# Zero for Conduct
**Zero for Conduct** (French: *Zéro de conduite: Jeunes diables au collège*) is a 1933 French short film directed by Jean Vigo in which boys at a repressive all-boys boarding school rebel against their teachers. The title refers to a common school punishment: a pupil given a zero for conduct lost the right to leave the school grounds with his peers on Sunday.[1](https://www.filminquiry.com/anarchic-cinema-jean-vigo/) The film drew on Vigo's own boarding school experiences and on the anarchist spirit of his father, Miguel Almereyda; it was considered subversive, banned in France, and not screened commercially there until 1945, and it later influenced [François Truffaut](https://www.edgepedia.org/francois-truffaut)'s *The 400 Blows* and [Lindsay Anderson](https://www.edgepedia.org/lindsay-anderson)'s *if....*[2](https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/zero-de-conduite-zero-for-conduct-1933) • [3](https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2020/films/zero-for-conduct/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Zéro de conduite: Jeunes diables au collège* ("Zero for Conduct: Young Devils at School")[4](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/400877/) |
| Director and writer | Jean Vigo, his first fiction film[4](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/400877/) • [5](https://catalogimages.wiley.com/images/db/pdf/9781405184526.excerpt.pdf) |
| Country and year | France, 1933; released in Paris on 7 April 1933[4](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/400877/) |
| Key crew | Photography Boris Kaufman; music Maurice Jaubert; production Jacques-Louis Nounez for Argui-Film[6](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED078483.pdf) |
| Principal cast | Jean Dasté (the teacher Huguet), Robert le Flon (the monitor Pète-Sec), Louis Lefebvre (Caussat), Gérard de Bédarieux (Tabard), Gilbert Pruchon (Colin), and Coco Goldstein (Bruel)[6](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED078483.pdf) |
| Censorship | Refused a certificate by the French film control board as seditious; not screened commercially in France until 1945[7](https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/11878/1/MP_Zero_2010.pdf) |
| Legacy | An acknowledged inspiration for Truffaut's *The 400 Blows* and Anderson's *if....*[3](https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2020/films/zero-for-conduct/) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film follows four boys, Bruel, Caussat, Colin, and the shy, long-haired new boy Tabard, at a boarding school whose teachers and monitors continually give them zeros for conduct and Sunday detention. Most of the students see the headmaster, teachers, and monitors as authoritarian, inept, or corrupt; the one exception is Huguet, a newly arrived, free-spirited teacher who imitates [Charlie Chaplin](https://www.edgepedia.org/charlie-chaplin)'s Little Tramp and does handstands in class.[4](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/400877/)
After being punished for returning to bed after morning wake-up, the boys plot to disrupt the school's Commemoration Day celebrations.[9](https://366weirdmovies.com/195-zero-de-conduite-1933/) Their revolt includes a dormitory pillow fight with overturned beds and a slow-motion ride through falling feathers, tying up the detested monitor Pète-Sec as he sleeps, barricading themselves in the attic, and finally pelting the assembled guests with garbage from the rooftop before marching off across the roof with their hands in the air, under a hand-made skull-and-crossbones flag.[10](https://www.filmsite.org/zerodeconduite.html) In one noted scene, pressed to apologize before his peers, Tabard answers "Sir, I say bull!", after which the boys run amok in the dormitory and Tabard raises a flag proclaiming, "War is declared! Down with teachers! Down with punishment! Up with revolution!"[11](https://www.internationaleonline.org/contributions/zero-for-conduct/)
## Production
By July 1932 Vigo had met the financier Jacques-Louis Nounez, who helped produce the film, Vigo's first fiction work. It was shot from December 1932 to January 1933, in winter conditions the production histories describe as difficult, with a mostly non-professional cast often picked off the street.[5](https://catalogimages.wiley.com/images/db/pdf/9781405184526.excerpt.pdf) • [1](https://www.filminquiry.com/anarchic-cinema-jean-vigo/) Vigo said, "I deliberately made *Zéro de conduite* a realistic film," though commentators place his "realism" closer to surrealism than to the ordinary meaning of the term.[5](https://catalogimages.wiley.com/images/db/pdf/9781405184526.excerpt.pdf)
The film received good reviews at its Paris premiere in April 1933 but was a commercial failure and quickly slipped from view.[5](https://catalogimages.wiley.com/images/db/pdf/9781405184526.excerpt.pdf) Early audiences reportedly greeted it with hisses and boos, and a Catholic journal criticized it as vulgar and scatological.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zero-de-conduite-1932)
## Style
The film mixes social satire with dreamlike imagery. It is not a surrealist film as such, but it contains surreal elements: a mirror reflection moves out of sync with the teacher in front of it, a drawing of a teacher becomes an animation and transforms into Napoleon, camera trickery makes a football disappear, and many of the visiting dignitaries at the ceremony are life-size dummies.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zero-de-conduite-1932) Vigo uses the school as a microcosm of society, valuing spontaneity, freedom, and play over discipline, conformity, and uniformity.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zero-de-conduite-1932) The score was composed by Maurice Jaubert, and the cinematography was by Boris Kaufman.[6](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED078483.pdf)
