The Class (Entre Les Murs)
"I apologize for being insolent. May I go now, please?”
The Class (dir. Laurent Cantet), which was adapted from the autobiographical novel “Between The Walls” by Francois Begaudeau, won the prestigious Palm D’Or in 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Later it was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 81st Academy Awards. Begaudeau starred as the brutally calm teacher of a class of 13-14 year olds which consisted of Parisians of different cultural origins (Chinese, Arab, Malian, French).
This is a kind of film that doesn’t need special effects to be called amazing. Its strength was in the way it was written and the way the camera captured the realistic goings on in a (typical) Parisian high school: students giggling on mundane things, students arguing insolently with the teacher, students proudly or hesitatingly answering questions, students admitting they’re unsure whether they have learned something or not at all, students sitting down, students raising hands, students standing up, students getting in line, students keeping quiet, teacher marking the students, teacher pushing the students to prepare and study harder, teacher imposing punishment to erring students, teacher arguing with students, and so on. There were conflicts. There were punishments. There were suggestions of meeting halfway. Everything was part of a learning process. In the end of the school year, everyone anticipated a vacation. Just like that. After all, it would be a new school year and a new set of students after the vacation.
A wonderful film!
{July 6, 2009}
The Class (dir. Laurent Cantet), which was adapted from the autobiographical novel “Between The Walls” by Francois Begaudeau, won the prestigious Palm D’Or in 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Later it was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 81st Academy Awards. Begaudeau starred as the brutally calm teacher of a class of 13-14 year olds which consisted of Parisians of different cultural origins (Chinese, Arab, Malian, French).
This is a kind of film that doesn’t need special effects to be called amazing. Its strength was in the way it was written and the way the camera captured the realistic goings on in a (typical) Parisian high school: students giggling on mundane things, students arguing insolently with the teacher, students proudly or hesitatingly answering questions, students admitting they’re unsure whether they have learned something or not at all, students sitting down, students raising hands, students standing up, students getting in line, students keeping quiet, teacher marking the students, teacher pushing the students to prepare and study harder, teacher imposing punishment to erring students, teacher arguing with students, and so on. There were conflicts. There were punishments. There were suggestions of meeting halfway. Everything was part of a learning process. In the end of the school year, everyone anticipated a vacation. Just like that. After all, it would be a new school year and a new set of students after the vacation.A wonderful film!
{July 6, 2009}
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