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Comedy-drama

Zero for Conduct

Year
1933
Director
Jean Vigo
Length
Not established

Four boys return to a boarding school whose petty rules soon invite an uprising.

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Country
France
Language
French
FunnyStrange Great first watch · Moderate Comedy-drama
Original illustration: A cloud of paper pillow feathers and playful figures disrupt a rigid school building beneath Zero for Conduct lettering.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

What to expect

Jean Vigo turns childhood rebellion into a compact burst of slapstick, cruelty, and dreamlike freedom. Its famous slow-motion procession is not an escape from school life but the moment suppressed energy finally finds its own ceremony.

How to ease in

The film is short and deliberately episodic. Follow the boys’ changing relationship to corridors, beds, and authority rather than waiting for a conventional plot to gather momentum.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes harsh school discipline, bullying, corporal punishment, and comic insurrection.
Momo's Note May contain spoilers Who is Momo? →
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I love how the school’s rules make everything smaller until the boys invent a celebration large enough to fill the building. The rebellion feels both childish and completely serious.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Credits & versions

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