Entre les Murs (The Class)

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  August 23, 2009

  g0disd3ad

  must-see, probably one of the last year's best movie, sure is in my top 10 2008

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  August 20, 2009

  mrpopcorn

  "I'm Souleyman, I have nothing to say about me because no one knows me but me."
  
  Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.
  
  ...( read more)tury Schoolbook">REVIEW
  The Class ('Entre Les Murs') is more of an experience than a film. Based on the book 'Entre Les Murs' by teacher François Bégaudeau who also wrote the screenplay and stars in the film as the unique teacher François Marin, this thoughtful and challenging story is presented in a style that could only be termed 'French verismo'. If it feels like a documentary for the first part, that is to the credit of the author and the director Laurent Cantet: we, the viewers are taken into the classroom where the majority of the film takes place, lingering there through discussions between teacher and the varied ethnic group of students who challenge (with good thought) the teaching techniques and subjects of discussion in Marin's days of attempting to 'educate' a somewhat reluctant audience. The subject of the course may be French, but the incongruities of language spread into areas of conflict of the meaning of words and the 'out of date' subjects of grammar that occupy Marin's course outline.
  
  Another fascinating aspect of this film about education in schools populated by 'difficult students' is the use of the device of entr'acte - diversions from the classroom into the teachers' lounge where we learn even more about the education and varied sociological systems and age and experience differences among the faculty influence that is at the core of this film. It all sounds and seems so extemporaneous that it makes the messages conveyed all the more powerful. Many will find this film too 'talky': there are almost no excursions outside the school and certainly no 'sidebars' to show the extracurricular lives of the mixed group of well drawn and acted students. The story unfolds slowly, like a conversation, and is offered by a set of actors who disappear completely into their roles. This is one of the few 'classroom films' that elects to inform rather than to preach and features a teacher who is as fallible as the students. Many lessons are here in this Class.

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  June 16, 2009

  gor41

  Interesting insight into the classroom dynamics in a french inner city middle school. I found myself inevitably contrasting values and the attitude of the teenagers towards learning and the teacher with the english state system. Their teenagers may be surly but they at least eng...( read more)aged and seemed to value knowledge.

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  April 18, 2009

  her69eyes

  I graduated high school in 2006 and am currently finishing my third year of college. Myself, and many peers my age, are not unlike the students represented in "The Class". The classroom dichotomy has changed. The students are sort of "catching on" to the absurd politics of the cl...( read more)assroom - the conditioning that leads us to become just another functional piece in a society that barely notices us. The typical modern classroom is more like the diverse setting in "The Class" than the strict and reserved environment of "The 400 Blows", for instance. It has nothing to do with a lack of discipline or work ethic, but rather the frustration of learning in a traditionalist educational system in an otherwise evolving world. The time of chalkboard scribblings and mundane lectures on verb conjugations is over.
  
  We get the sense that the teacher in the film, played by Francois Bégaudeau, understands this. It is, however, not the easy fix that it should be. How do you retain authority over your students when they aren't shy about pointing out the absurdity of your lectures?
  
  "The Class", which won the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, is the newest film by French director Laurent Cantent. It is based on a novel by Francois Bégaudeau, who plays the film's "hero", M. Marin. The film takes place entirely within the walls of a school - whether it be the classroom, teachers lounge, or courtyard. Inside is a low-income and multiethnic conglomerate of students. M. Marin is a good man, and he tries his best to engage his diverse student body. But he's far from perfect. The classroom's laid back atmosphere makes him prone to error - such as when he, unknowingly, disrespects his students or, in a fit of frustration, tells two young girls that they had acted like skanks. The film, very much about language and communication, enjoys discussing the politics of a term like that. Who is allowed to say it, and to whom, and when is it offensive? The barrier between teacher-student is widened.
  
  The time for "inspirational teacher" stories is over. "The Class" gives an authentic examination of the politics of the classroom and the frustrations of both teacher and student. It doesn't represent a fabrication, nor does the protagonist come off as a saint, but it takes place in a completely convincing environment which in turn provides a setting for brilliant social critique. The film doesn't necessarily hate the educational system, however it examines the falseness of a traditional system in such a diverse climate. "The Class" is a rare treat, and certainly a much more interesting film than the umpteenth "Dead Poet's Society" or "Dangerous Minds" knock-off. It is one of the best films of 2008.

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  April 15, 2009

  EarthlyAlien

  "How do you make fun of her when you can't do better?"
  
  In Laurent Cantet's edgy, semi-improvised drama Entre les Murs, real-life high-school teacher François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself, a teacher at a Paris high school in a poor neighbourhood, and every c...( read more)lass he leads is a juggling act that's deeply disillusioning - then inspiring - then frustrating to the point of despair - then unexpectedly touching - then a god-awful mess. I'd hate to have to diagram it.
  
  
  
  Okay, let me try: Bégaudeau writes on the blackboard and behind him a student fixes on a word - half out of curiosity, half to insolently break his teacher's train of thought - and makes him stop and define it. The trim, buoyant Bégaudeau is an idealist who refuses to be swayed from his appointed task, and instead of expressing annoyance he patiently answers questions, tugging his pupils back to the lesson at hand. He finally does get a rhythm going, back and forth, and then an especially surly student interrupts to ask if it's true what they say in the yard, that Bégaudeau likes men. And so the teacher has to set aside his plan and say, first, "What would be wrong with that?" and then no, it isn't true - and by then the lesson has been derailed.
  
