Film-maker, born in Paris, France, of Catalan origin. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne (1925), then turned to film-making. A victim of tuberculosis, in his short life he became generally recognized as a surrealist film director, producing four films, two of which Zéro de conduite (1933) and L'Atalante (1934) are outstanding. The Prix J Vigo was set up in 1951 in his honour.
Jean Vigo (April 26, 1905 – October 5, 1934) was a short-lived French film director, who helped in the establishment of poetic realism in film in the 1930s and went on to be a posthumous influence on the French nouvelle vague of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Vigo was born on April 26, 1905, to Emily Clero and the prominent militant anarchist Eugene Bonaventure de Vigo, (who adopted the name Miguel Almereyda - an anagram of "y'a la merde", which translates as "there is shit").
He is noted for two very important films which significantly affected the future development of both French and world cinema: Zéro de conduite (1933) and L'Atalante (1934).
He also made two other films: A Propos de Nice: Point de Vue Documentée (1929), a highly subversive silent film examining social inequity in 1920s Nice and the film Taris, roi de l'eau (1931), an elegant motion study of swimmer Jean Taris.
His films have been depicted by some and certainly by contemporaneous political administrations as being unpatriotic and were consequently heavily censored by the French government.
The Prix Jean Vigo is a prestigious annual award.
User Comments Add a comment…