Jean Vigo was often called the cinema's Rimbaud, not only for his youth which enabled him to create a vivid, uncompromising and personal mode of expression, but also for his passionate sincerity, rich imagery, and directness of language. Zero for Conduct is based on very personal childhood experiences; it is cruel, playful and exuberant, and filled with unexpected gags and observations. Set in a boarding school, the loose but emotionally charged story creates a model of rebellion, portraying not only the petty, dictatorial regime of a school, but the dynamics, fervor and delirium of revolt as well. It is poetry, wild in hatred and tender in remembrance. A propos de Nice is a "kino-eye" document of a town "living a game: the great hotels, the tourists, the roulette, the paupers. Everything is doomed to die" (Vigo). "It is a short film but a great one: 'An example of true cinema, but also an attack on a particular kind of world'" (Georges Sadoul). Taris is a documentary on the champion swimmer Jean Taris, made strictly for the money. Vigo nevertheless "preserves a certain purity, directness in his apprehension of the subject as it is...There is an obvious connection here with the Vigo theme that elements of dream and imagination co-exist with, and are part of, physical reality" (Jean M. Smith, Jean Vigo).