- What starts off as a conventional travelogue turns into a satirical portrait of the town of Nice on the French Cote d'Azur, especially its wealthy inhabitants.
- As was the fashion among many directors of the epoch, Jean Vigo's first "point-of-view" documentary aimed at capturing the life and the very essence of a city; here, the beautiful seaside resort of early-1930s Nice. However, with the aid of Dziga Vertov's brother, Boris Kaufman, this avant-garde short film evolved from an ordinary depiction of a coastal town into a caustic and sarcastic report of the "real" Nice, portraying the contrasting lifestyles of its inhabitants. Starting with a series of captivating aerial takes, Vigo's film continues with scenes that pivot around the sun-kissed Promenade des Anglais, and unexpected juxtapositions of poverty and wealth; modern architecture and garbage; the working poor and the idle rich. In the cosmopolitan city of Nice on the French Côte d'Azur, eye-catching tableaux of sharp and eternal antitheses invite us to take a look at the anatomy of a small world. Does beauty transcend the boundaries of money, language, and social classes?—Nick Riganas
- This first of Jean Vigo's films takes up the then current "city" film genre and uses it as a critique of the idle rich and as a call to the working man to overturn this society. The 23-minute film begins with a section which visually introduces the subject, Nice, France. Then we see scenes of the idle rich along the Nice coast and enjoying spectator sports. Next follows visions of the common man, including street scenes, laundry being hung, and industrial images. The contrast of these two "worlds" is followed by an exuberant street carnivale, where social conventions are cast aside and common people give in to their passions. Finally, a near-caricature of the wealthy (a single crevassed face of a upper class woman) is transposed with a carnival mask, overturned. Large smoke stacks imply a higher vision, with Nice as it is goes up in smoke.
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