## Censorship and reception
The French film control board, the Comité national du cinéma, refused the film a certificate on the grounds that its satirical attack on the education system was seditious, and it was not screened commercially in France until 1945, eleven years after Vigo's death.[7](https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/11878/1/MP_Zero_2010.pdf) Some accounts give the ban's end as 1946, and Rotten Tomatoes lists a theatrical release date of 15 February 1946.[10](https://www.filmsite.org/zerodeconduite.html) • [8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zero-de-conduite-1932) Although the film was not widely seen between 1933 and 1945, it had been discussed often enough that a body of commentary had accumulated around it by the time of its re-release.[7](https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/11878/1/MP_Zero_2010.pdf)
Vigo died of tuberculosis at age 29 about a year after the film's release, having completed only four relatively short films.[3](https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2020/films/zero-for-conduct/) • [12](https://filmphest.com/Films/zfc.htm) After World War II the film was rediscovered in a revival of Vigo's work, and its stature has grown steadily since.[1](https://www.filminquiry.com/anarchic-cinema-jean-vigo/) • [8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zero-de-conduite-1932)
## Influence
The film is an acknowledged inspiration for François Truffaut's *The 400 Blows* and Lindsay Anderson's *if....*, among other films; Anderson used the Vigo film as a blueprint for his own anti-establishment school film.[3](https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2020/films/zero-for-conduct/) • [13](https://worldmovieencyclopedia.com/films/Zero%20de%20Conduct_1933) Its rediscovery also fed the [French New Wave](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-new-wave): in searching the Cinémathèque for forgotten examples of national cinema, French filmmakers found *Zero for Conduct* and proclaimed it a masterpiece that became a starting point for a new aesthetics.[14](https://tv-science.online/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/17-3-1.pdf) A 4K restoration by Gaumont, in association with [The Film Foundation](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-film-foundation) and La Cinémathèque française, was performed at L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna and Paris.[3](https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2020/films/zero-for-conduct/)
## Runtime and versions
Sources disagree on the film's length: Cineuropa, the Harvard Film Archive, and the Pacific Film Archive catalog list 44 minutes, Rotten Tomatoes lists 47 minutes, and the [New York Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-york-film-festival) and MUBI list 49 minutes.[4](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/400877/) • [8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zero-de-conduite-1932) • [3](https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2020/films/zero-for-conduct/) The versions also differ: when the film was reshown in 1945, some parts had been deleted, and a longer copy without subtitles, considered the original 1933 film, was later rediscovered in the Milan Film Archive.[15](https://www.siff.com/english/content?aid=import-cms-2955)
## References
1. [Anarchic Cinema: Jean Vigo's Zero for Conduct, Film Inquiry](https://www.filminquiry.com/anarchic-cinema-jean-vigo/)
2. [Thomas Patrick Pringle, "Zero de Conduite (Zero for Conduct) (1933)," Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism](https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/zero-de-conduite-zero-for-conduct-1933)
3. [Zero for Conduct, Film Society of Lincoln Center, NYFF58](https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2020/films/zero-for-conduct/)
4. [Zero de Conduite (Zéro de conduite: Jeunes diables au collège), Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/400877/)
5. [P. E. Gueshouse, Jean Vigo chapter, Wiley excerpt PDF](https://catalogimages.wiley.com/images/db/pdf/9781405184526.excerpt.pdf)
6. [Zero de Conduite credits and synopsis, ERIC document ED078483](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED078483.pdf)
7. [Maria Pramaggiore on Zéro de conduite, Maynooth University ePrints](https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/11878/1/MP_Zero_2010.pdf)
8. [Zero for Conduct, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zero-de-conduite-1932)
9. [195. Zero de Conduite (1933), 366 Weird Movies](https://366weirdmovies.com/195-zero-de-conduite-1933/)
10. [Zero de Conduite (1933), Filmsite](https://www.filmsite.org/zerodeconduite.html)
11. [Tamara Díaz Bringas, "Zero for Conduct," 'internationale](https://www.internationaleonline.org/contributions/zero-for-conduct/)
12. [Zero for Conduct (1933), Filmphest](https://filmphest.com/Films/zfc.htm)
13. [Zero de Conduct, World Movie Encyclopedia](https://worldmovieencyclopedia.com/films/Zero%20de%20Conduct_1933)
14. [The Art and Science of Television 17(3), 2021](https://tv-science.online/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/17-3-1.pdf)
15. [Young Devils in School, SIFF program notes](https://www.siff.com/english/content?aid=import-cms-2955)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Individual short films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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