The Complete Jean Vigo (DVD)

Even among cinema’s legends, Jean Vigo stands apart. The son of a notorious anarchist, Vigo had a brief but brilliant career making poetic, lightly surrealist films before his life was cut tragically short by tuberculosis at age twenty-nine. Like the daring early works of his contemporaries Jean Cocteau and Luis Buñuel, Vigo’s films refused to play by the rules. This set includes all of Vigo’s titles: "À propos de Nice," an absurdist, rhythmic slice of life from the bustling coastal city; "Taris," an inventive short portrait of a swimming champion; "Zero de conduite," a radical, delightful tale of boarding-school rebellion that has influenced countless filmmakers; and "L’Atalante," widely regarded as one of cinema’s finest achievements, about newlyweds beginning their life together on a canal barge. These are the witty, visually adventurous works of a pivotal film artist.