Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

“Zero for Conduct, “Jean Vigo’s rough-hewn, poetic evocation of youth under the strain of institutionalized education, is nearly impossible to summarize in words. Among other things, it’s perhaps the greatest expression of the anarchic impulse ever put on film. In this scene, an after-curfew convocation transforms from a semi-formalized protest — an aping of adult forms — into a slapstick pillow fight reminiscent of the “Our Gang” shorts. Then, upon the interruption of an authority figure, the action turns purely poetic — it becomes a reverie, like something out of the dream-time world of Jean Cocteau. The kids coalesce, magically, into an absurd procession that’s made almost stately by the use of slow motion and the eerie vocalizations that play on the soundtrack. Brandishing makeshift crosses — where did they come from? — the boys march from the room as Crusaders, feathers billowing about their heads like confetti. It’s clear: The adult world has been overthrown; we’ve entered a reality ruled by children. Exactly what Vigo means to communicate here is anyone’s guess; I don’t think there’s a single right answer. But for me the sequence evokes boys coming to contentious terms with their burgeoning manhood. It’s simultaneously touching and unnerving. In just a few years they’d be marching off to war.

Related

• I wrote about a scene from another Jean Vigo film here.
• “Zero for Conduct” is one of those movies that has been referenced in a multitude of other works. Bellocchio’s “In the Name of the Father” is one of my favorites. Lindsay Anderson’s “If…” is one that I’m not very fond of.
• I’d guess the overhead shots in this sequence gave Truffaut a few ideas.