Jean Vigo
Jean Vigo
Film director Jean Vigo (1905-1934) had a brief career encompassing only four films, all of which were shot during the beginning of the sound era, but only one of which was full-length. Yet the critical acclimation of the poetic beauty of his work, which came posthumously, has been nearly unanimous.
Vigo was born Jean Bonaventure de Vigo in Paris on April 26, 1905, the son of anarchists Emily Clâro and Miguel Almereyda (real name: Eugêne Bonaventure de Vigo). In the early 1900s Almereyda was arrested numerous times and in 1901, at age 18, was sentenced to a year in prison for the manufacture of a bomb that failed to explode. He served nearly his entire sentence in solitary confinement. In 1904 Almereyda attended an antimilitarist congress in Amsterdam out of which sprang the Association Internationale Antimilitariste (AIA). Almereyda became one of the leaders of the French AIA. As such he was arrested and sentenced to prison in December 1905. He was released on an amnesty in June 1906. That same year he cofounded a weekly newspaper, La Guerre Sociale (The Social War).
Thus the tone was set for Vigo's early life. The anarchism and plotting were broken only by his father's jail sentences. In 1908 Almereyda was given a two-year prison sentence for praising a mutiny in the pages of La Guerre Sociale. He was released in August 1909. In 1913 Almereyda left La Guerre Sociale and cofounded the weekly, Le Bonnet Rouge, which became a daily the following year. Almereyda was named editor-in-chief. When war broke out in August 1914 Almereyda slowly began to inveigh against the military in the pages of his paper. Eventually the militarists who had maintained the upper hand in French politics had enough and he was arrested on August 6, 1917. He died in his cell under mysterious circumstances a week later. There is little doubt that Almereyda was murdered, though he was extremely ill with a ruptured appendix and peritonitis. Jean Vigo was 12 years old at the time.
Poor Health and Boarding Schools
Throughout his childhood Vigo was plagued by poor health, which worsened in the year after his father's death. Furthermore Vigo's mother shunted him off to relatives and boarding schools. Since his father's name was still notorious in France, Vigo was often forced to enroll under an assumed name-Jean Salles. Beginning in 1919, though, he spent two weeks with his mother in Paris every September. In the early 1920s he was in contact with his father's friends, who related to him facts about Almereyda's life and personality. In 1922 Vigo began attending Lycâe Marceau, a boarding school in Chartres. His studies concentrated on Latin and science, but more importantly he was near his mother, with whom he spent his vacations and occasional weekends. Enough time had elapsed since his father's death that he was able to enroll under his own name. In his late teens Vigo's health improved and he not only participated in sports at Lycâe Marceau, but he excelled in the 100-meter dash and football, where he was a goalkeeper. This almost semi-idyllic period in his life was to come to a sudden end, and the result was Vigo's estrangement from his mother.
Vigo was well versed in his father's work and legend, but the facts of Almereyda's death had always been glossed over, especially his mother's role in the legal drama that occurred afterward. From reading Le Mystêre de Fresnes (Fresnes was the prison where Almereyda died), by Albert Monniot, Vigo discovered that his mother—in order to win a lawsuit that would ensure Vigo's interests—consented to the lawyer's hypothesis that Almereyda's murder had been ordered by his own accomplices in order to stave off treachery to the cause. In 1924 the 19-year-old Vigo spent his summer vacation assembling a file that (he intended) would prove his father innocent of treachery.
