Zéro de conduite: Jeunes diables au collège (1933)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Jean Vigo

Writer:

Jean Vigo (scenario)

Release Date:

21 June 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short | Drama

Plot:

The intolerable pressure of life at an unpleasantly seedy boys' boarding school leads to a full-scale revolution...

Plot Keywords:

School | Boy | Revolt | Homosexuality | Penis

Cast

Jean Dasté	...	Surveillant Huguet
Robert le Flon	...	Surveillant Pète-Sec
Du Verron	...	Surveillant-Général Bec-de-Gaz (as du Verron)
Delphin	...	Principal du Collège
Léon Larive	...	Professeur (as Larive)
Madame Émile	...	Mère Haricot (as Mme. Emile)
Louis de Gonzague	...	Préfet (as Louis de Gonzague-Frick)
Raphaël Diligent	...	Pompier (as Rafa Diligent)
Louis Lefebvre	...	Caussat
Gilbert Pruchon	...	Colin
Coco Golstein	...	Bruel
Gérard de Bédarieux	...	Tabard

Also Known As:

Zéro de conduite (France) (short title)
Zero for Conduct (USA)

Runtime:

41 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Spain:T | Taiwan:GP | Finland:S | France:(Banned) (1933-1946) | France:U (re-rating) | South Korea:15 (DVD rating) (2004)

Filming Locations:

Gare de Belleville-Villette, Belleville, Paris 19, Paris, France

Company:

Argui-Film

Trivia:

Banned by the French censor until well after World War II.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Le fantôme d'Henri Langlois (2004)

a too short delight

known as a major inspiration for François Truffaut, Jean Vigo's "Zero de conduite" is a little cinema jewel about children. I'm not sure to be able to describe it much better than telling it is a child and messy view (recalls ?) on childhood. Some scenes are unforgettable. Jean Vigo's cinema suffered a lot : "l'atalante", one of the most "natural" movies ever, was re-mounted by the studio Gaumont into a not very interesting love story (now the movie is in public domain, Gaumont remounted it close to the "director's cut"). "Zéro de conduite" was banned by the censors... And the author died very young, so we don't have much of his genius to watch, everything from him is worth seeing.