Watch Taris For Free

Redundant and unnecessary.

One of my all time favorites.

i must have seen a different film!!

hyped garbage

This 9-minute black-and-white video from 85 years ago is basically a swimming lesson put on tape. Olympic medalist Jean Taris shows us the perfect way to move your hands, arms and legs in order to achieve the best swimming experience. And we also find out about the different swimming styles back then, that differ slightly from the ones today. The director is Jean Vigo. It is the second of four films he made before his untimely death at age 29, the second short film as well. In my opinion, there is nothing really special about this one here, so I cannot understand the hype by some people who call him the greatest director who ever lived. Then again, I have only seen 2 of his 4 films so far, but these left no lasting expression unfortunately. If you are really interested in the history of swimming, this one deserves a look, but to be honest I found this fairly uninteresting and I'd have preferred to see a competitive race from the 1932 Olympics with Taris for example. Not recommended.

A commissioned work, this wasn't only disliked by the producers who hired him, as a result possibly edited without his consent to its final form (Michael Temple on the Criterion commentary track suggests that perhaps Jean Renoir was one of the directors called in), this was reportedly disavowed by Vigo himself, who apparently said that he only liked the underwater footage.In many respects this is an experiment on various cinematic techniques: Vigo had already utilized and mastered the use of slow-motion in "À propos de Nice" (1930); here he uses transposed images and reversed footage in addition to some exquisite slow-motion of Taris swimming in the water. (Temple points out that the underwater shot of Taris goofing around is a laboratory of sorts for "L'Atalante" (1934), which would use an almost similar underwater shot)But this is transcendental in the sense Vigo sees both water and the human body, like a sculpture come to life. Water, one of the most cinematic things in the whole world, is a character of its own here. It's the kingdom whose king Taris is, as implied in the title. In that sense this is also a fête of the human body and its power over the element.And, most important, it's fun.

Essentially a 'how-to-swim' piece that, in the hands of someone less talented and individualistic than Jean Vigo, would have been forgotten years ago, Taris is transformed by the director's unique and original imagination into something much more. He captures some terrific underwater shots of Taris swimming and horsing around, and manages to add a few trademark surreal touches and camera trickery to ensure that the viewer's interest never wanes. It is still essentially a film about swimming, but it manages to capture both Taris's mastery of his sport and his enthusiasm for it. Worth a watch if you have a spare ten minutes.

Vigo's short Taris is a work of breathtaking beauty. He uses the swimmer's body and movements to portray grace and passion, transcending the pretense that this short is a documentary on a famous swimmer of the 20s/30s. His use of close ups and freeze frames along with underwater beautifully lit scene add to its richness. The Film ends with a deep perhaps ironic twist which is priceless.If you have enjoyed Vigo's features do try and see this mini masterpiece