À propos de Nice (1930)
Directed by Jean Vigo

Film Review

Limited financial resources more or less compelled Jean Vigo to begin his filmmaking career with this short documentary film.  A propos de Nice is not Vigo's most ambitious work but it is striking how much of his own personality and view of life emerges from this short but impressive work.  Here, he is assisted by a gifted camera operator, Boris Kaufman, who not only worked on all of Vigo's films but also several notable American films such as On the Waterfront (1954), Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962) and 12 Angry Men (1957). With this film, Vigo presents a unique portrait of the town he grew to love whist convalescing from his recurring respiratory problems.

Vigo himself described the film as a social documentary, but it is clear to anyone watching the film that it is much more than that.   The way in which Vigo contrasts the wealthy elite with the poor working class clearly shows where his sympathies lay.   With some brilliant satirical touches, he ridicules his "social superiors", even contrasting them with wild animals (a self-important ostrich and viciously snapping crocodiles).  Indeed some of the intrusive shots and awkward camera angles give the impression that Vigo is making a nature film, secretly spying on the exploits of some unfamiliar species of animal.   All this goes to emphasise the extent to which he felt excluded from the kind of world he is filming in A propos de Nice.

The film's last few minutes convey a darker message, however, and one which illustrates both Vigo's creative vision and the intensity of his emotional involvement with the subject of his film.   The final image is one of a furnace disposing of the discarded remains of the Nice carnival.  This comes immediately after protracted scenes of hedonistic revelry set during the carnival.  Vigo has apparently widened the scope of the film into a brutal condemnation of any form of corporeal excess.  A life of grotesque overindulgence deserves to be followed by a protracted stay in Hell.   Vigo is not just angry with social divisions and the complacency of the idle rich; he is positively seething with a bearly controllable sense of social injustice.

A propos de Nice is not so much a documentary about Nice, but more a brilliantly crafted assault on everything that the young debutant film-maker Jean Vigo hated.  Not only is it a witty and charming piece, it is also highly subversive - albeit less so than the director's subsequent all-out assault on France's education system, Zéro de conduite (1933).

Film Synopsis

Nice is a town with many faces.  The face that visitors to the town see is a sunny Riviera resort.  Rich tourists lounge around in luxury hotels on the front and amuse themselves by gambling in the casinos.  They can go sailing or sit in the sun on the Promenade des Anglais.  But there is another side, which is seen only by those who live in the town and know it well.  Out of sight of the wealthy tourists there are the ordinary working class people who eke out a modest existence, far from the casinos and expensive shops.  At the moment, they are busy preparing for Nice's annual carnival...