Zero for Conduct

Zéro de conduite
1946 re-release poster by Jean Colin[1]
Directed byJean Vigo
Written byJean Vigo
Produced byJean Vigo
StarringJean Dasté
CinematographyBoris Kaufman
Edited byJean Vigo
Music byMaurice Jaubert
Production
company
Argui-Films
Distributed byGaumont Film Company
Comptoir Français de Distribution de Films Franfilmdis
Release date
  • 7 April 1933 (1933-04-07)
Running time
48 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Budget₣200,000

Zero for Conduct (French: Zéro de conduite) is a 1933 French featurette directed by Jean Vigo. It was first shown on 7 April 1933 and was subsequently banned in France until November 1945.[2]

The film draws extensively on Vigo's boarding school experiences to depict a repressive and bureaucratised educational establishment in which surreal acts of rebellion occur, reflecting Vigo's anarchist view of childhood. The title refers to a mark the boys would get which prevented them from going out on Sundays.

Though the film was not an immediate success with audiences, it has proven to be enduringly influential. François Truffaut paid homage to Zero for Conduct in his film The 400 Blows (1959). The anarchic classroom and recess scenes in Truffaut's film borrow from Vigo's film, as does a classic scene in which a mischievous group of schoolboys are led through the streets by one of their schoolmasters. Director Lindsay Anderson has acknowledged that his own film if.... was inspired by Zero for Conduct.

  1. ^ "Zero de conduite Original R1946 French Grande Movie Poster". Posteritati. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  2. ^ Temple 2011, p. 145.