- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJean Bonaventure de Vigo Almereyda
- Height1.70 m
- Jean Vigo had bad health since he was a child. Son of anarchist militant Miguel Almareyda, he also never really recovered from his father's mysterious death in jail when he was 12. Abandoned by his mother, he passed from boarding school to boarding school. Aged 23, through meetings with people involved in the movies, he started working in the cinema, then bought a camera and shot his first film, a short documentary, À propos de Nice (1930) then, two years later, Taris, roi de l'eau (1931) (aka Taris champion de natation). These two very personal works frighten the producers, and it lasted two years before someone showed some interest in his project of a children movie. This would be his masterpiece, Zéro de conduite: Jeunes diables au collège (1933) (aka Zero for Conduct), a subversive despiction of an authoritarian boarding school, which directly came from Vigo's memories. The film is straightaway censored for its "anti-French spirit." In despair, he nevertheless shot L'Atalante (1934), a romantic and realistic story of a young couple beginning their life together in a barge. He died just afterward of septicemy. His work would not be recognized before 1945. This accursed filmmaker is now admired for his poetic realism.- IMDb mini biography by: Yepok
- SpouseElizabeth Lezinska(1929 - October 5, 1934) (his death, 1 child)
- Children
- In 2011 Jean Vigo's daughter and film critic Luce Vigo accepted the Parajanov-Vartanov Institute Award -- named after persecuted Soviet filmmakers Sergei Parajanov and Mikhail Vartanov -- posthumously honoring Vigo for the masterpiece Zéro de conduite: Jeunes diables au collège (1933); Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight presented the award and Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese sent a letter for the occassion with words on Vigo, Paradjanov and Vartanov, all of whom had struggled against censorship.
- His father, Eugène Bonaventure de Vigo known with the pseudonym of Miguel Almereyda, founded and directed the extreme left-wing paper "Le Bonnet Rouge." In August of 1917, he was arrested under the charge of attempting on State's security and a few days later was found dead in the prison of Fresnes. He had been strangled with the laces of his own shoes, and the murderer never was discovered.
- The movie À propos de Nice (1930) was financed by Vigo's father-in-law.
- Jean Vigo Award was established in 2007 by Navarra International Documentary Film Festival in Spain.
- Was buried in the grave of his father, anarchist Eugène Bonaventure de Vigo (died 1917), at Bagneaux Cemetery in Paris. He was joined there in 1939 by his widow, Elizabeth "Lydou" Vigo, and by their only child, film critic Luce Vigo, in 2017.
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