Taris
About Taris
Jean Vigo films French champion Jean Taris demonstrating the crawl. Across 56 shots, a woman on a stool beside the pool copies the strokes while a lifeguard watches, the camera goes under the water in slow motion, a dive and a jump are reversed so Taris seems to fly out of the pool, and his swimsuit dissolves into a suit, overcoat, and hat as he walks across the water.
Cast & crew
More about Taris
At the end of 1930 Gaumont commissioned Vigo to make a short about swimming, built around Jean Taris. Vigo directed, wrote, and edited. Boris Kaufman photographed. Most of it was shot at the Automobile Club de France, where the pool had glass portholes for underwater angles. Vigo disliked the finished film. French titles include La Natation par Jean Taris, champion de France; Taris, roi de l'eau; and Taris, champion de natation. The running time is given as 9 minutes, and also as 10.
Themes
Making
Gaumont wanted a demonstration film. Vigo kept the commission, the crawl lesson, and then added the reverse dives and the dissolve into street clothes.
Look
Boris Kaufman shot through the glass portholes of the Automobile Club de France pool, and from above the water, including slow motion and a freeze.
Technique
Close-ups, slow motion, a freeze frame, reverse-motion dives, and a dissolve from a swimsuit to a suit, coat, and hat, with the underwater angles made through the pool's glass portholes.
Preservation
The short survives and is on Wikimedia Commons under the title Taris, roi de l'eau.
Notes
- Taris, born in 1909, was already French champion when the film was made. In 1932 he took the Olympic silver in the 400 metre freestyle, one tenth of a second behind Buster Crabbe.
- The underwater head that struck Vigo here is repeated in L'Atalante.
- The woman practicing on the stool is not in the pool at all. A lifeguard stands by as if she were.
Scenes
- A woman lies on a stool out of the water and practices the stroke, with a lifeguard in attendance.
- A dive runs backward and Taris appears to fly out of the pool.
- His swimsuit dissolves into street clothes and he walks across the water.
Influenced
- L'Atalante
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Taris, roi de l'eau (1931) par Jean Vigo.webm)
