70. Zero de Conduite/Zero for Conduct (1933)

Running Time: 41 minutes
Directed By: Jean Vigo
Written By: Jean Vigo

Main Cast: Jean Daste, Robert le Flon, Du Verron, Delphin, Leon Larive

MY FIRST JEAN VIGO FILM AND UNFORTUNATELY I WASN'T IMPRESSED

This one was originally a part of the unfound files, until just this morning when I stumbled across it over at the Internet Archive. I had heard of Jean Vigo before, but had never seen one of his films and I have to say that my first impression was not a good one.

The holidays have just ended and the students of this short film are headed back to the opressive boarding school, where all but one of the house masters are very strict and very much disliked by the boys. The film focusses mainly on a small group of students: Caussat, Bruel, Tabard and Colin, a group of friends who plan on staging a rebellion during the school's annual Commemoration Day festivities. The group of students are constantly being detained on their free Sunday's in detention and are fed up with the constant verbal abuse that they're given by their teachers.

There's really not a whole lot else to say regarding "Zero for Conduct", as the film is quite short at forty one minutes and I've basically sumarized the entire plot. The setting, in the boarding school, was a likeable one for me, but somehow it went in a direction that I didn't expect it to go and thus lost my interest early. I wish it had shown more of what life is like in a boarding school, instead of relying on the rebellion that the students were staging, as that would've been far more entertaining and something I really could've gotten in to. Bottom line, I'll have to call this one something that just missed me entirely, but the reasons as to why, I really can't put my finger on. There were some scenes that were charming, but in the end I wasn't impressed.

RATING: 3.5/10 That's a fairly generous rating for a film that I just couldn't get into, but with a few scenes that peaked my interest.

NEXT UP: 42nd Street...A very famous musical that I've definitely heard of. It'll be interesting to finally see it.

January 14, 2010 2:46am

REVISED on: January 25, 2010 2:12pm