Julien Temple, best known for helming the Sex Pistols movie The Great Rock and Roll Swindle, directs this biopic of Jean Vigo (the film was originally made in 1998, but making its first appearance on UK DVD here). Vigo was a tuberculosis-suffering film director, who tragically made only one feature-length movie before dying at the age of 29. That film was L’Atalante (1934), which was severely compromised due to interference from its distributors, but has nevertheless since achieved mighty critical acclaim, placing sixth in Sight and Sound’s 1992 poll of the ten greatest films of all time.
Vigo – Passion For Life shows us a series of episodes from the man’s life, opening with his stint in a sanatorium, where he meets his future wife Lydu Lozinska (Romane Bohringer), and ending with his death. In between, the film places more emphasis on the love story between Vigo and Lydu than on Vigo’s filmmaking process, and is probably more engaging and convincing for it.
However, quality control is unfortunately not the film’s strong point. Many moments ring false, and too often scenes are hampered by clumsily scripted or woodenly delivered lines – sometimes this is just excruciating to watch. The strength of the performances varies; most of the supporting cast are flat. As Vigo, James Frain sometimes stumbles badly, but mostly has us rooting for him through his boyish energy. Bohringer is excellent as Lydu, but the role isn’t always written brilliantly, so there are a few awkward moments.
The mixture of accents is bizarre. Though set in France, the film uses mostly British actors and is in English – fair enough – but some characters have French accents while others speak as though they’re from London or Yorkshire. It’s a minor aesthetic choice and not a huge flaw, and you do grow slightly accustomed to it, but it can be a little distracting.
The film’s first 20 minutes or so are abysmally dull all round, but the story does burst into some sort of life, appropriately, once the sanatorium sequence comes to an end and we see Jean and Lydu’s wedding. From then on, in fairness to the film, it does try to convey a sense of ‘Passion’ to justify its title. Ultimately, though, it’s another standard biopic, complete with the screamed “Nooooo!” at the death scene.
Overall Verdict: A failure, but clearly made with enthusiasm, and there are worse ways to spend a couple of hours on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
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Reviewer: Tom René