Jean Vigo is a director who shot films in a poetic realist way too. He lost his father at an early age and he grew up in an orphanage. Unfortunately, he died at a young age because of tuberculosis. He shot just four films; A Propos de Nice (1930), La Natation par Jean Taris (1931), Zero de Conduite (1933), and L’Atalante (1934). He made very successful films. Therefore, this paper shows Jean Vigo’s Poetic Realist attitude in his films.

   Jean Vigo was born to an anarchist father who was murdered in a prison. When he lost his father, he was only 12 years old and he had to go to a boarding school. His childhood was not good and happy. We can see his childhood in Zero de Conduite; with this film, Jean Vigo rebels against his childhood experience. This movement was an example for some directors who were in the French New Wave. These directors shot films about their lives and they tried to be original. We can say that “Les 400 Coups“that shot by François Truffaut made in a place where Zero de Conduite was a masterpiece. We can see some similarities between these two films. However, French New Wave (Nouvelle Vogue) remained an individual cinematic movement; it couldn’t be a school because every director told his own world.

  Jean Vigo’s first film is “A Propos de Nice“ (1930). It is a silent and documentary film. After he caught tuberculosis, he moved from Paris and he settled in Nice for treatment. He admired this city and shot a film about this wonderful city. In A propos de Nice, musicality takes an important role because it is so harmonious with the city. The film begins with the top view of the city and the audience easily can see the harmonious the sea with the city. We can look at the city from a whole perspective; firstly the camera is in the sky, the audience looks at the city in the sky. After that, it is on the earth's surface so the audience sees the sky. Structures are shown in vertical and horizontal ways. Also, while the camera is shooting a building, the music and camera movements are in a harmonic way. The camera shot people and after that, it shot a screen in which a photo machine took a photo of people. Also, Vigo shot a woman who is well-groomed, and after he shot the other woman who is a beggar and badly dressed. This screen shows us the reality for the film because the director doesn’t touch the city he just reflected the city as its originality. Also, when the camera was showing us the bad condition of the city, suddenly the camera returned to a saloon where people are dancing. In this way, Jean Vigo told us a contrast between rich and poor. “When these shootings come together, shootings which include misery and magnificence come together; this contrast creates not only a realist view but also a poetic one. At the same time, there is a huge social criticism in symbolic expression without the need of words. “  This entire feature may be counted a beginning for poetic realism.