Met Lydou at a Sanatorium
In June 1925 Vigo left Lycâe Marceau. His original plan was to enroll in a university, thereby extending his military deferment. Already Vigo, imbued with his father's antimilitarism, had managed to have his military physical postponed from December 1924. In late 1925 Vigo took some courses at the Sorbonne. It has been conjectured that it was at this time that Vigo decided to embark on a career in cinema. In early 1926 he fell ill once again and went to southern France to recuperate—first with his relatives, the Aubês (who had taken him in after Almereyda's death), then at a sanitorium, Font-Romeu, near Andorra, by the Spanish border. Because of his illness Vigo had to forgo the possibility of working on Abel Gance's film, Napolâon, but upon recovering and returning to Paris at the end of 1926 he set about using whatever contacts he had to gain entrée into the French film industry. Within a few months Vigo had a relapse of his illness and was back at Font-Romeu. To make matters worse, his continually deteriorating relationship with his mother left Vigo weakened and depressed. On and off he remained in such a state for more than a year, despite assistance from many friends (which at times left Vigo feeling guilty).
In 1928 his life and outlook began to take a positive turn. It was at the sanitorium that year where he met 19-year-old Elsiabeth Lozinska, known as Lydou. She was the daughter of a Polish industrialist who had been studying in Switzerland. If anything Lydou's condition was worse than Vigo's, as she was bedridden for most of her first year at Font-Romeu. In November 1928 the two were well enough to return to Paris and announce their engagement. They were married on January 24, 1929.
Vigo soon had his first job in film, assisting the cameraman on a film titled Vénus. When the film ended, though, he was out of work and the couple relied on Lydou's father to help them financially. With the money his father-in-law sent Vigo purchased a secondhand Debrie film camera with which he set about filming the animals in the zoo. This first attempt ended in disaster and Vigo never worked as cameraman on any of his other films. However, he was un-dismayed and began planning a script centered on the city of Nice, where he and Lydou had traveled. Unfortunately before he could begin production of his film his health, and that of Lydou's, took another bad turn. The couple returned to Paris for medical consultations. By then Vigo had met Boris Kaufman, possibly the youngest brother of the pioneering Soviet filmmakers Dziga Vertov (real name Denis Kaufman) and Mikhail Kaufman. Kaufman would eventually serve as cameraman on all of Vigo's films. After Vigo's death, he immigrated to Hollywood where he worked on such films as On the Waterfront, Twelve Angry Men, and The Pawnbroker.
Directed A Propos de Nice
With Kaufman behind the camera, the young director saw that most of his sketchy film plan would not translate well to the screen, thus prompting him to create a serious outline for his project. The film that resulted was the short "documentary" A Propos de Nice. Vigo's anarchist politics and his sense of satire are both strong elements of the film, which contrasts the wealthy and the poor in the city of Nice. It has often been compared to two other "city films" of the period: Berlin, The Symphony of a Great City, directed by Walter Ruttmann and Vertov's The Man with a Movie Camera, which was set in Moscow.
However A Propos de Nice differs from those films in an important way; it is less reliant on temporal chronology in its structure. Thus while Ruttmann and Vertov both shaped a narrative around a "day in the life" (of Berlin or Moscow), Vigo opened his film with fireworks at night. Secondly, Vigo used toys as symbols for people and juxtaposed seemingly unrelated scenes. These elements moved the film away from being solely a documentary. In fact A Propos de Nice, with a running time of approximately 20 minutes, is at once a highly subjective critique of the city and a documentary of the gap between the rich and the poor. Filmed in 1929, A Propos de Nice debuted in Paris on May 28, 1930.
Vigo's next film is the least known and shortest of his quartet, and, likewise, the least appreciated. Taris (also known as Taris, roi de l'eau and Taris, champion de natation), filmed in 1931, is a short film featuring French swimming champion Jean Taris. The film included voice-over by Taris describing swimming trechniques, but the outstanding aspect is how Vigo once again turned the genre of documentary inside out, though Taris is neither as subjective nor as anarchistic as A Propos de Nice. When discussing Taris critics and film historians generally focus on the film's underwater shots and by extension the silence that engulfs the film. Both of these elements give Taris a dreamlike quality that is enhanced by the ending in which Taris is seen walking on water.
