The Complete Jean Vigo at The American Cinematheque

About the Films:

“L’Atalante”, 1934, Jean Vigo, 89 Minutes, Janus Films, France.

In Jean Vigo’s hands, an unassuming tale of conjugal love becomes an achingly romantic reverie of desire and hope. Jean (Jean Dasté), a barge captain, marries Juliette (Dita Parlo), an innocent country girl, and the two climb aboard Jean’s boat, the L’Atalante—otherwise populated by an earthy first mate (Michel Simon) and a multitude of mangy cats—and embark on their new life together. Both a surprisingly erotic idyll and a clear-eyed meditation on love, L’Atalante, Vigo’s only feature-length work, is a film like no other.
Format: DCP, In French with English subtitles.

“Zéro de conduite”, 1933, Jean Vigo, 44 Minutes, Janus Films, France.

So effervescent and charming that one can easily forget its importance in film history, Jean Vigo’s enormously influential portrait of prankish boarding-school students is one of cinema’s great acts of rebellion. Based on the director’s own experiences as a youth, “Zéro de conduite” presents childhood as a time of unfettered imagination and brazen rule-flouting. It’s a sweet-natured vision of sabotage made vivid by dynamic visual experiments—including the famous, blissful slow-motion pillow fight.
Format: DCP, In French with English subtitles.

“Taris”, 1931, 9 Minutes, Jean Vigo, Janus Films, France.

An inventive short portrait of French swimming champion Jean Taris.
Format: DCP, In French with English subtitles.

“À propos de Nice”, 1930, 23 Minutes, Jean Vigo, Janus Films, France.

Jean Vigo was twenty-five when he made this, his debut film, a silent cinematic poem that reveals, through a thrilling and ironic use of montage, the economic reality hidden behind the façade of the Mediterranean resort town of Nice. The first of Vigo’s several collaborations with cinematographer Boris Kaufman (Dziga Vertov’s brother and a future Oscar winner), “À propos de Nice” is both a scathing and invigorating look at 1930 French culture.
Format: DCP, In French with English subtitles.