‘l’atalante’ As Precursor Of The Nouvelle Vague

"L'Atalante' (henceforth LA) is considered a precursor and inspiration of la nouvelle vague of the 1960's. Truffaut, director of "Tirez sur le Pianiste'(henceforth TSLP) himself fell in love with LA in 1946 when he was 14 and not even knowing who Jean Vigo (the director) was. LA seems a simple story-the marriage of a young barge captain named Jean, and a village girl called Juliette "who always wanted to do things differently' for example there is no wedding feast. The young girl desires to transcend her precarious existence via fantasy or escapism through marriage. Her new world is made up from now on of her new husband, his sailor friend "Jules' who sails between Le Havre and Paris, a cabin boy and six cats. We can see this menagerie is in itself reminiscent of the circus and there is an element of the grotesque in pè&re Jules' portrayal. The spectacle of the fairground is present in the claustrophobic depiction of their life on the barge. For example the fact that there are cats on the table and in the bedroom seems seedy and invasive to the viewer. The threatening and eerie aspect of the circus and the fairground is entertaining yet false, squalid and sleazy with perhaps an element of danger. In the sequence in which after their first morning the couple is serenaded by an accordion and a barge man's song, Juliette and old Jules are left alone because the couple had argued over the laundry. Jules seems to be about to assault her but she is making a dress and gets him to model it for her. The sense of danger is diverted and at this point he shows her the treasures of his life in a sort of "Wunderkammer' (curiosity cabinet) including a jar with what he claims are the hands of his best friend which we can see before Dita Parlo's character does. The paraphernalia owned by Pè&re Jules includes an "automate chef d`orchestre' which is lasciviously referred to with the following innuendo: 'je vais vous montrer mon petit home' (later on, we shall be confronted with similar dolls at the magasin de poupé&es in Paris). His body is covered in tattoos, another staple of the circus, with its erotic charge which is further reinforced by Jules sticking a cigarette in his navel where a woman's mouth has been tattooed (Warner, 1993, p.37, informs us that this scene was not present in 1934 and has until recently only been known from a still).

The sequence by a canal side bistro sees the couple being entertained by a pedlar who the viewer can see is a fraudster, both his acts and sleight of hand are disingenuous and tempts Juliette with pretty scarves but crucially acts as a tempting devil by painting word pictures of Paris that trigger her imagination and draw her away from Jean. One could say that the Camelot and the fortune teller incarnate the city "l' é&clat, la profusion et la magie', bringing tales of romance, exotic places and fantastic happenings. Jean represents the opposite but still the spectacular elements of the city entice Juliette. The character of Pè&re Jules could also be seen as a form of spectacle, his appearance, mannerisms and the way in which he presents himself to Juliette (and the audience) is quite similar to that of a freak show and his accordion playing, cross-dressing and dancing demonstrate him as an entertainer. The elements of the Vaudeville spirit live on in several representations, for example, Pè&re Jules' curiosity cabinet of "retrouvailles'. The sequence in which Jean is shot underwater where Juliette's image appears superimposed can be seen as a wonderful visual spectacle of illusions, especially since underwater shots would have been quite revolutionary at the time. This underwater sequence (ghostly and like a circus sé&ance, dealing with a possible death and the occult) has a lot to do with the 'watery' unconscious and psychoanalytical "currents' and the conceptualisation of the 'self' we see projected onto the screen. According to Samuels, French psychoanalysis, particularly the é&cole freudienne under the leadership of Jacques Lacan, likewise critiqued the role of vision in the formation of subjectivity. Lacan's notion that the unconscious is structured like a language emblematized the anti-visual stance of a certain strain of French structuralism that rejected the phenomenological understanding of the subject constituted through perception alone. We know that the mirror has great significant for Lacan's theories (which we shan't go into) and their connection with the identity of the self, so all the more poignant the moment in which Edouard looks into the mirror in the bedroom trying to find the 'real pianist'. According to Beller, (2006) 'a work of art is first and foremost a tractor ploughing over the audiences psyche in a particular class context'' (after Eisenstein). "By capturing the visual attention of others, the artist generates his income'…&"what is required is simply an image rooted to the world by passing through a human and humanizing mind.' Throughout L'Atalante, scenes of spectacles have a narrative function, representing urbanism and the city life that is so novel and intriguing to Juliette. This interest in the city life emphasizes Jean and Juliette's differences and without it the movie would lose its originality and it would be far too predictable for Vigo. There are Brechtian touches in the poverty and the 'Moritat' of the accordion music, as there is pathos in the 'bal musette' that promises more than it delivers, plenty of melodrama but also understated realism.