Zero de Conduite
Critics and film historians continue to debate which of Vigo's films is his masterpiece with many acknowledging that the title belongs to his third film, the 41-minute-long Zero de conduite (Zero for Conduct). Others consider Vigo's last film, L'Atalante, his masterpiece. Zero de conduite, shot in 1933, was Vigo's first film that had a narrative structure in the usual sense, though in the filmic sense the story was far more poetic than realist. The film's plot revolves around the children of a boarding school who decide to revolt against the strict rules of behavior. The film highlights the child's world from beginning to end: it opens with two boys delighting each other on a train with tricks and games as they return to school after a vacation. These tricks reveal their own awakening sexuality and imitation of adulthood. They, along with a third boy, will become the chief plotters in the revolt after having been given a "zero for conduct." Zero de conduite was banned in France until 1946, but thereafter became an inspiration for many French New Wave filmmakers, especially Francois Truffaut who directed his own film about children, The 400 Blows.
Depsite the fact that Zero de conduite was banned Vigo managed to secure studio backing for his next project, L'Atalante (1934). It was Vigo's final film and the only one he directed that was feature length. L'Atalante is the story of two newlyweds who sail France's waterways on a barge, named L'Atalante. When the wife grows tired of barge life she abandons her husband for Paris, but the city overwhelms her. The husband sets out to find her, but in the end it is the half-crazy bargeman (portrayed by Michel Simon) who discovers her and returns with her to the barge.
The film was first shown in Paris in April 1934, and its first public performance was in September 1934 under the title Le Chaland qui passâ. Less than a month later Vigo finally succumbed to the tuberculosis from which he had suffered for years. He died in Paris on October 5, 1934. At the time of his death Vigo had left behind more than two dozen unrealized projects, including scripts by himself, Claude Aveline, and Blaise Cendrars. L'Atalante, which had been reedited and retitled during his final illness, was eventually restored and the world would come to recognize Vigo's genius.
Books
Salles Gomes, P.E., Jean Vigo, University of California Press, 1971.
Simon, William G. The Films of Jean Vigo, UMI Research Press, 1981.
Online
"Jean Vigo," The Internet Movie Database,http://us.imbd.com/Name?Vigo,+Jean (February 19, 2003).
"Jean Vigo," Senses of Cinema,http://www.senseofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/vigo.html (February 19, 2003). □
Vigo, Jean
VIGO, Jean
Nationality: French. Born: Paris, 26 April 1905, son of anarchist Miguel Alemreyda (Eugène Bonaventure de Vigo). Education: Attended a number of schools, including the Boys School of St. Cloud, until 1917; following death of father, attended boarding school in Nimes, under the name Jean Sales. Family: Married Elizabeth Lozinska, 1929, child: Luce. Father found dead under mysterious circumstances in jail cell, 1917; mother confined to a hospital, 1923. Career: Experienced health problems, entered clinic in Montpellier, then moved to Nice because of his tuberculosis, 1929; directed first film, A propos de Nice, 1930, then returned to live in Paris, 1932; Zéro de conduite removed from circulation by censors because of perceived "anti-France" content; became seriously ill with leukemia, 1933. Died: 5 October 1934.
Film as Director:
- 1930
À propos de Nice
- 1931
Taris (Taris roi de l'eau; Jean Taris champion de natation)
- 1933
Zéro de conduite
- 1934
L'Atalante
Publications
By VIGO: books—
The Complete Jean Vigo, London, 1983.
Oeuvres de cinéma: Films, scénarios, projets de films, texts sur lecinéma, edited by Pierre Lherminier, Paris, 1985.
On VIGO: books—
Kyrou, Ado, Amour, érotisme et cinéma, Paris, 1957.
Salès-Gomès, P.E., Jean Vigo, Paris, 1957; Los Angeles, 1971.
Agel, Henri, Miroirs de L'insolite dans le cinéma français, Paris, 1958.
Pornon, Charles, Le Rêve et le fantastique dans le cinéma français, Paris, 1959.
