Jean Vigo

Jean Vigo was a French film director who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s he was a posthumous influence on the French New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s Vigo was born to Emily Clero and the prominent Catalan militant anarchist Eugeni Bonaventura de Vigo i Sallés who adopted the name Miguel Almereydaan anagram of ya la merde which translates as theres shit Much of Jeans early life was spent on the run with his parents His father was imprisoned and murdered in Fresnes Prison on 13 August 1917 The young Vigo was subsequently sent to boarding school under an assumed name Jean Sales to conceal his identity Vigo is noted for two films that affected the future development of both French and world cinema Zero for Conduct 1933 and LAtalante 1934 Zero for Conduct was approvingly described by critic David Thomson as fortyfour minutes of sustained if roughly shot anarchic crescendo LAtalante was Vigos only fulllength feature The simple story of a newly married couple splitting and reuniting is notable for the way it effortlessly merges rough naturalistic filmmaking with shimmering dreamlike sequences and effects Thomson described the result as not so much a masterpiece as a definition of cinema and thus a film that stands resolutely apart from the great body of films His career began with two other films À propos de Nice about Nice 1930 a subversive silent film inspired by Soviet newsreels which considered social inequity in the resort town of Nice and Jean Taris Swimming Champion 1931 a study of swimmer Jean Taris None of his four films were financial successes at one point with his and his wifes health suffering Vigo was forced to sell his camera Vigo was married and had a daughter Luce Vigo a film critic in 1931 Zero for Conduct was banned by the French government until after the war and LAtalante was mutilated by its distributor By this point Vigo was too ill to strenuously fight the matter Both films have outlived their detractors LAtalante was chosen as the 10thgreatest film of all time in Sight amp Sounds 1962 poll and as the 6thbest in its 1992 poll In the late 1980s a 1934 copy of LAtalante was found in the British National Film and Television Archive and became a key element in the restoration of the film to its original version Writing on Vigos career in The New York Times film critic Andrew Johnston stated The ranks of the great film directors are short on Keatses and Shelleys young artists cut off in their prime leaving behind a handful of great works that suggest what might have been But one who qualifies is Jean Vigo the French director who died of tuberculosis at age 29 in 1934 2011 ParajanovVartanov Institute Award posthumously honored Jean Vigo for Zero for Conduct and was presented to his daughter Luce Vigo