James Frain - Jean Vigo
Romane Bohringer - Lydu Lozinska
Jim Carter - Bonaventure
Diana Quick - Emily
William Scott-Masson - Marcel
Lee Ross - Oscar Levy
Nicholas Hewetson - Boris Kaufman
Brian Shelley - Jaubert
Adolfo Fernandez Moya - Miguel Almereyda
Paola Dionisotti - Marie

Crew

Julien Temple - Director
Amanda Temple - Producer
Jeremy Bolt - Producer
Mariela Besuievsky - Co-producer
Ulrich Felsberg - Co-producer
Anne Devlin - Screenwriter
Julien Temple - Screenwriter
Peter Ettedgui - Screenwriter
Bingen Mendizabal - Composer (Music Score)
John Mathieson - Cinematographer
Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre - Executive Producer
Kiki Miyake - Executive Producer
Roger Burton - Costume Designer
Marie-Therese Boiche - Editor
Caroline Greville-Morris - Production Designer
Barry Reed - Sound/Sound Designer

French filmmaker Jean Vigo made only four films prior to his death in 1934 at the age of 29 (only one a full length feature), but all of them are today recognized as landmarks of the European cinema, and Zero For Conduct and L'Atalante are often cited among the greatest films of their time. Vigo: Passion For Life is a dramatic biography that explores his brief life and tumultuous career.

Born the son of a famous figure in the French anarchist movement, Jean Vigo (played here by James Frain) suffered from poor health throughout his life; he contracted tuberculosis as a young man, and met his wife Lydu Lozinska (Romane Bohringer) when both were receiving treatment in a sanitarium.

Vigo made A Propos de Nice in 1929 as an attack on bourgeois French society; the premiere led to a riot, the first of many controversies surrounding Vigo's work (Zero For Conduct was completed in 1932, but its anti-authoritarian stance caused it to be banned until 1945).

Vigo's fragile health was already beginning to fail him while he was filming L'Atalante; a fall into an icy river while trying to retrieve a camera only added to his ills, and he edited most of the film at home, too sick to leave. However, he was passionate about his art to the end, constantly battling producers and authorities to make films as he chose to make them.

He died in 1934, the same year L'Atalante was released.

~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A tragic but inspiring love story loosely based on the intense relationship between Jean Vigo and his beautiful wife Lydu. Starring Romane Bohringer as Lydu and James Frain as Vigo, the film celebrates the lives of these two young people who managed to live more intensely in the few years they were together than most of us do in an entire lifetime.

Jean Vigo was one of the most influential film-makers of the 20th century and even though he made only four films in his short lifetime before his untimely death at the age of 29, the magical and surrealistic touches in his films have inspired film directors ever since.

The French director Jean Vigo died in 1934 at the age of 29, just after his only feature film was released in a butchered version to general indifference. His earlier short Zero De Conduite was banned in France - where Vigo was always associated with his disgraced father, a famous anarchist accused of spying for the Germans during World War I. The ban was only lifted in 1940. Since his death, Vigo has come to be recognised as the great doomed poet of the cinema, born sickly and rushing through life despite a chronic respiratory disease. Julien Temple's romantic biopic of Vigo focuses not on the filmmaking but on the director's tempestuous but deep relationship with his wife, Lydu, another invalid he met in an Alpine sanatorium. Temple, himself not known as a prolific director, reins in his tendency to overdo things and delivers a straight love story, almost simplistic in Vigo's style, shot through with magical moments that illustrate the way Vigo channelled his life and passions into his work.

James Frain, here doing for lung disease what Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting did for heroin addiction, is a glamorous, haunted hero, spreading chaos in a fascist-run sanatorium and sometimes flying off the handle so fast that even his many friends can't help him. And Romane Bohringer, carrying off that silky-lipped darkness only French beauties can get away with, makes you understand just why Vigo would think a few years with her were a better deal than a lifetime of coughing in bed somewhere.

