Zéro de conduite: Jeunes diables au collège

Vigo was 12 when his anarchist father was murdered in prison. His ode to rebellion against repressive governance, inspired by his own time at boarding school, was made 16 years later. It premiered on 7 April 1933, the very day that Germany passed the Berufsbeamtengesetz, two weeks after the Ermächtigungsgesetz enabled the elimination of all political opposition. In August 1934 Hitler was proclaimed Führer. Vigo died two months later. After its opening the film was banned in France until 1946.

Too weird. Definitely worth watching if you like children more than I do, though. Stupid ass kids. I could beat up so many of them

In the spirit of anti-authoritarian revolution, a playful rallying cry for rebellion and non-conformity. I still find the film a bit sloppy, but perhaps sloppy is suitable for this material. Vigo has a lot of fun with form, making the structure as anarchic as the content, including surreal sequences that embody the heroes with magical properties. Again, we have some masterful visual work. The movie is very witty and subversive, although it's a work I respect more than I enjoy.

A visually interesting and innovative film about a group of misbehaving kids in a boarding school. It has good moments, but a lot of it also feels choppy and dated, and the adults are all pretty much charicatures.

Gorgeously shot and lovingly crafted, Vigo designed an ode to youthful rebellion decades before The 400 Blows would transform French cinema and even longer before America came to terms with teenage angst onscreen. Nearly a century of imitation has no doubt dulled the impact of seeing the chaos of childhood set against a brutally coercive machine of conformity (with light political messaging), but for all its perfect technique and style, it still just doesn't hit me the way, say, Renoir does.

This might be valuable because of being the first among its genre as a school-rebellion film but it wasn't that enchanting as it promised. Vigo's cinema is unique because he can combine realist observasionist cinema easily with surrealist elements which can avoid ending up as exaggerations (which is usually the case with them) but can create a poetic element. I think that the only valuable scene was the catholic-pillow-fight scene which doesn't suffice to make this a masterpiece.

Jean Vigo - for all his loose-handed direction, distrust and mockery of authority, and generally rebellious spirit - is the precursor to New Waves the world over. Nowhere is this more apparent, not just in form but in content, than Zero for Conduct.

An anarchic, surrealist classic with great charm about a rebellion in a boy's boarding school. Its only forty minutes long, and it's a lot better than Lindsay Anderson's "If."

I simply do not like this movie. It's french, it's slow, I don't find the kids believable and the midget school principal with the squeaky voice is just plain ridiculous. The plot is pretty thin I mean come on! The boys plan to set up a revolt and then succeed by throwing with pillows of the roof!!! WTF!? It is way to slow for me and the boys just end up annoying me.

One of the best films ever about children among children. The inspiration for _if..._.

One of the earlier boarding school films, but more original than most: the absurdist streak is a good fit for the genre. Plus, it’s pleasantly short, beautifully filmed, and evidently closer to the director’s heart than the awkward love story of L’Atalante. Yet it belongs to that immature rebellion that is the mirror image of opression. We see that the adults are as silly as the children; we do not see that the children are as cruel as the adults.

Some good visual gags and a memorable scene or two, but think time hasn't been kind to it overall. I'm told this was quite groundbreaking and influential at the time, but normally I give respect but not points for that. Kind of dull at times and the editing makes it a bit confusing what's happening sometimes. It's only 40 minutes or so, so it's not a tremendously tedious watch or anything, but there wasn't much here for me.

Some beautiful images here.

The artistry is undeniable. Love the surrealist touches. The adults were awful, abusive even; but the kids were insufferable.

God, I do not miss childhood. Curious little relic about a revolt in a boy's boarding school. It seems to be important chiefly as a nexus of influences. Pauline Kael knew them better than anyone: "Influential, both in theme (as in Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" and Lindsay Anderson's "If…") and in its leaping continuity (as in Godard's "Breathless"). Vigo, himself, was clearly influenced by Abel Gance's pillow-fight sequence in "Napoleon"." Many find this wonderful. It's not my thing at all.

