This article starts out with an excellent Introductory Note, in which Vladimir Pozner calls Vigo a rebel, and notes that “he used the camera as a weapon, not an anesthetic.” The article by Kracauer starts out with brief summaries of Vigo’s four films, and then discusses Vigo’s “relation to the screen.” The author makes note of Vigo’s indiscriminate treatment of humyns as related to objects when filmed, particularly in the mise-en-scene of “Atalante.” In this film, Vigo not only uses objects as “silent accomplices of our thoughts and feelings,” but also as a way to ponder the situations where their psychological “influence predominates.” Kracauer makes a brilliant observation that “since increasing intellectual awareness tends to reduce the power of objects over the mind, he logically chooses people who are deeply rooted in the material world” for leading roles. On “Zéro de Conduite,” Kracauer makes a few close-reading analyses, particularly about ways in which Vigo can communicate the feeling of isolation using placement of objects. He also observes that objects “participate in childish play.” Essentially, he argues that the role of the objects in his film was satire.

    This article presents a unique micro-perspective on the role of objects in Vigo’s film. It is especially valuable to my thesis because it notes how objects are used for satire, as a method of subversion. Sometimes, objects are also used in combination with mise-en-scene to give off feelings such as isolation, which is especially important because it focuses on the more individual character psychology, something my thesis leaves out but can surely benefit from, by paralleling the isolation of children in school to the institutional oppression of school which indoctrinates children to be competitive, angry, and ultimately anti-social.

full citation: Kracauer, Siegfried; Melnitz, William; Pozner, Vladimir. "Jean Vigo." Hollywood Quarterly. Vol. 2, No. 3 (Apr., 1947). 261-263. University of California Press. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1209412>.