À propos de Nice/ Taris: Champion de France/ Zéro de Conduite
Dir: Jean Vigo
France, 25/9/44minmins, DCP
Wondrous beginnings! À propos de Nice , Vigo’s initial collaboration with co-director Boris Kaufman (brother of Russian giant Dziga Vertov), looked beyond the palms and the Promenade des Anglais to reveal the labor and poverty of Nice as well as the resilience captured in moments of carnival. In Taris: Champion de France , Vigor and Kaufman transformed a prosaic subject into a formal symphony, as a race morphs into an analysis of swimming that is soon eclipsed by the sheer physicality of body, light, water and photography as a medium. Finally, vision and form meshed in Zéro de Conduite, a spirited and critical tale of boys’ rebellion in a repressive boarding school. It alarmed censors but inspired both Truffaut (remember The 400 Blows [1959] as you watch) and Lindsay Anderson’s If… (1968). This restored version is embedded with newly discovered images that is shown for the first time after being censored.
Further Readings:
À propos de Nice, From The Complete Jean Vigo Blu-ray Collector’s Set by The Criterion Collection
À propos de Nice/ Taris: Champion de France/ Zéro de Conduite, From Il Cinema Ritrovato 2017 Festival catalogue
Zéro de Conduite, From The Complete Jean Vigo Blu-ray Collector’s Set by The Criterion Collection
Remarks
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