The opening sequence of TSLP takes up from "les Mistons' and shows Truffaut's ambiguous relationship with American cinema as he uses the technique of the film noire (a car chase at night with rapid cutting) and one could speak of a spectacle of lights as the rays of the headlights reflect of the wet glistening streets. The continuous tracking shot, in which Chico and a stranger discuss love and marriage, is alien to the genre, similar to the scene in which Edouard notices a beautiful violinist who is given considerable cinematic attention but never reappears. The preoccupation with genre becomes more complex as elements of other genres penetrate the narrative. The iconography of the musical, comedy, and western each features briefly. This disorientates the spectator because he is unsure of what he is watching. There are numerous allusions to films, past and present, such as the triple screen reference to Abel Gance (during the scene in which Charlie and Lena's Boss is giving away their information to the gangsters), and at one point of the film Charlie speaks directly to the audience through the medium of his conscience. Disruption of genre occurs also on the level of tone as the film is farcical at times, and tragic at other times, for example when Theresa takes her life and Lena is shot. We soon come to understand that Truffaut is not making a genre film but subverting it, there are apparent random heterogeneous components for example the interest in children and childhood and the emblematic presence of contemporary Paris, such as the bar, the dancing and the gangsters. Truffaut's aim of subverting the noire genre is evident in the manner in which he adapted Goodis's novel "Down There'. The film becomes his and the novel is only an inspiration.

In a sequence in which the pianist, interpreted by Charles Asnavour plays, his stillness is contrasted with the lively atmosphere around him and Bobby Lapointe style of singing. Lena says of Charlie, even when he was somebody, he has to walk alone, and this loneliness is reflected at the end of the film. Truffaut like Vigo always worked with the same team.

Truffaut pays a self-conscious (comic) hommage to the pulp fiction-polar genre which he thinks is underrated, the sadness of the pianist interpreted by Charles Aznavour is well represented by this performer (who is incidentally well known as a singer-pianist by the audience, the prototypical entertainer!) who is regarded as morally suspect: "il incarne la solitude et tire le film vers le mé&lodrame, rejoignant ainsi les pré&occupations de Goodis' (Gué&rif, 1987, p5). Truffaut stated in Polar number 23 avril 1982 "je n'é&crits pas de roman policier, mais dans mes thè&mes il y a du mé&lodrame et de l'action'. The genre noire is more common in American cinema than in French cinema but Truffaut subverts the genre.

The film is littered with elements of spectacle. The film starts with a "gros plan' showing the credits superimposed upon the hammers of the inside of a playing piano while the background Leit Motif (this song is repeated during the film). The hammers rise and fall to the rhythm of the music like a dance. Bobby Lapointe similarly performs mechanically in the café& as if he himself was a puppet or an instrument. The scri pt quotes the notorious song he sings as part of his cabaret act, 'Avanie et framboise' [sont les mamelles du destin…&] with its gross double-meanings, reminiscent of sea-side postcards and the burlesque. Another song (allegedly loved by Truffaut) sung by Felix Leclerc appears on the radio in the overnight car journey, 'Dialogue des amoureux' –& which creates an impasse at that filmic juncture. The bar itself (an area that we return to a few times within the film) is place in which the impassive Charlie and the band's music is played and there is dancing. Upbeat honky-tonk music and classical pieces play throughout the film, sometimes by Charlie or just in the background emphasising the films musical element. Death on the snow brings out the last sentence from Charlie to Lena: «& Quand je te dé&testerai, je mettrai ma casquette »&. Life goes on, back to the café&, where a new serveuse replaces Lena and the film ends as it started, with a gros plan of the piano and his hands, to his serious face and the closing rising music.

