This article summarizes the periods of “historical avant-gardes” in film history. Specifically, it discusses modernism as having three “coordinates”: official art of aristocratic regimes, new technology and industrial revolution’s impact on film, and the hope of social revolution. He then goes on to claim that the film theory of such movements was expressed in both written and filmic manifestos, the latter of which he offers “Zéro de Conduite” as an example.  He describes how avant-garde films were labeled such not only because of their unconventional aesthetics, but also their independent modes of production. He then divides up avant garde into three distinct movements: Impressionism, Pure Cinema, and Surrealism.  However, within the avant garde there were two distinct tendencies to achieve either a high autotelic form, or a low form that attacked art establishment. He goes on to describe surrealism as a way to link moving images with metaphorical process of automatism, the actual functioning of thought. He also mentions the Surrealist’s praise of the subversive, anarchic undercurrents in slapstick films. Finally, he discusses the potential to liberate the repressed by combining dichotomous elements of fantasy and mundane reality. By using certain cinematic techniques, Surrealists not only represented dream but also mimicked its internal structuration. Surrealists had faith in the ability of film to unleash the “liberating energies of the Unconscious.” He then discusses the Surrealist opinion of cinema as close to a dream itself, and goes on to mention many post-modernist theorists of the “dream state.”
    This article is a valuable addition to my thesis, because it provides more background on the artistic movements surrounding Vigo’s film, and how exactly he belonged to some and distinguished himself from many others. It is interesting that the author sees “Zéro” as a filmic manifesto, as its surreal opposition to and victory over the “establishment” adults in the film, and the historical context of it’s controversy and prohibition by the government would certainly support that qualification. The article’s description of the pure energy and creative force of slapstick-like humor as a threat to the establishment is very relevant to Vigo’s film, as the children’s activities and the film’s techniques exude a kind of creative, imaginative energy that eventually topples the authority of the school. The humorous, mischievous tendencies of the children are directly paralleled to the unimaginative, boring, stuffy old teachers who hardly ever smile (save Huguet). It is important to note, however, while discussing slapstick as a threat to the establishment that in the film, a “renegade” teacher named Huguet (who wears a different color coat than the rest of the teachers) plays a part in inciting this student rebellion by indulging and encouraging their silliness with imitations of Charlie Chaplin playing the Tramp in the schoolyard, or classes where he teaches standing on his head. Slapstick plays a large role in fomenting the student revolt, and it is this humor that laughed in the face of such contemporary serious crises in authority around the world, such as the Great Depression, which anarchists saw as a crisis in capitalism, one they were all-too-willing to poke fun at. There is more to discuss about Surrealism, in a later post.

Stam, Robert. "The Historical Avant-Gardes." Film Theory. New York University: New York. Blackwell Publishing, 2000. 55-58.
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