MovieChat Forums > L'Atalante (1947) Discussion > Abandonment is Romantic?

Abandonment is Romantic?

posted 11 years ago by GrinninBarrett
4 replies | jump to latest

A selfish husband abandons his wife in a big city she's never been to. That's romantic? She shouldn't have come back.

I just saw the movie tonight. Yes it's romantic because it depicts the evolution of his ability to love her. He treated her like a possession in the beginning. When she was gone, he was sad and depressed, but I don't think he wanted to accept that it was his feelings for her. He kept looking for her face in water and didn't see it until the return to the city he left her. When he saw her face in the water, he realized she was the love of his life, his true treasure.

she loved poetry and romance, but she hit the glass ceiling at birth

[–] ppllkk 11 years ago

GrinninBarrett wrote:

A selfish husband abandons his wife in a big city she's never been to.

Jean assumes that Juliet has left to hook up with the peddler. There's really nothing else that he could realistically believe. He does not want her back at that point.

It is unclear what would've happened if she had run into the peddler.

It takes Jean a while to realize that he does want her back even if she has had sex with the peddler. When she is brought home, he assumes that she has probably had a brief affair with the peddler and then he dumped her.

She shouldn't have come back.

What is romantic is that he takes her back without interrogating her.

[–] landrynumbertwo 10 years ago

The wife's behavior made me want to barf. She was supposed to be engaged and in love, yet, she allowed herself to be seduced by some schmuck. As a guy who lost his ex to a similar piece of trash, I don't see what's "beautiful" or "romantic" about that.

[–] s-napolitano8 9 years ago

While I'm not defending her behavior you must take into account that the wife was a "village girl" who "never even left the village" so her excitement at someone's interest in her is inculpable.

However, her fervor in the peddler should never have gone beyond the dance hall's walls, and again her natural excitement toward him could and should be excused, although, her lack of self control is inexcusable, and she finds a cruel world awaiting her because of it.