Performances are common, from Charlie playing in the small bar to Edouard playing the grand piano in a large music hall. Charlie is even treated to the erotic spectacle of striptease by the ex-performer/prostitute who lives on his floor.

Throughout the film shots encompass mirrors which create an aspect of illusion, similar to a fairground hall of mirrors. Truffaut is quoted as stating that his films are like 'circus shows …& no two acts together …& I think of the circus while I am working' (Crisp, in Brunette, 1993, p. 216). The sounds of the film are 'natural', and the bar sequences where there is 'live' music are more often than not related to sexual advances. Charlie's flashbacks to his glorious time as a concert pianist fade into classical music. This is now a routine he cannot escape from, a persona as a bar-room pianist that makes up his new identity. Indeed, the title recalls American B-movies (set in the Far West) where a bar-room sign pleads 'Don't shoot the pianist' –& we must also recall that 'shooting' means in filmic parlance, filming.

Repetition is central to TSLP, this is witnessed where the small man is repeatedly enticed by the dancing partner (the Prostitute), beckoning him and pushing him away, until it ends in violence on the male's part.

The mixture of 'high and low' art and entertainment is clearly defined by Charlie's two roles, 'falling' from his role as celebrated pianist to bar-room pianist. 'Qui est Charlie Kohler?', we are asked via Lena's voice. 'Little is known. He's a pianist …&'. The name Charlie is not chosen by chance: it is meant to evoke Chaplin, (and we also have 'Chico', another vaudeville actor in the audience's mind). In the audition scene, part of the flashback in Edouard Saroyan's life (alias Charlie Kohler) we see that before the audition there is a good relationship between Charlie and Teresa. After the audition a solo recital given by Charlie on stage the couple are going to head towards the hotel where they are going to have the first quarrel. Outside Lars Schmeel's office Charlie and an unknown violin player bump into each other, a beautiful woman, who could have changed his life and become a significant character within the narrative, but remains unknown. This is a Hitchcockian "red herring' because we never see the beautiful violinist again. The musical career of the hero is intimately intertwined with the women present throughout the film. The colour white has tragic connotations for Charlie: the silhouette of Theresa against the pavement and Lena's fall down the hill in the snow (the theme of 'white against black' is of course a trope in the film, milk on the windscreen as well). Unlike the films of Godard, where there is a certain freedom to be serious and engage intellectually, Truffaut engages in a certain 'insouciance' remarked upon by Brunette (1993, p. 3).

All in all, according Debord (1983, p.3) 'the spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images, and the spectacle presents itself simultaneously as all of society, as part of society, and as instrument of unification'. We are never to forget that when are watching TSLP and LA we are watching a spectacle and the melodrama of everyday life.

Bibliography

Beller, Jonathan, The cinematic mode of production: Attention economy and the society of the spectacle, University Press of New England, 2006

Brunette, Peter (ed) Shoot the Piano Player, Roundhouse Publishing: Oxford, 1993.

Conley, Tom, Getting lost on the waterways of L'Atalante

Debord, Guy, Society of the Spectacle, Black and Red, Detroit 1983

Gué&rif, Franç&ois, Franç&ois Truffaut et la sé&rie noire : Tirez sur le pianiste Vivement dimanche ! : L`Avant-Scè&ne Ciné&ma n°& double 362-363 - Juillet-aoû&t 1987.

Samuels, Maurice, Practices and Theories of the Visual [class Moodle upload]

Vigo, Jean Oeuvre de Cinema, Pierre L'Herminier, Paris 1985

Warner, Marina, L'Atalante, BFI Publishing, London 1993