Zero for Conduct

A film that earned its fame mainly in the 1950s, but definitely has a universal message that speaks to young people even today. Authority makes sense, but only if it's not absurd. Vigo succeeds in this in a great atmosphere of mild weirdness that can charm you. Or you will just watch it with incomprehension. (07/29/2014)

These French coming-of-age movies have always had their charm. It would certainly be in bad taste to compare Jean's struggles with those of Nicholas, but the poetics are unfortunately identical. Little Nicolas was certainly not an anarchist, but his class had a number of similar aberrations. (05/18/2012)

The third of Jean Vigo’s four films inorganically combines the realistic with the poetic and vainly disguises the combat-like conditions under which it was made. Rather than as a ground-breaking work of French poetic realism and bold social criticism (the film was banned shortly after its premiere), today Zero for Conduct attracts attention for being a source of inspiration for Truffaut’s debut and for the much cruder rebellious British satire If…, in which live ammunition replaced vegetables. 70% (10/07/2011)