning it as a paradise and utopia for her. Basically, she's a romantic. She even says that if you open your eyes underwater, you can see your beloved one, and that is where she first saw him. However, when she gets on the boat, Jean begins to kiss her, but Juliette pushes him away and starts walking back toward her family and friends and the town she is so familiar with. But as we see, her walking back is still going nowhere. She's already left. But then she turns around to see her husband running after her, with cats attacking him, and she realizes he is right there with her, and he is what she must focus on now.
We find out that Jean gets jealous easily and is a bit overprotective in a scene involving a worker on the ship named le peré Jules. Jules is simply showing Juliette some items from his travels, but he is a bit sloppy and crude. Suddenly, Jean comes in and has a fit. He throws plates on the floor and overreacts. Then when they finally get to Paris, they can't go because of Jules. They do however stop in a nearby city, and Jean tries to make up for it by going there. But the trip goes awry when a street peddler begins to follow Juliette and she almost falls for his scams to make them buy something, since she is a romantic. Jean really loses it when he sees her dancing with him, and then once he says Juliette can no longer go out to the city, he tries to sneak her out. He finally leaves her alone, but she can't stop thinking about her potential night in the city, and decides to sneak out. Her romantic illusions are crushed after the first few hours of shopping and sight seeing however, when she sees the rudeness of the city dwellers and is mugged. The men take off, but Jean doesn't recover, and he realizes he cannot function without her. Juliette realizes the same and in one scene the shots of Juliette and Jean sleeping apart fade into each other to show that they are both thinking of each other. When Jules fixes the gramophone and Jean first hears that music, Jean jumps into the water in a desperate attempt to get a glimpse of his wife and finally sees her in the water, showing that to a certain extent, Juliettes romanticism was true. Then Jules realizes they need to find Juliette after their boss almost fires Jean. And of all places he finds her listening to that song they once sang her on the boat earlier in the film.
While Jean was right in some ways in his protectiveness, and Juliette in her romanticism, they both had too much of it, and ultimately let those distract them from what really mattered, which was each other.
We find out that Jean gets jealous easily and is a bit overprotective in a scene involving a worker on the ship named le peré Jules. Jules is simply showing Juliette some items from his travels, but he is a bit sloppy and crude. Suddenly, Jean comes in and has a fit. He throws plates on the floor and overreacts. Then when they finally get to Paris, they can't go because of Jules. They do however stop in a nearby city, and Jean tries to make up for it by going there. But the trip goes awry when a street peddler begins to follow Juliette and she almost falls for his scams to make them buy something, since she is a romantic. Jean really loses it when he sees her dancing with him, and then once he says Juliette can no longer go out to the city, he tries to sneak her out. He finally leaves her alone, but she can't stop thinking about her potential night in the city, and decides to sneak out. Her romantic illusions are crushed after the first few hours of shopping and sight seeing however, when she sees the rudeness of the city dwellers and is mugged. The men take off, but Jean doesn't recover, and he realizes he cannot function without her. Juliette realizes the same and in one scene the shots of Juliette and Jean sleeping apart fade into each other to show that they are both thinking of each other. When Jules fixes the gramophone and Jean first hears that music, Jean jumps into the water in a desperate attempt to get a glimpse of his wife and finally sees her in the water, showing that to a certain extent, Juliettes romanticism was true. Then Jules realizes they need to find Juliette after their boss almost fires Jean. And of all places he finds her listening to that song they once sang her on the boat earlier in the film.
While Jean was right in some ways in his protectiveness, and Juliette in her romanticism, they both had too much of it, and ultimately let those distract them from what really mattered, which was each other.