Taris

A commissioned work, this wasn't only disliked by the producers who hired him, as a result possibly edited without his consent to its final form (Michael Temple on the Criterion commentary track suggests that perhaps Jean Renoir was one of the directors called in), this was reportedly disavowed by Vigo himself, who apparently said that he only liked the underwater footage.

In many respects this is an experiment on various cinematic techniques: Vigo had already utilized and mastered the use of slow-motion in "À propos de Nice" (1930); here he uses transposed images and reversed footage in addition to some exquisite slow-motion of Taris swimming in the water. (Temple points out that the underwater shot of Taris goofing around is a laboratory of sorts for "L'Atalante" (1934), which would use an almost similar underwater shot)

But this is transcendental in the sense Vigo sees both water and the human body, like a sculpture come to life. Water, one of the most cinematic things in the whole world, is a character of its own here. It's the kingdom whose king Taris is, as implied in the title. In that sense this is also a fête of the human body and its power over the element.

And, most important, it's fun.

Vigo's short Taris is a work of breathtaking beauty. He uses the swimmer's body and movements to portray grace and passion, transcending the pretense that this short is a documentary on a famous swimmer of the 20s/30s. His use of close ups and freeze frames along with underwater beautifully lit scene add to its richness. The Film ends with a deep perhaps ironic twist which is priceless.If you have enjoyed Vigo's features do try and see this mini masterpiece

Jean Vigo takes a short time of our lives to present something that impresses us for a long time with the short documentary "Taris, roi de l'eau" and he does that with a boundless simplicity. In ten minutes, he presents Taris, a famous swimmer showing the different swimming techniques and Vigo's camera gives us details on the movements of the swimmer on the water, everything very impressive.

The ordinary viewer will find nothing special about it but to me I find quite interesting the way images of a not so simple act has the ability of being translated to the screen in a enormous facility, swimming looks so easy (yeah, of course he's a trained swimmer but still) and it really makes you want to get out and swim for a while. It's that impressive, it's that beautiful. Some of the techniques Vigo used here like reversing the image backwards when the swimmer is jumping on the pool were very innovative at the time and quite funny now, but even so it's cool to see it.

Considering that today's short films have more substance and more things to present, and with all these advantage sometimes they fail to really grab our attention even for five minutes is that I look back to something like "Taris, roi de l'eau" ("Taris, King of the Water") and I think how moved and impressed I was with such a simple work of art. That's the role of art in everything: take the most ordinary thing of life and make of it something beautiful. Vigo really did it here. 10/10

Jean Vigo knows he can't be too bland with a subject like swimming, no matter how good the swimmer might be in his style and speed and graceful varieties of stroke (so to speak). Jean Taris is actually an excellent swimmer, as Vigo makes abundantly clear within the first minute: in a simple over-head shot, with the occasional close-up cut-away, we see Taris defeat his opponents in a swimming race lickety split. But it's how Vigo then treats the whole nature of how to instruct the audience on a topic that makes it worthwhile to find (it's available on you-tube, by the way). We hear the Taris voice-over describe the different movements that can be used- including the "new" one, called the breast-stroke- and that, simply, swimming cannot be taught indoors. Vigo puts his words into an assemblage of images that reminded me of the great scene in L'Atalante with the character Jean underwater, only here taken steps further, and visually it's always a wild little treat.

Like his Apropos de Nice movie, Vigo is out to explore possibilities with the frame and the camera and certain techniques that today might come off a tiny bit goofy, but nevertheless display a true resiliency on part of the filmmaker and his technical crew (notably Boris Kaufman). It's all experimentation, but it ends up working better in its favor due to the step-by-step narration and detail. A constant image is that of the swimmer going backwards out of the water into original diving pose, which doesn't lose its appeal as eye-catching. There are also the many tight close-ups from a multitude of angles as the swimmer goes about his instruction: his arms, his feet kicking, his face trying best not to somehow get too much water in the mouth while breathing. And perhaps the most interesting bit when we see the swimmer underwater, likely seen through an aquarium or some other safe place for the camera, and the Taris goes through many different movements. What begins as a relatively easy-going tutorial short on film, by way of the inventiveness of the filmmaker, becomes something much better- a subjective lesson in the art of swimming.

There's even a touch of the absurd to much of it, as is the way of the director in his works, like when he does show a man trying to swim indoors, on a chair. And the final images, by the way, are definitely the best, as one last time the swimmer comes up onto the side of the pool backwards, then is seen in a business suit, jacket and hat, and in a great super-imposition walks ahead into the water. Whatever it might mean, I can't say, but throughout as Vigo's eye follows this man on his lesson to those who wonder 'can I be like him', there are moments of wonderful exercises in limitless cinematic expression too. 8.5/10

The second of Vigo's four films is about 10 minutes long. The subject, allegedly, is a French national swimming champion, Jean Taris. First we see him swimming normally. Then we see a hint that this isn't a documentary short: Taris dives into the water, Vigo runs the film backwards, and Taris is spit back out. This happens 3 times. Thus the crux of the film: inventive (for the time) technique, while overuse of it occurs. Fun stuff, though: interesting shots of Taris doing the backstroke. Finally, we see him goofing around underwater; by this point, the movie achieves a genuine state of grace. Can be found on No. 10 of the New York Film Annex's video series of experimental and abstract films.