Three posters to give you an idea of the confusing nature of this film. It's the only full-length film directed by the tragically short-lived Jean Vigo (whose most famous work is probably Zero de Conduite which, coincidentally, was a major influence on If.... It has a very simple plot: a barge captain (although that's rather a grand title given that his entire crew consists of a slightly cracked old man (Père Jules) and an apparently simple teenager) marrying a young woman from a village and walking out of the church down to the canal (where the "crew" is waiting, accidentally dropping a bouquet of flowers into the water and then rescuing it). The entirety of the rest of the film is the four of them (and Père Jules's seemingly inexhaustible supply of cats) traveling down the river to Paris, squabbling, her getting left behind and then reuniting some unspecified time later in Le Havre. It's very slight. But it's also lovely: the film itself has the charm of barge life - cozy domesticity combined with travel and viewing the gritty side of the city and countryside.
At first the wife, Juliette (played with wide-eyed zest by Dita Parlo, who was also Elsa in Grand Illusion) seems a little taken aback at the relative squalor (and overwhelming number of cats) aboard the barge. She and the "crew" are also a little wary of each other - they refer to her as "the missus" (or at least, that's the translation) whereas she seems to find them a little alarming. However, she gradually gets into the swing of things, even managing to prize Père Jules's dirty laundry off him. However, she does look forward to the bright lights of Paris, so it's a disappointment when Père Jules and the boy head off into town first (to see a fortune-teller (who is also, it is strongly hinted, a prostitute)) meaning that the captain (Jean, played by Jean Dasté, who also went on to appear in Grand Illusion) can't leave the ship and Juliette's hopes are dashed. (Père Jules is a larger-than-life character, whom Juliette gets to know when he shows her all the curios he's collected (including the pickled hands of his dead best friend) and his tattoos in his cramped cabin,
something that inspires wonder and disgust in equal measures, but also provokes Jean into a fit of plate-breaking jealous rage (for some reason). Père Jules is played by the larger-than-life Michel Simon, who was the titular Boudu, Saved from Drowning just before casting, and thus the most famous of the actors in the cast, who claimed to have signed on because he felt sorry for Jean Vigo, whose career never really took off, and who was in the doghouse because Zero had been banned lest it corrupt the youth.
Eventually Père Jules returns, and the next day Jean takes Juliette dancing. Unfortunately, this leads to more trouble, because a clownish peddler takes a liking to Juliette
(and she is too wide-eyed at everything to take offense or see him as a threat) and follows her back to the barge to talk to her while Jean is out later. (Come to think of it, I have to wonder if this film was an influence on La Strada) Another rage from Jean and Juliette is instructed to stay in the cabin. However, she sneaks out overnight to look at the bright lights, and Jean is so angry he orders the barge to depart without her. After a magical evening of staring at shops, Juliette returns to discover her fate. She tries to buy a third class train ticket to the next town the barge will get to, but a clearly indigent young man steals her handbag before being set upon by a mob, who beat him to a pulp and carry him off, but neglect to return Juliette's money. She is forced to find work and seems stuck for a while. Meanwhile, aboard the barge Jean has lapsed into an almost catatonic funk. Père Jules accompanies him to the head office and defends him to the boss as he just sits mutely and miserably in the waiting room. Eventually he remembers an earlier incident where Juliette claimed that she had seen his face in water before she'd met him, which is how she knew he was her soulmate, and he jumps into the river.
We then get famous underwater scenes, which, because I have the Jean Vigo Boxset (a tragically slim volume - all his films fit on one disc because he died of TB at 29 a couple of weeks after this film was released) I know were probably only possible because Vigo had made an earlier short about a champion French swimmer). This incident is enough to drive Père Jules to go looking for Juliette in Le Havre, the port they're currently docked at, and miraculously he finds her, in a record store, listening to a song about barges that they'd played earlier. Jean and Juliette are then reunited and embrace ecstatically, the end.
As you can see, slight, but it's in the telling. The images are indelible and it has more of the feel of a fairytale romance than actual fairytales. See it if you can.
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