Everyone else has to take a back seat, which requires sketches of devotion from Vigo's pals and a measure of flamboyant eccentricity from the likes of Jim Carter as a tattooed anarchist. It's a good enough love story - far more joyous than tragic despite the predestined downbeat ending - to hold the interest of anyone who has no idea who the hero is, but fans of Vigo's slender output will find the works illuminated in fresh and interesting ways. Not incidentally, then, this is Temple's best film to date.

KIM NEWMAN
Issue 1 21 July 1999

Admittedly, we here at About James Frain tend to be subjective in our view of projects in which James Frain is involved. We recognize this fact and still are convinced that many of the reviews to be found on Vigo are utter rubbish. Most will not find their way here. What follows here are a few decent comments by two fans with great taste. Enjoy. Better yet, see the film and judge for yourself!

teri_2

USA

Date: 22 June 2002

Summary: Haunting, yet uplifting

This is a gloriously beautiful film. Jean Vigo was an immense talent born ahead of his time. Seeing this made me want to see the real works of Vigo. I was extremely touched by the love share between Jean an his wife, Lydu. Frain and Bohringer have such a natural chemistry as the ill-fated famous couple. It breaks my heart to know how he/they suffered. Yes, he was extremely ill with tuberculosis...and realized he had limited time to realize his dreams as a film-maker, but the true suffering he endured came in the form of the French censors, who banned or butched his work based only on the fact that his father was considered a traitor and an anarchist...so, Jean suffered by association.

Despite his and Lydu's terminal illness, and the prejudices they had to live with, their's is really an uplifting story of undying love, faith, and committment to each other. They lived fuller lives than most of us ever will, experienced truer love than most of us will ever be fortunate enough to have, and realized more of their dreams and goals than most of us could ever hope to. And, Jean did all of this in a life that lasted only 29 years. This movie brings to vivid life the love, losses, tragedies, and triumphs of Jean Vigo and his beautiful wife. It emphasises how important they were to one another.

All in all, this is a true gem of a movie. Beautiful and touching love story, endearing characters through out, excellent and extremely dedicated cast, superbly shot with gorgeous scenery...a film that breaks your heart, but it also lifts you up as well...because of the power of love and the power of believing in one's self. My only complaint is that I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Vigo actually working on his films. They did show this, but more of it would have been very welcome.

Anyway, if you love love stories, or are a fan of Jean Vigo, see this film. You'll adore it.

Sighhh.....I continue to be dismayed that "Vigo" never did better box office wise, and that more than a couple of critics seemed lukewarm or worse to it. I suppose I did have a positive "chick-flick" reaction to it as a love story. But I only like well done chick flicks!

I think that part of the problem is the pre-set attitudes mainstream film people may have towards Julien Temple. I've seen the documentary he did on the Sex Pistols, and "Absolute Beginners". They both left me scratching my head a bit. I love people who have range and take risks. He is CERTAINLY not a mainstream filmmaker! And yet, "Vigo" is an almost classically made thing of beauty. The cinematography was excellent and at times breathtaking, while never taking away from the flow of action. I was delightfully surprised by that, besides just being blown away by the performances of James Frain and Romane Bohringer especially. They were very well supported by the rest of the cast.

And this nonsense over English actors playing French characters! I've read more than one comment about that. Have you people NO imagination? If so, then stick to the History Channel or read only encyclopedias! Actors "act", they are not all doing reconstructed scenes for "America's Most Wanted". These actors did a wonderful job at telling their story.