  Later, when Bégaudeau arrives at the faculty lounge, several of his colleagues appear shell-shocked, ready to pack it in: These kids don't deserve to be educated; they're like animals in heat; let them rot in their dead-end low-class jobs. Somehow Bégaudeau maintains his equilibrium, even when asserting his authority and reprimanding his students for their disrespect; he argues that a teacher's job is "to bring kids out." And he does - until, about an hour and a half into the film, he's upended and it all goes to hell.
  
  Entre les Murs is just over two hours, but feels even longer because Cantet shoots the class in something like real time; there's no relief from the ticking clock and the need to engage, engage, engage these kids to keep chaos at bay. There are some white students, but most are children of immigrants from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, many with parents who can barely speak French. They trade racist insults and argue over football teams, and Bégaudeau tries to mediate - but he's a white male authority figure from a more prosperous class, and when he presses them too hard on, say, a point of grammar, his pupils parrot Marxist maxims and maintain that he can never understand their perspectives. They're not entirely wrong, but Bégaudeau at least keeps at it. What finally rouses his students is an assignment to write self-portraits. Suddenly out pour their hopes and fears - about their bodies, their families, their struggles to adapt in a country that hasn't made them welcome. For a brief spell, they seem younger, more open, and ready to learn.
  
  
  
  The young actors, Bégaudeau's former students, are all essentially playing themselves (most use their own first names), clearly enjoying the spotlight, and it might be that some of them are insufficiently apathetic - too on. But they seem as real as anything I've ever seen, as real as the subjects in a Frederick Wiseman documentary. You see them through Bégaudeau's eyes, as destabilizing forces, but you also recognize their too-ready defences, their terror of losing face in front of their peers.
  
  The only one who made me want to sock her in the kisser (sorry, that's why I'm not a high-school teacher) was Esmeralda, who meets every request with an anti-authoritarian sneer, and righteously stirs up discord. It's Esmeralda who finally breaks Bégaudeau, who prompts his transformation from a liberal defender of an unruly African student named Souleymane into an obstinate authoritarian. The scene, before the school system's disciplinary committee, in which the proud, taciturn teen must translate his mum's pleas to forgive her son, is a coup de théâtre - ironic, terrible, heart-rending. Souleymane is at once defiant and scared, sunk into himself, and the only teacher with a hope of easing him to the surface is now his worst enemy.
  
  It can be argued that Cantet condescends toward underclass immigrant kids, and that Entre les Murs - which is based on a memoir by Bégaudeau published in 2006 that will be published in English this month - can be used to justify the system's failures. It's true that the film's few industrious students are upstaged by their obnoxiously oppositional classmates, and that the film ends on a bitter note that feels especially so one week after the inauguration of the first African-American president of the United States. Now that anything is possible, everyone of every race will be inspired to study hard - right? But I think it's more important than ever to see - and to brood on - Entre les Murs.
  
  The threats to liberalism don't just come from without, from the racists and reactionaries. They're also from within, when do-gooders' ideals are tested by the real world, when the underprivileged don't show the gratitude displayed on TV shows and instead spit on your face. Cantet's real-time classroom scenes are utter revelations: They make you understand that teaching is moment to moment, an endless series of negotiations that hang on intangibles - on imagination and empathy and the struggle to stay centered. This is a remarkable film.

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  November 20, 2009

  filmguy450

  Perfect and amazing.

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  November 18, 2009

  jameshammacott88

  Winner of the 2008 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, this is an excellent film about like in a French school.
  If you don't study the language or culture, some of the jokes might be missed. But don't let that stop you from watching this, it is extremely funny & full of drama.

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  November 14, 2009

  sannoliveira

  O cinema francês é conhecido por sua lentidão narrativa ao contar histórias. Entre os muros da escola não foge a regra. Mas isso não diminui sua importância como meio de reflexão sobre o dia a dia dentro das escolas públicas. A diversidade de alunos, problemas, contextos sociais ...( read more)e raciais estão presentes a todo momento no filme, lembrando-nos do árduo trabalho de um professor em sala de aula e todas as questões que envolvem seu relacionamento com alunos. Entre os muros da escola trata claramente desses aspectos, sobretudo na questão disciplinar ao confrontar o professor de francês François com a difícil classe de 7 série onde leciona. Didático e reflexivo, merece ser visto com um olhar atento acerca dos caminhos que a Educação tem tomado no mundo todo. Para pensar!

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  November 4, 2009

  nikojunkie

  Not just a French "To Sir With Love" or "Dangerous Minds," this film does a lot of talking...literally, not much happens but that's what makes it different from its North American predecessors. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of cliche.

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  November 2, 2009

  Nighthawk246

  Critically acclaimed film, The Class, successfully conveys it's ideas clearly and concisely. The problem I had is that the movie tired me out faster than I thought it would. Someday, I hope to watch the whole movie from beginning to end without stopping it. It's an interesting f...( read more)ilm that has a lot to say about France's changing social makeup and current political upheaval. Unfortunately, it failed to capture my attention all the way through the duration of the film. This doesn't mean it was a bad film by any means.

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