Zéro de Conduite
Jean (L'Atalante) Vigo's second foray into le cinéma parlant is a fascinating hybrid of silent-film clowning and aural cacophony. The plot goes like so: On the train to boarding school, a pair of boys produce naughty toys from their bottomless pockets, presaging the tomfoolery to come. At school, there is misbehavior, then a big food fight, then a wild pillow fight, then an all-out anarchist battle against the teachers and staff during an assembly staged for visitors. The kids (including one effeminate sissy warrior) skitter along the rooftops and rain tin cans down on their benefactors. Then the film is over (it's only 41 minutes long). Zéro de Conduite ("zero for conduct") is protest cinema, a wish-fulfillment dream, a blizzard of goose feathers and white nightshirts and dancing skeletons. It's stupid and great.
By Annie Wagner
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