Directed by Julien Temple, VIGO - PASSION FOR LIFE is a tragic, but inspiring film about the passionate relationship between French film-maker Jean Vigo and his beautiful wife Lydu. The film is interspersed with extracts of Vigo's work.
France, the 1920s. The young aspiring film-maker Jean Vigo (James Frain) finds himself incarcerated at a tuberculosis sanatorium in the South of France. There he meets Lydu Lozinska (Romane Bohringer), a fellow sufferer, and they fall in love. Vigo persuades Lydu to leave the sanatorium and come with him to Paris, where he intends to make films. They get married and return to the south where he shoots his first film, À propos de Nice, and the couple have a baby.
Both are still unwell, but Lydu carries on being a mother, while Jean pursues his art. He makes Zéro de conduite but the film is banned. Although discouraged and increasingly sick, he agrees to make a feature-length love story called L'Atalante. His condition deteriorates during the filming and post-production. Finally, he learns the film has been recut and given a different soundtrack and even a new title. He dies, at the age of 29, but the handful of films he has made during his brief life are posthumously recognised as classics of French cinema.
Now available for the first time on DVD in the UK, VIGO - PASSION FOR LIFE also includes the Theatrical Trailer and a selection of other Park Circus trailers.
VIGO - PASSION FOR LIFE is now available on DVD from all good retailers.
