Recent Nearby Seismic Activity
Date Time Lat Lon Depth Mag
2017/07/09 22:08:43.00 38.85117 -121.59834 7.020 1.69
The Sacramento River flows nearby. While named for the Eucharist, the name itself does not convey such specificity.
In Jean Vigo’s “L’Atalante,” a river barge serves as home for a newly married couple. Although happy at first, the reality and monotony of marriage quickly set in. One night, the wife is entranced by an attractive and irresistible street vendor who performs magic tricks and takes her dancing. Later in the film, in anger, the husband leaves with the barge, stranding her in Paris, broke, where she had gone to window shop. He later regrets it, but he has lost her in the city. Desperate, he remembers that she had previously told him that one can see the face of one’s true love in water, so he dips his head in a bucket and jumps in the river. She returns and they embrace. Although the film ends, we presume this marriage –
this slow voyage along the river – will continue.
For many, the legal recognition of marriage depends upon the literal latitude and longitude on which they stand. The same river can wind its way through our legal existence and non-existence.
Vigo, suffering from leukemia, never recovered from the relentless filming in the damp conditions. He died in 1934 at age 29, shortly after the film’s release. His body lies in the Cimetière de Bagneux, near Paris. Jeanne Hébuterne, Modigliani’s lover and mother of their child, was also buried there temporarily, until her remains were transferred to the Cimetière du Père Lachaise, next to Modigliani’s.
Nothing stops moving. Not even in love. Not even in death.
Photo:
California State Fair
Sacramento, California,
July, 2017