I went to school with nuns some fifty years after this film, and they never would have stood for the actions of these boys. Anyway, it's a film about students planning an uprising in their school, perhaps becoming one of the first in the kids-are-smarter-than-adults genre. Certainly some fun bits but overall just fair.

Bad child acting, bad pacing and a some what boring story makes for a tedious watch.

This children revolution is cute, but lacks any sort of depth.

Not a bad piece of early neorealism from the kids' perspective, but along with the dashes of surrealism, this makes this med-length film feel a bit all over the place. Nice to see some varied adult characters in regard to how they respond to rebellion, but it's hindered by how little cohesion this film has (technically and narrative wise).

Star Rating: ★★★★1/2

Anarchic yet graceful, this autobiographical short film is frequently dazzling and surreal. The slow-motion pillow fight sequence is invigorating, and the unique perspective of the images never ceases.

Zero de Conduta estreava há 90 anos na França. O absoluto epitome do cinema anarquista, quem leu as biografias do Almereyda e do Vigo escritas pelo Paulo Salles Gomes sabe bem o tipo de visão de mundo entranhada na psique do Vigo e aqui ele a transpõe de forma tão esplêndida e literalmente revolucionária. DVD Versátil/Cosac

charming and surreal, but also rather slight in content - its anti-authoritarian streak is more cute than courageous. you can easily see parts of this film in the 400 blows. originally saw in nov 2013 with a score of 55, rewatched for cinema class, liked it a bit more.

One cannot deny - this film is truly one of the most complete actualization of the French artistic project, which has probably started with Descartes and the aspiration to distinguish mind from body completely. And there is beauty there or here, but in the special empty-hollow french sense.

The much-celebrated (and not undeservedly so) pillow fight scene sadly only lasts for about 1/10th of the running time. What remains is charmingly anarchic, holding up well compared to Rene Clair's more dated socialism, strongly anticipating Lindsay Anderson's If... (no to mention the very proto-Lynch/Herzog/Korine dwarf headmaster). Overall slight, yet the innate rebelliousness is endearing.

A slightly surreal experience. I wouldn't call it dreamlike, yet I don't really know what else to call it. It's all so slightly hazy, and slightly off-putting, and charming and bizarre. If the strange internal logic of the film isn't off-putting enough, there's also that it seems to be stuck in-between the silent and talky eras in a similar way to how the film seems stuck between dream and reality. It's unnerving and rather good fun.

A bit silly, wasn't it? This is just Jean Vigo playing around with reactions pretending to be an anarchist director. It's just the child in him acting out what he thought would be cool to do in various authority situations. A kids dream almost. I didn't feel this curiosity was anything special or lived up to the hype. But for sure there are funny absurdities here.

Comical tale of childhood revolution. I imagine quite transgressive during its time.

It appropriately tries to match it's anarchic content in style as well, but the general flightiness of the editing makes it hard to be drawn in. It's also aged pretty badly, further detracting power from it.

#252

A fun romp that pretty much influenced every ensuing film of its kind.

Sinemanin önemli filmlerinden ama günümüz filmleriyle mukayese edilemez. Etmek zaten yanlis olur. Her neyse bir okuldaki ögrencilerin ögretmenleriyle mücadelesini anlatiyor. Finalde cocuklar okulu tarumar ediyor. Yatakhaneyi dagitiyor. Bir de tacizci ögretmen var. Olaylar onunla basliyor vs. Anarsist film. Sevmedim.

Not so impressed with this after second watching, but Vigo's style of turning seemingly normal characters into laughable idiots is something that deserves praise.

247

It's good and laid some important groundwork for If and The 400 Blows and the like, but it isn't any less dated or schmaltzy than any other early comedy.

"A short film but a little classic from the late French filmmaker."

239

# 263

These pre-New Wave French movies are all so stodgy