Zero for Conduct
1933 · 44m · France
Directed by Jean Vigo
Tones: absurdist, contemplative, provocative, surreal
Four boys at a repressive French boarding school plot a surreal anarchic rebellion against their petty, authoritarian teachers, culminating in a rooftop revolt during the school's anniversary celebration.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Banned for twelve years for a slow-motion pillow fight — which is exactly the right reason to ban a film. Vigo made anarchy look like floating feathers and the French government wasn't wrong to be afraid.
Vigo's slow-motion pillow fight is one of those rare images that detaches from its film and becomes pure cinema; the whole work is a direct grandparent to Truffaut and Lindsay Anderson. Archive's print is watchable.
The slow-motion pillow fight blizzard is one of the great image-moments in 1930s cinema - Vigo turning feather-fall into pure abstraction. Internet Archive confirms it's available with EN/FR subs, banned in France until 1945.
Reviews
It is hard to imagine how anyone with a curious eye and intelligence can fail to be excited by it, for it is one of the most visually eloquent and adventurous movies I have seen.
Forty-four minutes of sustained, if roughly shot, anarchic crescendo.
Festivals
- New York Film Festival 2020