I. Plot Summary

II. Background Information

A. Historic Context
B. Poetic Realism
C. "Extreme naturalness"
D. Jean Vigoís Childhood Experiences
E. Social Commentary with Unique Imagery
F. Beautiful and Surreal View of the Life of Young Children
G. Rebellion
H. Portrayal of Authority
I. Innovative Movie for Its Time
J. Influential in Film History

III. Questions for Students

A. Pre-viewing questions
B. Post-viewing questions
C. Quiz

IV. Biographical Information on Jean Vigo

V. Web Sites

A. On Zero for Conduct

B. On Jean Vigo

I. Plot Summary

II. Background Information

A. Historic Context

ï The 30ís in France were characterized by "the great depression" of 1929, which might have inspired the realist content of the films of the period where the contradictions of the society are reflected. Following the depression, the rise of Fascism was the main concern of French intellectuals who took active role in the formation and struggles of Popular Front. The rise of fascism affected the movement in two phases: optimistic phase created by the Popular Front of 1935-1937 and despair created by the Popular Front movement's failure and the Fascism seizing power on most of Europe.

B. Poetic Realism

ï Next to America's, the film industry with the most prominent national image in the 30ís was that of France. All the artistic movements that flourished in the 20ís and the 30ís, one of which was Poetic Realism in French Cinema, had a very close relationship with each other in that they all emerged under post-war political, cultural, and artistic agenda tying to one another. After World War I, Paris had become the center of an international avant-garde encompassing Cubism, Surrealism, Dadaism and Futurism, and many intellectuals involved with these movements had become intensely interested in the possibilities of film to embody dream states and to express modernist conceptions of time and space.

ï After about 1930 the U.S. film industry was well established; films were primarily made to make money. The filmmakers knew that the majority of people wanted glamour. Virtually all U.S. films from the 30ís until the 60ís showed a cleaned up vision of everyday reality. Movies made during that period, with a few notable exceptions, featured professional stage-actors or Broadway stars, or people "discovered" on account of their outstanding "beauty."

ï In opposition, people and places in Zero for Conduct are rather ugly, glamorous places and people play no part in this movie. This partly accounts for the critics' praise of the "extreme naturalness" of some French films made in the 30ís.

D. Jean Vigoís Childhood Experiences

ï Zero for Conduct is based on Jean Vigo's personal childhood experiences. The story explores the question of freedom versus authority. Vigo creates a claustrophobic world in which the tyrannies of the school regime stand in sharp relief to the tender delirium of the children. Vigo's anarchic, disorienting vision of life in a French boarding school is filled with deep psychological insights. Vigo's grasp of the relationship between the real and the farcical makes this memorable.

E. Social Commentary with Unique Imagery

ï Zero for Conduct shows Vigoís talent for combining social commentary and unique imagery. The simple plot about children revolting against their instructors at a boarding school is given a dream-like mood by mixing the objective with the subjective. Narrative is secondary, and what remains with the viewer are certain shots or sequences rather than a cohesive story line.

ï The French government automatically applied political significance to the script, and considered the students' revolt to be a metaphor for revolution. Zero for Conduct however is much more a childhood fantasy than a social critique. The rebellion in question is no armed revolt but a pillow fight and a few stones thrown from a roof.

F. Beautiful and Surreal View of the Life of Young Children

ï Some critics describe the movie as a "Beautiful, surreal view of the life of young children". Vigo excels in presenting life as a sort of surreal dream, with bits of humanity scattered throughout. It seems that Vigo finally gets to live out a fantasy of childhood rebellion.

ï Zero for Conduct evokes a magical feeling for the studentsí world; one of them makes a ball disappear and reappear while another jumps from behind a wall to catch something at just the right time.

ï However, the most memorable sequence in Zero for Conduct is the pillow fight, beautifully shot in slow motion. During this sequence the students line up into some kind of procession as the escaped pillow feathers glide slowly through the air, giving them the appearance of a strange army marching through a snowstorm.

G. Rebellion

ï The opening scene of two boys returning from vacation sets the tone for the film. They are playing with toys given to them, but not in the way that adults intended. This theme of children subverting the order that adults have imposed on the world is constant throughout. The only adult in the compartment is declared dead. The scene ends with cigar smoke filling the compartment creating a hazy image. Other details such as the school principal being played by a midget in a top hat, and the audience of dignitaries being made up of dummies in full dress uniform make Zero for Conduct visually unique.

