A sympathetic, anarchic spoof, L'An 01 was called by Michel Ciment (“International Film Guide”) one of “the late fruits of May '68 - ...films that deal with a utopian society, a kind of politic-fiction.” In a series of sketches based on the cartoons of Gébé, Jacques Doillon depicts the results of a plan by various groups to simply stop working, and see what happens. “Workers walk out, people plant gardens on sidewalks, talk to each other, and money is worthless. Obsolete cars are stripped down and thieves are more throwbacks than menaces.... (The film) at least believes in human nature with its satirical shafts not too barbed...and amateurs cavort and generally (capture) the relaxed mood for this look at a sort of...utopia as things break down....” --Variety. Cut into the satire are a piece by Jean Rouch on Africa, and a Thirties-looking segment on Wall Street during the Depression (bodies raining from buildings, etc.) by Alain Resnais.
L'An 01 was criticized (especially in comparison to another of the May '68 “fruits” to emerge at the same time, Faraldo's Themroc) but, Ciment adds, “it is nice, it was done, and the young students loved it as an anarchist manifesto.”