- Vigo, Jean
- (Jean de Bonaventure Vigo / April 26, 1905, Paris, France - October 5, 1934, Paris, France)The son of anarchist militant Eugène de Vigo, alias Miguel Amereyda, who was found dead in jail in 1917, he had to leave Paris for Montpellier to hide his real identity. Known as Jean Salles, he spent four years in a school in Nîmes before recovering his name and enrolling in the Sorbonne. He studied philosophy and tried to rehabilitate his father. His poor health led him to Font-Romeu (1927) and then Nice (1928), where he met film directors Claude Autant-Lara and Germaine Dulac, who introduced him to Franco Films. Having settled in Nice, he directed his first film there. His short career was chaotic. His film Zéro de Conduite / USA: Zero for Conduct was banned and remained unrelased until 1945 (only cine-clubs showed it before the official release). Exhausted by tuberculosis, he died of sepsis at age twenty-nine without having time to finalize the projects he wrote (1932 Le Tennis / Cochet, short; Anneaux, short; La Camargue, short; 1935 L'Evadé du Bagne / Le Bagne; Clown par Amour).Filmography◘ A propos de Nice (documentary; short; also screenwriter, producer, editor)◘ Taris, Roi de l'Eau / Taris, Champion de Natation / USA: Jean Taris, Swimming Champion (documentary; short; also screenwriter, producer, editor)◘ Zéro de Conduite / USA: Zero for Conduct (medium-length; also screenwriter, dialogist, co-producer, editor)◘ L'Atalante (also screenwriter, dialogist)
Encyclopedia of French film directors . Philippe Rège. 2011.