A Propos De Nice

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Realism
Expressionism
Representation
As unmediated as possible
Highly mediated
Visual Aesthetic
Simple
Highly constructed
Principle
Respect/Truth
Manipulation
Intent
Spectator reflection
Spectator ‘agitation’

Documentry


À propos de Nice is a 1930 silent short documentary film directed by Jean Vigo and photographed by Boris Kaufman – the brother of Man With A Movie Camera’s director, Dziga Vertov. The film depicts life in Nice, France by documenting the people in the city, their daily routines, a carnival and social inequalities.
Vigo described the film in an address to the Groupement des Spectateurs d'Avant-Garde: "In this film, by showing certain basic aspects of a city, a way of life is put on trial... the last gasps of a society so lost in its escapism that it sickens you and makes you sympathetic to a revolutionary solution.“
Although French, the film is heavily influenced by Soviet Modernism and Constructivism – not least through the family ties to Vertov – and as such sits firmly in that genre. Has the film hallmarks of a film that was made in the USSR, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia.

A PROPOS DE NICE was influenced by:

Modernism: Cinema's strong commitment to the machine, new exciting world. Celebrating the coming new world. Pushing forward aesthetics, doing modern things. Experimenting and doing things differently. Modern art in cinema terms

Constructivism: because The use of montage. 2 types of editing , continuity and montage (continuity used in variety of stuff). Montage is the cinematic version of a collage. It takes shot A, B, C and U, for example to create a different meaning. It puts shots in a non chronological order, designed to create a specific meaning. Eg: football highlights making one team look good, or in a music Video. The key is that IT CREATES A NEW THOUGHT. A specific type of constructive cinema is the idea of City Symphonies.

City Symphonies: A particular experimentalist bracket of film from the early 20s. Celebrates a city and spirit, capturing it at the time using constructivist ideas. Eg... Man With a Movie Camera!



Context of A Propos De Nice

Social

•In 1929 the Soviet Revolution into and beyond its first decade – socialist unrest across Europe and the world to varying extents
•Ideas about the role of the work classes rights changing – power to question wealthy and status quo growing rapidly
•Spain – the homeland of Vigo’s parents – was under a military dictatorship. Vigo’s father, a prominent Anarchist journalist, had been imprisoned for his political views, dying whilst incarcerated under suspicious circumstances.
Historical
•Prior to wall street crash – the wealthy, including those in France, lived highly opulent life styles, very different to the poor and the wealthy’s own circumstances post-1929

Political
•By association with Vertov’s brothers, Vigo associated with the Revolutionary LEF group (Left Front) whose members included Rodchenko, Mayakovsky and Eisenstein – all prominent socialist film-makers.



In a nutshell... Fascists murdered Vigo's father so he hung out with socialists, they made films together about disdain for the upper class.





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