Reception
The film was first screened on April 7, 1933 in Paris. The premiere shocked many audience members, who hissed and booed Vigo. Other audience members, most notably Jacques Prevert, loudly clapped.
French film critics were strongly divided about the film. Some called it "simply ridiculous" and compared it to "lavatory flushing", while others praised its "fiery daring" and called Vigo "the Céline of the cinema." the film's most vocal critics included a French Catholic journal, which called it a scatological work by "an obsessed maniac." Zero for Conduct was quickly banned in France, with some believing that the French Ministry of the Interior considered it in treat of "creating disturbances and hindering the maintenance of order."
Read more about this topic: Zero For Conduct
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
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“Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion.... Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)