Jean Vigo: Three Films

À Propos de Nice (23 minutes. France, 1930. Silent with musical accompaniment. Black & White)

Taris (10 minutes. France, 1931. Black & White)

Zéro de Conduite (France, 47 minutes. France, 1933. Black & White)

Vigo’s debut and only silent work, À Propos de Nice was also his first collaboration with Boris Kaufman, the younger brother of pioneering Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov, who would become his regular cinematographer. Its playful satire juxtaposes footage of working-class Nice with that of the wealthier classes enjoying the city’s luxuries. Taris, a portrait of swimmer Jean Taris, follows the athlete training, but through innovative use of underwater photography and Vigo’s irrepressible exuberance with the medium, it becomes something much more impressive, and harder to categorise. In the magnificent Zéro de Conduite, four boys in a strictly regimented boarding school decide to defy the schoolmasters. Banned in France until 1945 for its subversive depiction of the French education system, the film would go on to become a touchstone for the Nouvelle Vague and the work of François Truffaut in particular.

Shown in the following order: Zéro de Conduite, Taris, À Propos de Nice