A propos de Noce, Jean Vigo

To discuss the different ways in which filmmakers of the 1920s approached the theme of the modern city I will be drawing on examples from A Propos de Nice and Manhatta.

A Propos de Nice (On the subject of Nice) is a film made in 1929 by Jean Vigo and co-directed by his friend Boris Kaufman (related to the Russian Dziga Vertov). The film was released the following year.

On the subject of Nice is a film produced as part of the Cités symphonies, a series on cities in the 1920s. This sequence of images aims to show the modernisation of the city through regular and mechanical work. The shooting takes place over a day.

To the contrary of their critics Vigo and Jean would always argue that their film was not premeditated (Polito):

" The structure of the film evolved from the shooting itself. We would often improvise and would sometimes let ourselves be surprised by the screen when the rushes came to us."

There is no story in this short film, but a series of views of  Nice and its surroundings, without commentary, chosen and mounted with humour and satire. For instance: One sailor gets so tanned that he becomes all black or a shoe shiner that is busy cleaning a client's barefoot.

The aerial view of Nice that introduces us in the first few seconds of the film makes one feel that this is going to be different to other examples of cityscapes of that time. It is certain that the film is not academic, as the first scene shows a young woman of wealth and most probably of an elitist background sitting in a seat on the Promenade des Anglais.  Shown in several successive outfits until she finishes totally naked.  

Fireworks, the casino roulette, a miniature railway and toys swept away by the croupier's rake. Nice palm trees, preparations for the Carnival, The facade of the hotel Négresco. The Promenade des Anglais, with its rich idlers, beggars and traders. A seaplane that lands in the bay, people playing tennis or bowls and a crowd squeezed around the Monte Carlo car rally. As well as the women of Nice: old and strangled by their mounting collars like ostriches at the zoo. All of these shots feature in Vigo's film add colour, yet unlike Manhatta shot solely to expose the working day in New York. Vigo uses his montage to criticise what the lens is exhibiting.

Jean Vigo and Boris Kaufman sought to demystify "the temporary, escapist appearance of a city of pleasures ". Refusing the simple picturesque construction of a film they assembled their skills of expression to put together something entirely original for its time.

On the subject of Nice is eminently a personal documentary that demonstrates a realistic approach to a particular subjective point of view. The film illustrates this by composing a critical portrait of the city through virulence, social inequalities and a certain form of voyeurism. For example Ragged children, rock paper scissors at street corners, stagnant water contrasting with the white foam of the sea.

And then there is the disparity of the Carnival: excessive amounts of confetti and flowers littering the ground, girls dancing on floats that parade through the streets of Nice. A regiment passes, warships cross the bay,  while the same dancing girl's legs move in rhythm to the music as if they formed a regiment themselves. This comparison can refer to the social classes of Nice, in the way that the social order rarely changes and both social classes don't step out of their social line.

 Not far from the cemetery the confused youth play under the smoke from the factory's chimneys that look like cannons targeted at the sky. You hear the laughter of the locals that is due to the frivolous excitement of a city in jubilation.

There is a constant sense of contradiction, a scene of despair meets one scene of joy. Subsequently, the music changes the angles change; everything becomes a little sombre. Nevertheless, Vigo's satirical outlook will eventually jump us back into a scene of jubilance.  (Almereyda) :

" In Vigo’s words, his film presents “the last gasp of a society so lost in its escapism that it sickens you and makes you sympathetic to a revolutionary solution.”

The creators of On the subject of Nice learnt to use and reinvent new means of expression. The originality of these images, striking even more so if you had discovered them in the 1920s. With a very efficient syncopated construction and the crudity of the confrontation of the idle bourgeoisie imbued with itself, while the poor person who lives in joy and filth in the misery a few streets away.

In doing so, Vigo has made this a critical film and not one that is a facade of a city. He could've easily just shot the wealth and joy, but his experience of expression helped him capture an authentic Nice at that moment in time.

This film is what Jean Vigo calls a documented point of view, that is to say, that the camera is considered as the material that influences the film as much as the shooting is material for the montage. To this is attached a point of view supported by a definite purpose that requires a position. The position in this film is of an outsider, not an influencer, a fly on the wall for instance. Jean Vigo knew that the camera influences human behaviour. As Barnouw (1993, 75) explains how Vigo would often wheel Kaufman up and down the Boardwalk in a wheelchair while filming with a hidden camera. In fact, he even mentioned:(Barnouw, 1993, 75)

 "Kaufman and Vigo were both committed to this Kino-Pravda approach if someone became aware of being photographed they stopped immediately."

This commitment expresses the desire to capture the real and unaltered Nice and not the superficial glitz and glamour that had been portrayed many times before.

It's hard to describe this film without being slightly reducing. Report ? Wandering? Social criticism? Poem? Experimental cinema? Study film? All of these at the same time without a doubt, but above all a profession of faith: the cinema is a means of expression.

Originally the film was silent, but Luce Vigo (Jean Vigo's daughter) had an idea to ask the accordionist Marc Perrone to accompany one of the versions with music. (most accessible version online today)

They built this film on contrasts and combinations of shock images. Of the heap of recorded film (nearly 4000 m), Vigo only retained what allowed him to make - in his words - "the trial of a certain world". His anarchism and corrosive humour unleashed.

Various influences of a young cinematographer of twenty-four years are perceptible in this short film: those of Stroheim (Gariepy) a prominent figure in the early years of the motion picture industry, later known as "The Man You Love to Hate.", Of Bunuel (Gunton) a religious and tender man who makes films about sadism; and a realist obsessed with fantasy.  And René Clair’s (Crow) 1924 avant-garde masterpiece Entr’Acte.

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