by Tony d’Ambra
I would rather smell the way boys smell–
Oh those schoolboys the way their legs flap under the desks in study hall
That odour rising roses and ammonia
And way their dicks droop like lilacs
Or the way they smell that forbidden acrid smell- Patti Smith, ‘Piss Factory’, 1974
Me? Looking like a scattered student
I follow exuberant girls through the green chestnuts:
They know I’m there, and turn towards me
Laughing, eyes brimming with indiscretion.
I don’t say a word: I just stare at the flesh
Of their white necks framed by tresses:
I follow the curve of their shoulders down
Their divine backs, hidden by bodices and flimsy finery.
Soon I’m ogling their boots and socks …
Burning with fever, yearning for flesh.
They think I’m silly. They whisper to each other …
-And I feel kisses blossom on my lips …- Arthur Rimbaud, ‘TO MUSIC: Railway square, Charleville’, 1870
I hated high school. Stupid regimentation and oppressive teachers. Corporal punishment from self-righteous frauds. Six cuts of the cane across the hand you didn’t write with. Basher would sneak up behind you in class and hit you hard on the head with the attendance book. Heinrich the crypto-fascist enforcer of discipline loved to shout and humiliate. “Attention! At ease!” We sotto voce: “Fuck you, Jack”. Prefects in blazers for black shirts.
No girls – just the odd female teacher – if she happened to be young fetishised to distraction. Under stairwells to look up skirts. They knew and slowed down. That fetid smell of grey flannel and ammonia.
The deputy-principal and principal, both Mr Brown’s and both balding old bastards – “Bing” and “Bong”. Bong never soiled his hands, while Bing had a cupboard full of canes: short ones, long ones, thin ones, thick ones. He climaxed each time he hit you – red-faced and on the edge of apoplexy – pausing on each stroke to catch his breath and force up your outstretched hand to inflict the maximum pain. Your hand throbbed for hours. I wish I had had the gumption to climb onto the roof of that hell-hole and pelt those jailers with whatever came to hand.
The French film-maker Jean Vigo (1905-34) hated his boarding school and dreamed a wild dream of schoolboy revolution. The son of a Catalan anarchist, and consumptive, he made only four films in his short life. While his last film, L’Atalante (1934), is his masterpiece, his first and third films À propos de Nice (About Nice 1930) and Zéro de conduite (Zero for Conduct 1933) are exhilarating forays into an artist’s discovery of cinema as personal expression, anarchic joyous experiments in which we enter the world of a magic lantern. A mosaic surprise of the potential of cinema to not only observe the concrete in new ways but to express our humanity, to wonder, to rebel, to satirise, and to laugh.
Zéro de conduite: young devils at school a 45 minute fiction talkie about boys at an elementary boarding school rebelling against the mindless discipline, is not only anarchic, but inspired comic lunacy from a fountainhead of deep love for childhood, and the joy of life lived with spontaneity and without pretence.
A new teacher points the way: he is indulgent and playful. He is awed by everything. In the playground he suddenly starts impersonating Chaplin’s tramp, then grabs a ball from the boys and runs. On an excursion into the town he leads the boys a merry chase after a young woman he fancies, and you see she is having as much fun as the audience.
In their dormitory a gang of agitators instigates a surreal pillow-fight and mock crucifixion – slowed down on the screen against the musical score played backwards. Total chaos. A lecherous teacher outed and the revolution begins: “You’re full of shit!” (Vigo’s father who died in prison in suspicious circumstances had changed his name to Miguel Almereyda - Alyamerda being an anagram of ”y’a la merde”, literal translation “there’s the shit”.)
The rebels take to the roof on a civic occasion and pelt the literally stuffed shirts from the Board of Governors on the dais below with rubbish. The stern midget principal – played by a young boy affecting a manly voice and demeanor - with a beard nearly as long as he is short scurries away for shelter.
Surrealism as fun shot at all angles and in frenetic montage, with a liberating asynchronous score of unbridled vitality. Mad strategams, irreverent language, and kids sick of eating beans throwing them at each other. Zero for conduct!
