Jean Vigo and French Cinema

Two days ago, I rented a documentary from Hastings about the life of Henri Langlois. The full title is, "Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinematheque."

Every film has an audience. Some reach a mass audience while others only reach a small percentage of people from your local town. It depends on the story, the context and how those elements illuminate forth. What interests me about this documentary is how Henri Langlois pursued cinema. And not just modern cinema (then), but good cinema.

This man started collecting silent films in his home and would show them to a small local audience. Quickly, within a few months, he became more popular. His aim was to preserve films and show them to the world when no one else would. Back then, cinema was a newer invention. In the late fifties, over the course of two years, he had purchased and archived 40,000 films. Which means, in two years he saw the history of cinema. And it's safe to say that 40,000 films then was most of what was made.

His passion for cinema touched me in a way that I had to watch the film twice in a row. A few things that stood out:

"I told myself, 'Damn, a filmmaker becomes a slave. Always depending on others.' That's slavery, nothing less. So a filmmaker can never be as free as a writer or a painter to make his art, whatever the circumstances. Those constraints discouraged me. My strong roots are in silent film, yet I don't see how one can make a film unless you write dialogue. If you can't, then it's better not to make films." -Henri Langlois

"The basic ingredient is the image. Lets call it a diamond. An uncut diamond already gives off light, but improves when polished. Griffith cut facets into the diamond. It has the integrity of one element. The arrival of sound makes two elements. Sound and image. The basic ingredients are easy to grasp. In ceramics you've got clay and glaze. You fire it up in a kiln and ceramics emerge. The result is a new integrated element. The crisis in film is that so few achieved this fusion." -Henri Langlois

In the last section above, the "few" he was referring to director Jean Vigo, and particular his short film "Zéro de conduite." I thought that was one hell of a praise. This short is available only on VHS and cost 15 dollars on Amazon. This evening, I rented L' Atalante by Vigo, which is also his only feature film. Monday I have the day off from work and will watch this film over some breakfast.

Without Langlois, we would never have Jean-Jue Godard, Francois Truffaut, Jacques Rivette, Alain Resnais and many others.

New Wave and French Films For Beginners:
(a more concrete and accurate list coming soon)

dir- Jean-Jue Godard
Breathless
A Woman is a Woman
Band Of Outsiders
Contempt
Pierrot Le Fou

dir- Francois Truffaut
Shoot The Piano Player
Jules and Jim
The Adventures of Antoine Doinel
-The 4oo Blows
-Antoine & Colette
-Stolen Kisses
-Bed & Board
-Love On The Run

dir- Alain Resnais
Hiroshima, My Love

dir- Jean Renoir
Grand Illusion

And anything by dir- Robert Bresson