ï Later on, the boys are taken for a walk and quickly lose their leading instructor, only to rejoin him later without him apparently noticing their extended absence. The students understand how much they can get away with while still ostensibly obeying the instructors.

ï Another example would be the boys ignoring their initial call to wake up until a more powerful and fearful instructor passes through. At this point they all rise from their beds in succession until he leaves the room. But his brief return catches the main characters playing the game too well and already back in bed, and he gives them a zero for conduct.

H. Portrayal of Authority

ï The instructors and authority figures are generally shown to be tyrannical and decadent. One of the monitors goes through and takes some of the studentsí things while they are at recess. The principal struggles for some time to put his hat in just the right position on the mantle, illustrating the pedantic nature of the school. The only exception would be some of the dignitaries present during the boysí bombardment who are not even alive: they are literally dummies that have been dressed up and sat in chairs.

ï A skeleton is visually prominent in a shot beside one of the instructors, perhaps to imply the great difference between how the young and how the old see the world; regardless, it is not a positive symbol to which to be linked. ï Most disturbingly, it is also suggested that this instructor may hold some desire for one of the boys, Tabard, to whom he pays extra attention. The feelings this behavior engenders in the child are made clear when the principal asks him to apologize for shouting at the teacher earlier and encourages him to say whatís on his mind and how he feels. Tabard answers saying: "Go to Hell!"

If the boarding school represents a microcosm of society with the instructors standing in for those in power, it is no wonder that French authorities banned the film upon release. Between Vigo, Bunuel, Renoir, Godard, and others, the French bourgeois must be one of the most attacked and satirized groups in cinema.

I. Innovative Movie for Its Time

ï One interesting sequence has the only sympathetic instructor, Huguet, standing on his head and drawing a comic-looking picture of a man. When the other instructors come into the room and scold him for acting this way, the picture transforms through animation into a more stately looking character as if to correspond with the teachersí more disciplined and proper view.

ï The sound track composed by Maurice Jaubert deserves a special mention. He wrote the piece for the nighttime revolt scene backwards and then reversed the recording to create a dream like effect that was years ahead of its time.

ï Vigoís influence, strongly evident here in the surrealism and fascinating early special effects, long outlives him.

J. Influential in Film History

ï This film has proven highly influential in film history and also includes a few references to previous works. The only instructor on the boysí side is the Chaplinesque Huguet. As in Battleship Potemkin, the group being angry at the food it is given instigates the revolt; here, the problem is beans once too often rather than meat. Vigo became a hero of the French New Wave, and some critics have seen parallels with Zero for Conduct and Truffautís first feature, Les 400 coups.

ï Although several films have drawn from aspects of Zero for Conduct, its combination of poetic realism and surrealistic allegory have maintained its remarkable originality. Jean Vigo has become a legend in cinema history, completing only four relatively short films in his tragically brief career. Yet these works exhibit a poetic sensibility that has left critics fantasizing about where cinema would have gone had Vigo not died at the age of 29.

A. Pre-viewing questions

1. What was the historical context in the U.S. and in France in the 30ís?
2. How do teenagers behave in schools nowadays?
3. Did students in the past behave better?
4. Do you think students from other countries behave the same?
5. What is poetic realism? Is it still popular today?

B. Post-viewing questions

1. What are the major differences between studentsí conduct in the 30ís in France and in the USA in the 21st century?
2. Is Zero for Conduct an accurate portrayal of teenagers?
3. Do you think Zero for Conduct is more a social commentary or a childhood fantasy?
4. Why do students in Zero for Conduct rebel against authority?
5. Who represents the authority? Why are some dignitaries cardboard cutouts?
6. Which movies that you know were influential in film history?
7. Have you seen other movies that were innovative for their time?
8. What elements of Zero for Conduct show that American culture was and is still very popular in France and in the world in general?
9. Do you know any movie that was censored because it was anti-American?
10. Why does Zero for Conduct end so abruptly without resolution?
11. Have you seen any American movies from the 30ís? How do they compare with Zero for Conduct?
12. Do you think Zero for Conduct aged gracefully?

