Jean Vigo(1905-1934)
- Autor
- Director
- Herausgeber
Jean Vigo had bad health since he was a child. Son of anarchist
militant Miguel Almareyda, he also never really recovered from his
father's mysterious death in jail when he was 12. Abandoned by his
mother, he passed from boarding school to boarding school. Aged 23,
through meetings with people involved in the movies, he started working
in the cinema, then bought a camera and shot his first film, a short
documentary,
À Propos de Nice (1930) then,
two years later,
Taris (1931)
(aka Taris champion de natation). These two very personal works
frighten the producers, and it lasted two years before someone showed
some interest in his project of a children movie. This would be his
masterpiece,
Zero for Conduct (1933)
(aka Zero for Conduct), a subversive despiction of an authoritarian
boarding school, which directly came from Vigo's memories. The film is
straightaway censored for its "anti-French spirit." In despair, he
nevertheless shot L'Atalante (1934), a
romantic and realistic story of a young couple beginning their life
together in a barge. He died just afterward of septicemy. His work
would not be recognized before 1945. This accursed filmmaker is now
admired for his poetic realism.