Buache, Freddy, and others, editors, Hommage à Jean Vigo, Lausanne 1962.
Lherminier, Pierre, Jean Vigo, Paria, 1967.
Lovell, Alan, Anarchist Cinema, London, 1967.
Martin, Marcel, Jean Vigo, Anthologie du Cinéma, vol. 2, Paris, 1967.
Smith, John, Jean Vigo, New York, 1971.
Simon, William G., The Films of Jean Vigo, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1981.
Andrew, Dudley, Film in the Aura of Art, Princeton, New Jersey, 1984.
On VIGO: articles—
Cavalcanti, Alberto, "Jean Vigo," in Cinema Quarterly (Edinburgh), Winter 1935.
Kracauer, Siegfried, "Jean Vigo," in Hollywood Quarterly, April 1947.
Weinberg, Herman G., "The Films of Jean Vigo," in Cinema (Beverly Hills), July 1947.
Agee, James, "Life and Work of Jean Vigo," in Nation (New York), 12 July 1947.
Zilzer, G., "Remembrances of Jean Vigo," in Hollywood Quarterly, Winter 1947/48.
"Vigo Issue" of Ciné-Club (Paris), February 1949.
"Vigo Issue" of Positif (Lyon), no. 7, 1953.
De Laurot, Edouard, and Jonas Mekas, "An Interview with Boris Kaufman," in Film Culture (New York), Summer 1955.
Salès-Gomès, P.E., "Le Mort de Jean Vigo," in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), August/September 1955.
Ashton, D.S., "Portrait of Vigo," in Film (London), December 1955.
Tranchant, François, "Dossier Jean Vigo," in Image et Son (Paris), October 1958.
"Vigo Issue" of Premier Plan (Lyon), no. 19, 1961.
Chevassu, François, "Jean Vigo," in Image et Son (Paris), February 1961.
Ellerby, John, "The Anarchism of Jean Vigo," in Anarchy 6 (London), August 1961.
"Vigo Issue" of Études Cinématographiques (Paris), no. 1–52, 1966.
Mills, B., "Anarchy, Surrealism, and Optimism in Zéro de conduite," in Cinema (London), no. 8, 1971.
Teush, B., "The Playground of Jean Vigo," in Film Heritage (New York), Fall 1973.
Special issue, in Castoro Cinema (Firenze), no. 64, 1979.
Baldwin, D., L'Atalante and the Maturing of Jean Vigo," in FilmQuarterly (Berkeley), Fall 1985.
Wood, Robin, "L'Atalante: The Limits of Liberation," in CineAction! (Toronto), no. 10, 1987.
Bierinckx, C., "Pioniere des schwarza frikanischen films," in Filmund Fernsehen (Berlin), vol. 16, no. 5, May 1988.
Painlevé, J., "Sur un point de détail curieux à l'usage exclusif de vigolâtres érudits," in Jeune Cinéma (Paris), October/November 1989.
Thompson, David J., "L'Atalante," in Sight and Sound (London), Summer 1990.
Conomos, John, "Voyaging with Vigo on L'Atalante," in Filmnews, vol. 21, no. 4, May 1991.
Traser, M., "Jean Vigo," in Filmkultura (Budapest), vol. 31, no. 9, September 1995.
Temple, Michael, "Dreaming of Vigo," in Sight and Sound (London), vol. 8, no. 11, November 1998.
* * *
It is difficult to think of another director who made so few films and yet had such a profound influence on other filmmakers. Jean Vigo's À propos de Nice, his first film, is his contribution to the French surrealist movement. The film itself is a direct descendant of Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera. Certainly, his films make political statements similar to those seen in Vertov's work. Vertov's documentary celebrates a people's revolution, while Vigo's chastises the bourgeois vacationers in a French resort town. Even more importantly, both films revel in the pyrotechnics of the camera and the editing room. They are filled with dizzying movement, fast cutting, and the juxtaposition, from frame to frame, of objects that normally have little relation to each other. In yet another link between the two directors, Vertov's brother photographed À propos de Nice, as well as Vigo's other three films.