C. Quiz

1. The film starts in a train, at night, with a boy going back to boarding school after the vacation. A school-friend joins him en route and they

a) exchange greetings
b) show new "toys" they have got
c) smoke!
d) all the above

2. Back at school, the mother of one boy, RenÈ Tabard, tells the assistant director

a) to excuse her son's absence
b) her son is very upset
c) he will come to school a day late
d) all the above

3. The assistant director, a disciplinarian, is called (in English and French)

a) Spindle shanks
b) Fishface
c) PËte-sec
d) b and c

4. When director Jean Vigo was a boy, all the boys and teachers apparently slept in

a) their underwear
b) nightshirts
c) pajamas
d) all of the above

5. The new teacher is called Huguet. He likes to imitate

a) Napoleon
b) Julius Caesar
c) Charlie Chaplin
d) Mussolini

6. Huguet, in the classroom, shows the boys how he

a) dances
b) walks on his hands
c) paints pictures
d) turns somersaults

7. The boys like Huguet, but Fishface is spying on him and reports him to the school principal, who is

a) very thin
b) a midget with a huge beard
c) very fat
d) none of the above

8. We can see that in France small boys at school wore

a) short pants and knee sox
b) their hair longer than in the U.S.
c) a special school cap
d) all the above

9. In the street, school groups walk

a) in platoon formation
b) singing
c) marching
d) all the above

10. When they see a pretty lady the boys (and the teacher)

a) whistle
b) laugh
c) take off their caps
d) run away

11. Tabard is told not to be so friendly with an older boy. A professor makes some rather pointed remarks to him because he is sensitive looking, with longish hair. He is, in fact,

a) quiet and gentle
b) as bad as the boys whose gang he is finally allowed to join
c) capable of saying obscenities
d) b and c

12. The 4 "bad boys" decide to stage a revolt on Alumni Day. They start with

a) shooting Fishface
b) flooding the school
c) a pillow fight
d) tying up the principal

13. The revolt takes place in slow motion, which makes us think it is only a dream. The boys go to the teacher who is sleeping soundly and

a) tie him into his bed
b) put the bed (with the teacher in it) in the window
c) escape
d) all the above

14. The boys trash the school and, eventually, the patio where the ceremony is taking place. They throw things at

a) the teachers
b) the VIPs
c) the local governor with his "panache"
d) all the above

15. Finally we see the boys

a) bunny hopping along the roof
b) running upward to the top of the highest part of the roof
c) standing outlined against the sky
d) all the above

IV. Biographical Information on Jean Vigo

ï At age 23, through meetings with people involved in the movies, Jean Vigo started working in the cinema, bought a camera and directed his first film, a short documentary, ¿ propos de Nice, a satiric social documentary, two years later, he shot Taris. These two very personal works frighten the producers and it lasted two years before someone showed some interest for his project of a children movie that will be his masterpiece, Zero for Conduct.

ï Zero for Conduct, which was shot in 1933, is a subversive depiction of an authoritarian boarding school, which directly comes from Jean Vigo's memories. Upon its realization, the film was straight away censored for its "anti-French spirit" by the censors, removed from the theatres after only a few months, and was banned in France until 1945 (eleven years Vigo's death), on the grounds that it maliciously attacked the French educational system.

ï Jean Vigo died shortly after of septicemia or blood poisoning at the age of 29. His early death took from the French cinema one of its most promising talents. This French filmmaker is now admired for his poetic realism, his blending of lyricism with realism and Surrealism, the whole underlined with a cynical, anarchic approach to life, which distinguished him as an original talent. Although he completed only three feature films and one short, before his early death, his films produced great public reaction. A Jean Vigo Prize is awarded each year in France in memory of the filmmaker whose work is characterized by "independence of spirit and quality of directing."

V. Web Sites

ï Zero de Conduite at Combustible Celluloid
ï Zero de Conduite at IMDB.com
ï Zero de Conduite at RottenTomatoes.com

B. On Jean Vigo

ï Jean Vigo at Yahoo! Shopping

Continue on to:
The Scarlet Letter
Paisan
The Trial Of John Peter Zenger
Zero de Conduite
Birth Of A Nation