073 - Zero for Conduct, 1933, France. Dir. Jean Vigo.
Zero for Conduct.
Zero is your grade. Your grade for your conduct. You conduct is deplorable.
Vacation is over. Back to school.
The boys sit on the train. They cut up. They show out. They horse around.
They blow a trumpet through their nose. They make balloon boobs. They make tailfeathers. They put them on their tail. They smoke.
The sign says No Smoking.
Jean Vigo was an anarchist. Because his father was an anarchist. And he followed his father.
His father was murdered when he was 12. He was an orphan. He was placed in boarding schools. He changed his name. His name was changed for him. His name was dangerous because of his father. So he became, eventually, Jean Vigo.
The boys sleep in long rows of beds in a big room.
A boy is sleepwalking. The others fear for him. Perhaps he will die. Three of them go to the supervisor's bed. They awaken him. He is angry. He says they will stand there as punishment.
The headmaster enters to awaken everyone. The three boys do not awaken. They have been awake half the night. He gives them zero for conduct. Detention on Sunday. The breakfast club.
The artist remembers his childhood. His innocence. His suffering at the hands of tyrants who misunderstood him. When he is older he talks about it. Tells his story. Regains his power. Takes control.
James Joyce wrote A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
J. D. Salinger wrote The Catcher in the Rye.
S. E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders.
Francois Truffaut wrote and directed The 400 Blows. We will watch it later this year.
Jean Vigo tells his story.
The Children's Plot
The boarding school is a microcosm. A barracks. A prison. A symbol for the way the system's order crushes the sensitive soul.
The boys study in long rows of desks in a small classroom.
The boys plot their escape. The children's plot. Revolution.
One adult is like the children. He plays ball with them. High steps at recess. Walks on his hands in the classroom. Imitates Charlie Chaplin. Draws a cartoon, Beanpole. He helps them hide their plans.
Another is a creep. He walks through the classroom while they are out. He steals papers from their desks. He will report to the head of the school, a short man with a long beard. There is a queer boy here. Tabard. We must watch him.
Beanpole comes alive. The cartoon is animated. On the desk. In the room.
The adults watch the children. There. Together again. This friendship is getting out of hand. We must keep an eye on them.
Sunday is the day we get some little bit of freedom. Unless we are in detention.
Ma is making beans. Always beans.
The boys eat in long rows of tables in a stuffed dining room.
Food Fight!
The plot thickens. The children's plot. The revolution.
A group of teachers enters the classroom and humiliates Tabard.
He stands and defends himself.
Je dis que vous etes merde!
It becomes a rallying cry.
The boys stage their revenge. Their revolt.
They tie up the supervisor in his bed. Sacrifice him. The scape goat.
Pillow fight!
The feathers fall like snowflakes, blanketing the boys in white.
The adults have lost control.
Celebration Day.
The boys climb the trees. Look upwards to the sky.
Climb the walls. Climb the roofs. Climb away.
The anarchist's vision is projected on the screen. The big world seen in the boys' world.
Vigo portrayed the real boys of his real childhood.
The sleepwalker did die.
He asked, "Will the little sleepwalker haunt my dreams again tonight? As the night he was swept away by the Spanish flu in 1919?"
Tabard was abused.
He stated, "Tabard, known as the girl . . . was spied on and persecuted by the administration, when all he needed was a big brother, since his mother didn't love him."
Vigo appeals to the viewer to see the world through the eyes of the boys.
Through innocent eyes.
Through joyful eyes.
Through hurting eyes.
Through lonely eyes.
"Childhood. An October night at the start of term. Kids abandoned in the courtyard of a school, somewhere in the provinces beneath some flag . . . always far from home and the desired affection of a mother, the camaraderie of a father--unless he's already dead."
The children are being raised by an oppressive village of tyrannical men.
When all they want is a family.
A loving family.
When all they want is to be loved.
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