How Zero de Conduite made the Top 100:
Tony d’Ambra No. 7
Sam Juliano No. 7
Maurizio Roca No. 55
“While his last film, L’Atalante (1934), is his masterpiece, his first and third films À propos de Nice (About Nice 1930) and Zéro de conduite (Zero for Conduct 1933) are exhilarating forays into an artist’s discovery of cinema as personal expression, anarchic joyous experiments in which we enter the world of a magic lantern. A mosaic surprise of the potential of cinema to not only observe the concrete in new ways but to express our humanity, to wonder, to rebel, to satirise, and to laugh.”
Nice work Tony. I love the personal touches and this is a very well written piece. This is actually my favorite Vigo…..the film that maintains the best pacing IMO. Yes it’s funny and it’s other things too. One of cinema’s great anarchies. I didn’t vote for it….not because it’s not a great film….and not because it’s not funny and amusing. I guess I think of the examination of rebellion and anarchy before I consider the comedic aspect here. Splitting hairs though. This qualifies as a comedy far more so than the Fellini films that were on this list. There is a lightness and playfullness here that cues comedy to me I suppose. Love that pillow fight scene. Amazing stuff.
Thanks Jon. Much appreciated. I was surprised that Zero garnered only three votes. But I do concede that viewing the movie as a comedy is not a slam dunk. I tried to bring out the comic elements without giving too much away. Tony
A mosaic surprise of the potential of cinema to not only observe the concrete in new ways but to express our humanity, to wonder, to rebel, to satirise, and to laugh.
Stunning sentence! Brilliant integration of Patti Smith’s “Piss Factory” lyrics, Arthur Rimbaud’s segemnt from TO MUSIC and the personal remembrance of high school life in Sydney. Certainly we would have to be fairly certain that Vigo was of the same mind-set when he directed this ararchic masterpiece, a film whose comedic essence qualifies it for this countdown and then some. Still, I can well understand why the rebellion and ararchic elements would register more compellingly with Jon Warner (above). In any case we get a far more vivid and gleefully atmospheric view of this film through this creative and brezzily abstract piece than we ever could with a straightforward assessment. It’s a tribute to Vigo’s spirit and flame (tragically put out so early) that should remind sm why this is such a revered screen masterpiece. As you note, surealism is at play here, and the pillow fight scene is one of the greatest set pieces in the cinema.
I did not read about ZERO FOR CONDUCT here Tony, I felt it. That’s the best compliment I could give you. Clearly one of the very best posts for this countdown!
Thanks Sam. I put a lot of my heart into this piece as Zero has so many personal associations for me. I know most will not welcome my approach. I wrote the piece for myself. So many things that I have carried for many years and never expressed. But is that not what cinema – indeed art itself – is really about – connecting what is on the screen with our our own selves?
This is a remarkable read. I must side with Sam, that the sterling references and disarming style bring a heightened focus to a film that has stood for many decades as the forerunner of the ‘anarchic’ film. The surrealism does make this far deeper that any school drama before and since. Maybe it’s not as great as L’Atalante, but everything is relative. The world will never know what Vigo could have brought, but with just two films, he’s an all-time master. There’s no questioning the humor. Congratulations on a great essay!
Thanks Peter. Yes l’Atalante is the greater film, but as I said to Sam, for me it is the personal connection that udnerlies my love for this film.
“I hated high school. Stupid regimentation and oppressive teachers. Corporal punishment from self-righteous frauds.”
lol. Isn’t this the usual path to individual genius? How many greats writers and artists can attest to this travesty of education? I know Poe is a prime example. Tony, I greatly enjoyed reading your exceptional look ‘Zero de Conduite’ through the eyes of a self-proclaimed renegade who seems to have lived to tell about it. This is a great film, and must say ‘my bad’ for not voting it on my own ballot. I actually thought I did, but I guess not. The pillow fight is the one sequence one can never forget.