À propos de Nice provides a look at a reality beyond the prosaic, common variety that so many films give us. The movie attempts nothing less than the restructuring of our perception of the world by presenting it to us not so much through a seamless, logical narrative, but rather through a fast-paced collection of only tangentially related shots.
After À propos de Nice, Vigo began combining his brand of surrealism with the poetic realism that would later be so important to a generation of French directors, such as Jean Renoir and Marcel Carné. For his second film, he made another documentary, Taris, about France's champion swimmer. Here Vigo takes his camera underwater as Taris clowns at the bottom of a pool and blows at the lens. Taris certainly has some striking images, but it is only eleven minutes long. Indeed, if Vigo had died in 1931, after finishing Taris, instead of in 1934 (and given the constantly precarious state of his health, this would not have been at all unlikely), he would have been remembered, if at all, as a director who had shown great potential, yet who could hardly be considered a major talent.
Vigo's third film, however, secured his place in film history. Zéro de conduite stands out as one of the cinema's most influential works. Along with films such as Sagan's Mädchen in Uniform and Wyler's These Three, it forms one of the more interesting and least studied genres of the 1930s—the children's boarding school film. Although it is Vigo's first fiction film, it continues the work he began with À propos de Nice. That first movie good-naturedly condemns the bourgeoisie, showing the rich as absolutely useless, their primary sin being banality rather than greed or cruelty. In Zéro de conduite, teachers, and not tourists, are the representatives of the bourgeoisie. But like the Nice vacationers, they are not so much malicious as they are simply inadequate; they instruct their schoolboys in nothing important and prize the school's suffocating regulations above all else. Vigo lets the schoolboys rebel against this sort of mindless monotony. They engage in an apocalyptic pillow fight, and then bombard their teachers with fruit during a stately school ceremony. The film's anarchic spirit led to its being banned in France until 1945. But during the 1950s, it became one of the inspirations for the French New Wave directors. In subject matter, it somewhat resembles Truffaut's 400 Blows. But it is the film's style—the mixture of classical Hollywood visuals with the dreamlike illogic of slow motion, fast action, and quick cutting—that particularly influenced a new generation of filmmakers.
Vigo's last film, L'Atalante, is his masterpiece. It is a love story that takes place on a barge, with Vigo once again combining surrealism with poetic realism. The settings are naturalistic and the characters lower-class, and so bring to mind Renoir's poetic realist films such as Toni and Les Bas-Fonds. There is also an emphasis on the imagination and on the near-sacredness of banal objects that places the film strongly in the tradition of such surrealist classics as Un Chien andalou. After Juliette leaves Jean, the barge captain, Jean jumps into the river and sees his wife's image everywhere around him. The underwater sequence not only makes the viewer think of Taris, but also makes us aware that we are sharing Jean's obsession with him. This dreamy visualization of a character's thoughts brings to mind the priority that the surrealists gave to all mental processes. The surrealists prized, too, some of the more mundane aspects of everyday life, and Vigo's film is full of ordinary objects that take on (for Juliette) a magical status. They are only puppets, or fans, or gramophones piled in a heap in the room of Père Jules, Jean's old assistant, but Juliette has spent her entire life in a small town, and for her, these trinkets represent the mysteries of faraway places. They take on a special status, the banal being raised to the level of the exotic.
Despite the movie's links to two film movements, L'Atalante defies categorization. It is a masterpiece of mood and characterization, and, along with Zéro de conduite, it guarantees Vigo's status as a great director. But he was not granted that status by the critical community until years after his death. Because of the vagaries of film exhibition and censorship, Vigo was little known while he was making films. He received nowhere near the acclaim given to his contemporaries Jean Renoir and René Clair.
—Eric Smoodin