À propos de Nice (Short 1930)
15KÀ propos de Nice: Directed by Boris Kaufman, Jean Vigo. What starts off as a conventional travelogue turns into a satirical portrait of the town of Nice on the French Cote d’Azur, especially its wealthy inhabitants.
“I first saw this as part of a school film study in 1960. THEN as I recall, I merely saw a creaky old French travelogue highlighting more or less a day in the life of a town on the French Cote Du0026#39;Azur that bore less relevance, to ME at least, than the rather staid and somewhat uninspiring biscuits named after it!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI saw A PROPOS DE NICE again some forty years later at a lowly patronised French Film Festival which had been hurridly organised apparently by Sydney University. What I saw THAT night, with the advantage of four decades of lifeu0026#39;s experiences, was a superbly constructed attack on, or should I say u0026quot;de-constructionu0026quot; OF – the Bourgois. Vigo, himself an anarchist to his left femur, relentlessly piles on the satire with images of the u0026quot;respectedu0026quot; upper-class acting anything but respectfully. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eInnovative indeed was the cinematography from Boris Kaufman with intentionally tilted aspects of buildings to lessen their grandeur, use of shadow and striking images of the people (love the Brit tourists nursing their fish and chips) as they go about their daily business.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEssential viewing for students of early French cinema.”