Thanks Frank. I don’t know if this is true as I have not been able to corroborate, but I read the movie was shot at the actual boarding school Vigo attended.
A very creative approach, Tony. There is a Lynchian strain in this film with the below the surface rebellious nature of the students who are taught to hehave one way but want to behave another. The teachers are tyrannical and decadent. The film recalls “Potemkin” when the kids are fed beans once too often, comparable to the decaying meat in the Russian film. The surrealism is what makes this film so arresting from a stylistic point of point, and the use of the low angle shots and various camera tricks have been emulated over the years. I agree this is a comedy, and wish I had voted for it.
Love the Lynchian idea Bill. I see Potemkin too, I also think of Truffaut’s The 400 Blows.
L. Anderson’s brilliant If…. too…
Yep, Anderson’s film was actually openly indepted to ZERO. Quite right Jamie!
Thanks and great observations Bill. Surreal yes, like my days in high school. I didn’t know it then but I had my first battle with depression when I was 16 and it all played out in the classroom and outside. A dago kid from the wrong side of the tracks in a selective school populated by WASPS. Zero for being welcome.
I had my own version of “Bing” and “Bong” at a Westchester, New York High School. Always passing the buck!
I agree with the others that this is an exceptional and unique review. I had this film screened for me a few years ago. It is a masterpiece. What one might think Vigo would have done had he lived longer.
Bobby, one must believe based on the limited results that he would have been one of the titans of the cinema. But with what we have, he still is.
Thanks Bobby. Nice to have a comment from you.
On the Criterion site there is a video clip from an October 1964 episode of the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps, where crew members who worked with Vigo on Zéro de conduite recall the chaotic filming of the pillow fight during which, as one of them says, Vigo made himself “part of the gang”.
http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2322-zero-de-conduite-pillow-talk.
After watching the clip you can view the restored version of the film released by Criterion.
Just watched this fascinating clip Tony, and looked at part of the film. I did acquire the Criterion blu-ray months back, and as all owners know it includes Vigo’s full output. Vigo was quite the spirited leader who certainly practiced what he preached.
Excellent addition!
I guess you can assert that Vigo’s film is a forerunner of novels like ‘Lord of the Flies’ where rebellion is an outgrowth of rigid discipline. Vigo resisted a darker resolution, by infusing his film with disarming frolic. I commend you sir, on a terrific review that has emanated from down deep.
Hi David and thanks. Vigo had to re-edit the film from its initial feature length as the distributor wanted only a short. The resulting fractured narrative and ending may not be what Vigo intended. A tragedy that the original feature has been lost.
What makes your own observations more telling, Tony d’Ambra, are that Vigo himself used autobiographical references in the making of the film. The film’s major point I think is that the submission can overthrow their oppressors. To visualize this Vigo applies social realism, but segues into poetic imagery. It’s clear that the director is attack the French educational system, though some acute phychological insights of the characters. Slow-motion is used effectively; the sub-conscious mind is explored. Some may argue that the non-professionals in the cast are wildly uneven, but there is a naturalism and urgency that only amateurs can achieve. This haunting film is really a microcosm of society, and one of the best films about childhood ever made. And there is more than enough humor to quality it for this enterprise.
Thanks Frederick. The film was banned in France after its release and was not screened again until after WW2, so its subversive intent was recognized immediately. I think the metaphoric elements of the film give it a much wider focus, and as Mr Uhler intimted in his fly-by Lindsay’s If was modelled on Vigo’s film.
There is a universality even if we limit ourselves to the oppressiveness of an educational system where regimentation and cupidity hold sway. The boys’ manifesto which is read as a prelude to the pillow riot is as clear a statement of grievances as has been put on the screen ever, and it is read by the effeminate boy who comes from being an outsider abused by the teachers and ostracized by the other schoolboys to a revolutionary cadre after his acceptance by the two conspirators. Vive la revolution!
From the sublime to the ridiculous. Outranked by Pillow Talk…