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Originally Posted by iScottie
I spent the evening watching The Complete Jean Vigo set.
There is no denying that Jean Vigo was a very controversial director, especially for his time. He did things that no one before him had done. As a result, his impact on the film world is equivalent to Orson Welles with Citizen Kane.
The first film in the set is À propos de Nice and this is perhaps the closest example to an early French New Wave film that I can think of. Jean Vigo films life in the city of Nice as it is. He examines the daily functions of the lower, middle, and upper classes and differentiates their lifestyles from one another. One could almost say that it is a docu-drama of sorts. The editing is pretty rapid, as well. Vigo does not linger too much on one thing and skips around to cover as much ground in such a short duration of time. I was truly surprised to see a topless woman featured in the film. Nudity of any sorts, especially in film, was seen as taboo and it continued to be that way for many years to come. I wonder how those who were taken by surprise by this in the 1930s would view today's nudity.
The second film in the set is Taris. It is an educational piece of work about famous French swimmer, Jean Taris, and some of the different swimming techniques, such as the breaststroke. I was truly amazed at Vigo's directing, especially with some of the close-up underwater scenes that showed the swimmer's legs performing a handful of routines.
The third film in the set is Zéro de conduite. The film was way ahead of its time in terms of such concepts as challenging authority, rebellion, and revolution. I can see how François Truffaut was inspired by this film for The 400 Blows, where we see the character of Antoine Doinel constantly resisting authority, especially with his teacher and his parents. I can also see how this film influenced Lindsay Anderson with his film, If.... The characters in this film did not rebel to the degree that Malcolm McDowell's character did, but during such a time where respect was seen as one of the most essential qualities a person could have, this was certainly rare.
The last film in the set, L'Atalante, was Jean Vigo's only feature-length film prior to his early death in the mid-1930s. I could not help but think that the film shared a lot of qualities with F.W. Murnau's Sunrise, but in differing aspects. The story focuses on how a strained relationship ultimately leads to the separation and eventual reunion of two individuals who clearly care about one another. However, what makes this one stand out in particular for me was the sharp narrative. I was not as impressed by this film as the majority of film aficionados out in the world, but seeing some of the things that were put into the story truly surprised me. In one particular scene, the main characters are going out to a dance hall for the evening. They meet a swindler who speaks an explicit line of dialogue (I'm talking something that would almost only be acceptable in this century). I rewound the clip once or twice to see if I read the line correctly and surely enough, I did.
All four of these films had a strong impact on what we now know about film in this current day and age. It comes as no surprise to me that Jean Vigo had a huge influence on the Truffauts, Godards, and the like of the French New Wave of the 1950s and the 1960s. I would not say that these films are the most compelling bodies of work out there. They are, however, perfect examples of a visionary who was not afraid to take risks and challenge society's standards.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts here. It's been at least a couple of years since I watched this set, and now I feel like I'm due a revisit. Haven't been able to get
À propos de Nice out of my head since I first watched it, maybe because I watched it half a dozen times at that sitting. I like 20s/30s experimental film, and this one is just edgy enough without losing you. And it feels so smart and alive. And
Zéro de conduite has a lot going for it. Not only the theme, but the way the mood and even genre shifts in that last section is what beauty in film feels like. And there's
L'Atalante. It's amazing that a guy as young as Vigo could put the universality of these characters and their relationship into such a specific context. Almost Shakespearean. You know what everyone in the film is feeling despite the cinema conventions.
Sad that this was Vigo's entire output, but at least he did these. I think I might like 'em better than you, but it's good to see some appreciation.
And as one more interesting bit, I think I remember that Vigo was tight with Painlevé. There's definitely a similar feel in Vigo and the early Painlevé in
Science is Fiction, and they both had some interest in underwater filming.
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