Along with director Jean Renoir, Vigo is credited by many (including former film critics Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffant) as being a major creative impetus for the French New Wave film movement.
The four films in the Criterion DVD collection comprise Vigo's entire body of cinematic works; three features and one short.
Selection One - A Propos de Nice
A Propos de Nice is a charming social documentary about the Rivera seaside resort. It is a slice of Nice life in 1930, featuring both the rich and the poor in their own habitats.
Embracing the broad comedy of Hollywood, Vigo interjects slices of absurdity to jolt the audience away from their reverie of people-watching. In one sequence, Vigo features a young lady sunning herself on a lounge chair. A sequence of quick cuts features several outfit changes, the most interesting of which is her birthday suit. Another shot features a gentleman enjoying a shoe shine. A quick cut reveals the valet polishing the man's bare foot.
The most delightful part of the film is the unabashed way in which the film subjects address the camera. While French cinema had moved out of its infancy in the third decade of the last century, it was still a novelty for the masses.
A Propos de Nice is a voyeurs dream. No awkward cut-away glances necessary.
Taris, Roi de l'eau
According to the liner notes, Vigo's next film project came as a result of A Propos de Nice and its failure to make a splash.
Taris, filmed in 1931, is Vigo's shortest work at just under ten minutes.
Olympic swimmer Jean Taris is featured going through his paces in the pool, complete with touches of the ridiculous. The gorgeous, underwater shots inject the film with sublime magic.
Zero de conduite
Zero de conduite is the work that Vigo truly embraces the absurdity of the human existence. Life at a French boarding school is examined. It is not Au revoir les enfants, but that is okay.
Fed up with incompetent schoolmasters and spirit-crushing rules, the lads launch an unlikely rebellion that will veer too far into the ridiculous for many viewers, but is charming in spirit.
L'Atlante
Vigo's masterpiece is L'Atlante.
When a village girl marries the captain of a barge, her romantic fantasies of seeing the world are tempered by the reality of life on the boat.
Chaucer opined that what women want is the upper hand.
L'Atlante is a classic because Vigo understands that what women really want is to find their soul mate.
Prix Jean Vigo
Vigo's imprint on French film is so important that since 1951, the Cinema of France has handed out a film prize named in his honor. (The marvelous Jean Leherissey was the first recipient.)
When Vigo died his cinematographer, Boris Kaufman, went on to form another important film collaboration. His partnership with Elia Kazan produced films like Splendor in the Grass and On the Waterfront.
Kaufman remained a life-long devotee of Vigo's genius. He maintained that Vigo's influence extended as far as Hollywood in many films like Waterfront.
Teresa Wentz - Teresa Wentz holds a Master of Media Arts degree from the University of South Carolina. She has worked in various fields in the film ...
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