Eventually, Gaumont cut the film's run time to 65 minutes in an attempt to make it more popular and changed the title to "Le chaland qui passe" ("The Passing Barge"), the name of a popular song at the time by Lys Gauty, which was also inserted into the film, replacing parts of Jaubert's score. Vigo was too weak to defend the film as his condition grew worse. When "L'Atalante" was released in September 1934, it was a commercial failure and received poor reviews from critics, who called it "amateurish, self-indulgent and morbid."