Zéro de conduite

Infobox Film
name = Zéro de conduite


caption = Film poster
director = Jean Vigo
producer = Jean Vigo
writer = Jean Vigo
starring = Jean Dasté Robert le Flon
music = Maurice Jaubert
cinematography = Boris Kaufman
editing = Jean Vigo
distributor = Gaumont
released = April 7, 1933
runtime = 41 min.
language = French
country = FRA
budget =
imdb_id = 0024803|

"Zéro de conduite" (English: "Zero for Conduct") is a 1933 film by French film director Jean Vigo. It was first shown on April 7, 1933. It was subsequently banned in France until February 15, 1946.

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 from going out on Sundays. It also shows the influence of Alfred Jarry's play Ubu Roi. Though the film was not immediately popular, it has proven to be enduringly influential. François Truffaut paid homage to "Zéro de conduite" in his 1959 film "The 400 Blows" by copying, practically shot-for-shot, the scene in which a line of schoolboys jogging through Paris loses its members one by one to the attractions of the city. Lindsay Anderson's film "If...." in its whole is a less whimsical reimagining of "Zéro".

External links

*imdb title|id=0024803|title=Zéro de conduite
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7559210598531959197 Watch the film] on Google Video