The Complete Jean Vigo (Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

Even among cinema's greatest legends, Jean Vigo stands alone. The son of a notorious anarchist, Vigo had a brief but brilliant career making poetic, lightly surrealist films before his life was cut tragically short by tuberculosis at age twenty-nine. Like the daring early works of his contemporaries Jean Cocteau and Luis Bunuel, Vigo's films refused to play by the rules. This set includes all of Vigo's titles: A propos de Nice, an absurdist, rhythmic slice of life from the bustling coastal city of the title; Taris, an inventive short portrait of a swimming champion; Zero de conduite, a radical, delightful tale of boarding-school rebellion that has influenced countless filmmakers; and, of course, L'Atalante, widely regarded as one of cinema's finest achievements, about newlyweds beginning their life together on a canal barge. These are the endlessly witty, visually adventurous works of a pivotal film artist.