It took me about 10 minutes to realize what was unusual for me here. The fact that the camera was never moving. As I noticed the entire movie was shot with standing camera, no dollying, craning or tilting was performed. I suspect the reason for this was that it was made in 1934. Despite this the story and the people were remarkably fresh. Paris and the Seine has changed a lot though.
This is a rather romantic movie, but not the syrupy Holywood type. Young bride gets away from her village by marrying the skipper of a barge carrying cargo up and down the river. Two motives are fighting to be considered the main one. On hand the story is about the bride’s (and the crew’s) breaking into the new life. On the other hand the first officer of the ship is stealing every scene he is shown. First we see him as a retarded person who is brute and jovial at the same time. But later we learn that he is full of surprises, including: an accordion named tarantella, exotic tattoos all over his body, ability to mend phonograph players and laugh at himself. As a last word I would like to share my suspicion that the famous scene of the Titanic movie with the two protagonists standing at the very front of the ship were “borrowed” from the cover of this Jean Vigo picture.