"L'Atalante" and all of Vigo's work was mostly forgotten by the late 1930s, despite "L'Atalante" being partially restored in 1940. Vigo's work began to be rediscovered after World War II. "L'Atalante" and "Zero for Conduct" were both re-released in New York in July 1947 and received rave reviews from film critics such as James Agee, who called Vigo "one of the very few real originals who have ever worked in film." In the UK, Roger Manvell called Vigo "perhaps the most original and promising of the great French directors." In Italy, Luigi Comencini obtained a personal copy of "L'Atalante" and would screen it for his friends, calling it "a masterpiece capable of shaking up any notion about cinema the average spectator might have." Film critic Georges Sadoul praised "the astounding quality of poetry it engenders from a world superficially ordinary and drab."