I really think that critics may have gone into this film with their own preconceived notions as to what needed to be said about Jean Vigo (as one may do with any bio-pic), and believed that Julien Temple couldn't deliver it. On it's own, disregarding a campaign FOR something comprehensive on Jean Vigo's career or AGAINST Julien Temple's, I believe that this film is a beautiful love story and a well-told-tale of a short life full of passion.

from Kamera.co.uk

Vigo: Passion for Life Director: Julien Temple Starring: James Frain, Romane Bohringer, Jim Carter, Diana Quick, William Scott-Mason, Lee Ross, Nicholas Hewetson, Brian Shelley

Occasionally the biopic of a great artist can aspire to art itself (Love is the Devil is a recent example), but more often than not the genre reduces its subject matter to little more than caricature, a joining up of dots of the known facts and a painting in by numbers (think Hilary and Jackie or Total Eclipse). Sadly, Vigo: Passion for Life tends towards the latter.

Having tried his hand at musicals, British director Julien Temple now attempts a film "inspired by" the life of influential French filmmaker Jean Vigo and based on the stage play Love's a Revolution by Chris Ward. It's a story ripe for interpretation: son of infamous French anarchist Almereyda, Vigo was a director whose handful of controversial works shocked contemporary society and have inspired directors from Francois Truffaut to Marc Caro (Delicatessan) since. Using the relationship between Vigo (James Frain, fresh from his turn as Daniel Barenboim in the aforementioned biopic of Jacqueline du Pré) and his wife Lydu (Romane Bohringer) as its axis, Temple's film charts the short career of one of cinema's earliest visionaries before his death from septicemia at the age of 29.

While Frain and Bohringer both deliver fine performances in themselves, their accents are an aural incongruity: Bohringer's fiery French coquette sits uncomfortably with Frain's middle-class English. Throw in their French pal Bonaventure (Jim Carter)'s brusque Mancunian and the cumulative effect is not only perplexing, but distracting. This problem is not helped by dialogue which at times, verges on the self-conscious. Lydu you can forgive, because she's not speaking in her mother tongue - except then you remember that actually she's the only French cast member playing a French role, but is required to speak English to do it.

None of this would matter of course if the film transcended these fundamental problems, but unfortunately it does not. Vigo: Passion for Life is eclipsed by the few short sequences shown from Vigo's original films: ten seconds of Zero de Conduite or L'Atalante are more memorable than all 103 minutes of this worthy, but flawed, attempt. Despite its faults however, if Vigo the film brings Vigo the director to a wider audience, its efforts will not have been wasted.

Reviewed by Monika Maurer

Anne (Email address withheld) writes:

I think that "Vigo: Passion For Life" is a brilliant love story. As a biopic, who can say what one can or should expect from an hour or two of film?

I think that Julien Temple's intention and vision are beautifully executed. There are scenes of Paris and Nice that will remain with me always. The whole film was beautifully shot.

The cast is amazing. Their passions are clearly conveyed. James Frain and Romane Bohringer have an irrefutable chemistry. One truly believes their passion for one another. As for accents, I've never been one to be so mean spirited when it comes to the arts. You have to allow for imagination on the part of the audience, or only watch documentaries!

The supporting cast are all stellar. I especially enjoyed Vigo's band of fellow filmakers and their camaraderie. Anarchists and artists, who could ask for a better circle of friends? I think that this film, while sad, leaves one with an appreciation for seeking one's dreams, for grabbing hold of life, risks and all. It speaks well to the human condition, that with love, time is not the ultimate treasure in life.

Vigo: Passion for Life is a film in English on a French subject and Julien Temple wanted there to be a strong French presence. Romane Bohringer was the only actress about whom Temple seriously thought of for the part of Lydu and, although when auditions took place she did not speak English, the director was sure that she would learn it in a year. It is necessary to emphasize that when this 24-year-old actress began work on that first winter day of filming at Twickenham Studios, she was already almost fluent in English and throughout the filming she not only became an expert but gained a very substantial English vocabulary. "There is no one as skillful as Romane", says Temple. "She has something wild, a animal quality that is not frequent to find in a French actress. After having seen her in Savage Nights and Compagnotrice I was certain that in her there was the necessary passion for this script."

