''Jean Taris, Swimming Champion'' ( or ''Taris, roi de l'eau'' or ''Taris, champion de natation'') is a 1931 French short documentary film directed by

Jean Vigo Jean Vigo (; 26 April 1905 – 5 October 1934) was a French film director who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s. His work influenced French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Biography Vigo was born to Emi ...

, about the French swimmer

Jean Taris Jean Charles Émile Taris (6 July 1909 – 10 January 1977) was a French swimmer who competed at the 1928 Summer Olympics, 1928, 1932 Summer Olympics, 1932 and 1936 Summer Olympics. In 1928, he was eliminated in the heats of the Swimming at ...

. The film is notable for the many innovative techniques that Vigo uses, including close ups, slow motion shots and freeze frames of the swimmer's body. At the end of 1930, Vigo was commissioned by the

Gaumont Film Company Gaumont SA () is a French film and television production and distribution company headquartered in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Founded by the engineer-turned-inventor Léon Gaumont (1864–1946) in 1895, it is the oldest extant film company in ...

to direct a short film about swimming, centred on the French champion Jean Taris. Most of the film was shot at the

Automobile Club de France The Automobile Club of France () (ACF) is a men's club founded on 12 November 1895 by Albert de Dion, , and its first president, the Dutch-born Baron Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt. The Automobile Club of France, also known in French as "ACF" o ...

, where the swimming pool had glass portholes through which underwater shots could be taken. In the film's 56 shots, Vigo fulfils his commission by concentrating mainly on a demonstration of the crawl. However, he also introduces several unexpected and

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

effects, including a woman practising swimming strokes while lying flat on a stool out of the pool, with a life guard in attendance; slow motion underwater shots; a dive and a jump run backwards, so the swimmer flies out of the water; and Taris’s swimsuit dissolving to be replaced by a suit, overcoat and hat, in which he walks across the water. Although Vigo disliked the final film, he was struck by the underwater shots, especially the strange image of a man's head under water. He reused that image in his later film ''

L'Atalante ''L'Atalante'', also released as ''Le Chaland qui passe'' ("The Passing Barge"), is a 1934 French film written and directed by Jean Vigo, and starring Jean Dasté, Dita Parlo and Michel Simon. After the difficult release of his controversial sho ...

''.

References

Bibliography

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External links

* {{Jean Vigo 1930s French-language films 1931 short documentary films 1931 films Black-and-white documentary films Documentary films about sportspeople Films directed by Jean Vigo French black-and-white films French short documentary films Swimming films 1930s French films