À propos de Nice

A pleasant little time capsule, not only for its evocation of a place, but particularly for the way Vigo plays with time itself. Exaggerated fast motion, suspended slow motion, and chopping it all up with montage. What could be just a documentary is edited into the realm of surrealism.

A pleasant little film that stands out thanks to some visual creativity from Vigo and a very enchanting score.

Interesting but too frantic; inquiringly, Vigo observes streets, buildings, legs, faces etc. with a camera often close to the "action"... Annoyed faces are repeatedly captured with great curiosity by the filmmaker.

Entertaining, with good music and amusing satirical elements.

One might suspect that if one has seen one pricey beach resort, one has seen them all, but this does manage to approach its subject from some novel angles indeed, and quite up close and personally at that.

An OK movie that showcases the highs and lows of Nice. There are a lot of scandalous-for-the-times shots (the guy likes legs), and the editing contrasts the rich and poor. It makes a fair time capsule of life (and fashions), but ultimately it's like a neighbor's too-long family vacation video.

This was okay but not really my thing. I really liked the cinematography and some of the music was decent.

The first of four films Vigo managed to make in his sadly abbreviated career. This one takes the form of a travelogue vignette about Nice that morphs into a fairly savage satire on the lifestyle of it's affluent citizens. It's not as searingly brilliant as his later work, but it's beautifully shot by Boris Kaufman.

Went into this with only what it said on the Netflix sleeve, "a provocative silent film" and that's pretty much what I got. I found it quite enjoyable, and rather impressive as well. Some of those shots are just to die for. Sure, he doesn't need to skip around every two seconds, but that's alright.

Resembles the "city symphony" pieces of the time but is more Bunuellian in tone, skewering the bourgeois and sending out a call for revolution among the common people. Vigo makes powerful, and often hilarious, use of juxtaposed shots to mock the idle rich and ultimately endorsing their destruction. We see upper crust types looking bored and lazy contrasted with the lively working class, unprivileged but vibrant. Vigo's fearlessness in editing and camera movement is evident.

Vigo explores the logic and rhytm of a city through cinema. He is aware of the fact that cinema is also a topological study, just like the constitution of a city which dictates certain modes of behaviour and habitus to its citizens. When he "gazes" in such a city his camera is also dictated by the "logos" and the rhytm of that city. The slow motion, fast cut, surrealist editing and impressionist visual pleasure makes this a great movie even without its sarcastic social critique.

A charming city film made especially delightful by Jean Vigo's fascinating visual perspective, which finds the beauty in the grotesque and surrealism within reality. Probably a bit too long for its own good, but mostly gorgeous and astonishingly rhythmic.

Some great surrealist-like ideas for a somewhat charming movie but frantic and anarchic to the point of lacking any depth, as usual with Vigo. The slow-motions towards the end make it more palatable. Also pales compared to Man with a movie camera.

As far as silent experimental 'city symphony' documentaries go, this is remarkably innovative and fresh (even compared to something like Man With a Movie Camera, i have to say), inherently limited as the format is. To it's credit it's only 25 minutes long which is about the right length for this sort of thing.

"Visually fascinating, this short showed Vigo's directorial promise."

Beautifully put together and rather enchanting.

Nice...(bullseye)

The "city symphony" genre had reached its heyday by 1930, so Vigo was able to rely on conventions already established, but his portrait of Nice is a respectable entry in that legacy and I suppose the more cities the merrier. To its credit, it is more tongue-in-cheek than propagandist examples like the Berlin one or Vertov's "Man with a Movie Camera".

certainly shares similarities with man with a movie camera, but unlike that one doesn't have anything to say about its act of observation nor is there much discernible thread to tie the string of images together. some surrealist editing and pleasant accordion music keep things entertaining.

Very pretty.

A Propósito de Nice estreava há 90 anos na França. Ainda tá fresco na memória a leitura do capítulo do livro do Paulo Emílio sobre a feitura desse filme, vendo o quanto é bem feito e revitalizante nem parece parece um primeiro trabalho do Vigo, se bem que o Boris Kaufman já tinha experiência na área e era irmão de ninguém menos do que Dziga Vertov. Box Paulo Emílio Versátil/Sesc/Cosac Vigo.