Taris, roi de l'eau

Essentially a 'how-to-swim' piece that, in the hands of someone less talented and individualistic than Jean Vigo, would have been forgotten years ago, Taris is transformed by the director's unique and original imagination into something much more. He captures some terrific underwater shots of Taris swimming and horsing around, and manages to add a few trademark surreal touches and camera trickery to ensure that the viewer's interest never wanes. It is still essentially a film about swimming, but it manages to capture both Taris's mastery of his sport and his enthusiasm for it. Worth a watch if you have a spare ten minutes.

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

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.

Jean Vigo is a great example of a young filmmaker who died very young and is adored today by cinema freaks. While the body of his work is minuscule (only four films), in some circles he's considered a genius--even though only one of his films ("L'Atalante") was full-length. And, two of his other three shorts are more experimental films than anything else. I frankly don't quite get his reputation, but for fans of this writer/director, Criterion has released a DVD with all four of his films.

"Taris" is an odd little film about the French swimming champion, Jean Taris. In some ways this is an art film--with very unusual camera angles and composition. And, in other ways, it's a rather dull 'how to' film--one that shows the viewers how to swim like Taris--as he demonstrates various strokes, breathing, turns and the like. It's not at all a film the average person would enjoy or even look for in the first place. However, as I said above, film buffs who adore Vigo would be happy to see this--even if it is not the most exciting film I've ever seen (far from it, actually). Competently made, rather dull but full of exciting camera work.

Jean Vigo films the talents of great swimming champion Jean Taris performing different acts. Vigo film technique allied with Taris swimming style are intertwined with grace and effect.

Some of this might have been a bit risqué, at least it would have been to Americans, but it is an interesting use of underwater photography and captures its subject well. I don't know Jean Taris, but then again, I wasn't around in 1930s France. I imagine he was a big deal and something a hero. Certainly, in this capacity, his body and movements are an art form.

Of the few things Vigo did, this might be the one that stands out. It doesn't offer class commentary or suggest anarchism. It's not the masterpiece of his short career. It is just a simple -- but effective -- look at a great athlete.