The Class (15.)
Directed by Laurent Cantet.
Starring Francois Begaudeau, Franck Keita, Lucie Landrevie, Esmeralda Ouertani, Boubacar Toure. French with subtitles. 128 mins.
In a culture that is awash with mockumentaries this French film, the surprise winner of this year’s Palme D’Or at Cannes, is a drama that accurately mimics the fly on the wall documentary. This technique may ultimately be more genuine than a standard documentary – at least there’s no wondering about how much they are playing up to the camera
Etre et Avoir, a documentary about a year in the life of a teacher in a rural primary school, was an inspirational and moving experience; and a massive hit. Cantet’s film concentrates on a school year in a Parisian inner city secondary school and is more a case of To Try and Partial Succeed.
Francois is faced with the task with trying to teach the French language to a rather unruly and insolent bunch of students. Over the last decade in Hollywood Michelle Pfeifer, Danny DeVito and Hilary Swank have knocked much more challenging collections of youths in to shape but though Francois is clearly a conscientious, motivated teachers there will be no clear cut victories.
There is something starkly compelling about the film, the two hours whip by though there is no clear drama and more than half of the film is shot within a single classroom. The film focuses purely on the school. It never ventures outside of its surrounding though sometimes the outside world will ventures in on occasions like Parents evening.
Language is a key to the film though something of a barrier to a foreign audience. Ian Burley is credited with providing the English subtitles and this must have been a nightmare, trying to translate the students’ imperfect subjunctive conjugation errors.
The film is very much about opening the discussion and not pointing you towards a conclusion. It’s so open ended it could easily be used by the BNP as evidence of the failure of multiculturalism.
The Class (15.)
Directed by Laurent Cantet.
Starring Francois Begaudeau, Franck Keita, Lucie Landrevie, Esmeralda Ouertani, Boubacar Toure. French with subtitles. 128 mins.
In a culture that is awash with mockumentaries this French film, the surprise winner of this year’s Palme D’Or at Cannes, is a drama that accurately mimics the fly on the wall documentary. This technique may ultimately be more genuine than a standard documentary – at least there’s no wondering about how much they are playing up to the camera
Etre et Avoir, a documentary about a year in the life of a teacher in a rural primary school, was an inspirational and moving experience; and a massive hit. Cantet’s film concentrates on a school year in a Parisian inner city secondary school and is more a case of To Try and Partial Succeed.
Francois is faced with the task with trying to teach the French language to a rather unruly and insolent bunch of students. Over the last decade in Hollywood Michelle Pfeifer, Danny DeVito and Hilary Swank have knocked much more challenging collections of youths in to shape but though Francois is clearly a conscientious, motivated teachers there will be no clear cut victories.
There is something starkly compelling about the film, the two hours whip by though there is no clear drama and more than half of the film is shot within a single classroom. The film focuses purely on the school. It never ventures outside of its surrounding though sometimes the outside world will ventures in on occasions like Parents evening.
Language is a key to the film though something of a barrier to a foreign audience. Ian Burley is credited with providing the English subtitles and this must have been a nightmare, trying to translate the students’ imperfect subjunctive conjugation errors.
The film is very much about opening the discussion and not pointing you towards a conclusion. It’s so open ended it could easily be used by the BNP as evidence of the failure of multiculturalism.
