A modern classic in which Anderson minutely captures both the particular ethos of a public school and the general flavour of any structured community, thus achieving a clear allegorical force without sacrificing a whit of his exploration of an essentially British institution. The impecable logic of the conclusion is in no way diminished by having been lifted from Vigo’s “Zero de Conduite”, made 35 years earlier. If was also a timely film – shooting began two months before the events of May 1968 in Paris.