The director chose the English actor James Frain to play Jean Vigo. "Without a doubt James Frain is one of the best actors that we have now and when I saw him it was very clear that he was Vigo ", comments Temple. "He has an extraordinary force and an energy, but also a fragility; one can see the torment in his eyes. He has a surprising capacity of transformation. He lost a pile of kilos (16 pounds) to play the role and is so convincing that when he was dying he made you think that he was terribly ill. His delivery is amazing: he could encompass the variety, humor and the energy that we needed, but also the dark, the disease. "I think that together, James and Romane, they are of an extraordinary beauty, that comes from their person. There are moments at which they do not seem beautiful but always they surprise you. I believe that that is the wonderful thing of this pair."

James Frain ( Vigo )

"Jean seems constantly pushed towards his past, but in fact what he makes live is what he has with Lydu. It is a history of surprising love because even after being married he is obsessed with returning to that horrible part of his life and Lydu struggles to help release him of his past. It is their love and their life together which he is forced to understand is more important that any other thing. L'Atalante is his gift for her."

James Frain is one of the young British actors who is quickly demonstating his talent for both heros and villians, like in the film of Thaddeus O'Sullivan's Nothing Personal, in which he plays the part of Kenny, a Protestant leader of a Loyalist terrorist group, who learned to kill in the cold nights of Belfast. Later, he was the protagonist of the documentary-style film by Penny Woolcock of Shakespeare's Macbeth in Macbeth on the Estate, for the BBC, in which he played Macbeth as a herion addict, armed with iron bars and baseball bats. In order to recreate the personage of Jean Vigo he lost sixteen pounds and to stay under weight during the nine weeks of filming, he remained on a strict diet. Like Romane Bohringer, James Frain remains involved in theatre work, as well as appearances in television, but his filmography is adding many new titles: (1993) Shadowlands, directed by Richard Attenborough; (1995) An Awfully Big Adventure, directed by Mike Newell; (1995) Nothing Personal, directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan; (1995) Loch Ness, directed by John Henderson, (1996) Robinson Crusoe, directed by George Miller, (1996) Rasputín, an HBO production directed by Unich Edel; (1997) Red Meat, directed by Allison Burnett and (1998) Hilary and Jackie, directed by Anand Tucker.

© 1999 Tornasol Films S.A. All Rights Reserved

(Julien Temple, 1999, 103 mins)

Sensitive biopic of film director Jean Vigo, whose work was banned due to his father's alleged links with Germany in the First World War. James Frain is in compelling form as the forgotten man of French cinema, devouring life as he rushes towards a premature death from a respiratory disease.

Jean Vigo was a French film director who died in 1934 aged only 29. He was racked by ill health, and tortured by the memory of his anarchist father's murder when he was a child, yet he made a handful of movies that have influenced film-makers in the decades after his death. Elements of these films ~ especially Zero de Conduite and L'Atalante ~ help form the narrative of his life.

Before being sent the script I was not familiar with Jean Vigo and his work. When I read it, I thought it was a fictional story, and in that context felt it worked well. That was important to me because, even though it's a homage, it had to stand up on it's own. But as I learned more, the thing that I found appealing about him was the intensity with which he lived his life, and loved his wife Lydu (played by Romane Bohringer) ~ which is central to the film. Despite the fact that he was dying and the clock was against him, he was determinedly living in a spontaneous, energising and enervating way.

Peter Ettedgui, who wrote the first draft of the screenplay, described meeting some people who worked with Vigo and were still deeply affected by the man over half a century afterwards. not just as an artist, but as a man.They said he was a great practical joker, someone who really siezed life, so the fact that he was dying wasn't a depressing thing.

There's biographical information available on him of course, but my approach to the role just involved watching his films and imagining what kind of spirit would have come up with this combination of humour, strange satirical surrealism and anarchistic rage. And then having the confidence to marry this documentary style and the love story. But it's all there, all the things that were going on in his films give you clues as to what sort of personality might have been behind them.