| |
|
Jean Vigo |
|
Director / Screenwriter |
 |
|
1905 - 1934 |
|
Born April 26, Paris,
France |
|
Key
Production Country: France |
|
Key Genres: Short
Film, Drama, Documentary |
|
Key
Collaborators: Boris Kaufman (Cinematographer),
Louis Lefevre
(Leading Player),
Jean Daste (Leading Player), Maurice
Jaubert (Composer) |
|
|
Highly Recommended:
Zero
for Conduct (1933)*, L'Atalante (1934)* |
|
Recommended:
À propos de Nice (1929) |
|
Worth a Look:
Taris (1931) |
|
* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section. |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
Links: [
Amazon
] [
IMDB
] [
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Senses
of Cinema: Great Directors ] [
Film Reference ]
[
Derek
Malcolm's Century of Films: L'Atalante
] [
World
Cinema Directors Profile
] |
|
Books:
[
Jean
Vigo ] [
Jean Vigo (French Film Directors ] |
|
|
    |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
"French film-maker who,
after a traumatic childhood, made three feature films which,
though unsuccessful in their day, have had a profound effect on
directors all over the world... There is little doubt that Vigo
would have gone on to become one of the dominant figures of the
French cinema had he lived. His wife died, also of tuberculosis,
five years later."
-
David
Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999) |
|
| |
|
|
| |
"L'Atalante
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 (International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers,
1991) |
|
| |
|
|
| |
"Few
other directors with such a short filmography have had such a
profound influence on other film-makers as Jean Vigo. The son of
an anarchist who died in prison in 1917, Jean Vigo inherited his
father's anti-authoritarian ideas." -
Ronald Bergan (Film - Eyewitness Companions, 2006)
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
"Truly a poet of the cinema, Vigo's early death ended what
probably would have been a brilliant career. He made only four
films, but they stand as a valuable body of work which reflects
a profound, if cynical, humanism and a complex sense of fantasy." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 |
| |
|
"An
anarchist's son, Vigo
was one of cinema's finest poets, able to transcend mundane
reality with his unique blend of lyricism, wit, sensuality and
surrealism. His distaste for authority, injustice and inequality
was balanced by a love of individuality, innocence and
independence... Vigo's imagery could be
fantastic, experimental, grotesquely funny, or dreamily
erotic. It was, however, always imaginative and rapturous,
imbued with a passion for film. Tragically, he died at 29, having made only one
full-length feature; nevertheless, he remains one of cinema's
greatest, most influential masters." -
Geoff Andrew, The
Director's Vision |
| |
 |
| |
|
●
Top 250 Directors |
|
●
Robin Buss' Top 10 Directors |
|
●
501 Movie Directors: A
Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers |
|
|
|
See Also |
|
●
Lindsay Anderson |
|
●
Luis Buñuel |
|
●
René Clair |
|
●
Jean Cocteau |
|
●
Louis Malle |
|
●
Jean Renoir |
|
●
François Truffaut |
|
●
Dziga Vertov |
| |
|
|
|
|