After watching the trailer for "The Class" you may think you've already seen it. Dedicated teacher writes his name on chalkboard, unruly students chide him for it, dedicated teacher cleverly retorts, unruly students laugh, dedicated teacher gains their respect. Eventually, dedicated teacher will inspire unruly students, despite being minorities and coming from dysfunctional households, to strive for a future beyond gangs and drugs and, just to round things out, dedicated teacher will learn something about himself along the way. Sound familiar?
This formula has been beaten to death, perhaps most memorably by Michelle Pfeiffer in the oh so 90s "Dangerous Minds" (the tagline was: She Broke The Rules... And Changed Their Lives. Yikes.) Also by the desk-standing triumph of Robin "O Captain my Captain" Williams in the sadly very dated "Dead Poets Society." And most recently by Hilary "I either give Oscar winning performances or make terrible movies" Swank in "Freedom Writers" (which, to be fair, I have not seen, and never will). So what could possibly be so great about this one that it deserves the Palme d'Or it won at Cannes last April? Because it's in french? Sorry, you can put lipstick on a VP candidate, but it's still going to be a pig (zing!). Ok, I'll calm down. Obviously I had a lot of, perhaps unfair, reservations going into this film. I didn't necessarily think it would be bad mind you, but I was skeptical it could live up to it's unanimously rapturous acclaim. I expected a solid, well-made, superior version of it's like-minded predecessors that didn't cover any new territory.
How wrong I was.
Writer/director Laurent Cantet and writer/lead actor François Bégaudeau have (hyperbole alert) made the most insightful, thought-provoking film about education I have ever seen. Before discussing, may I just say the marketing team should be ashamed of themselves. If it hadn't won the Palme d'Or I would have totally overlooked it, and that would have been a shame. They are sending the wrong message, this is no story about a superhuman teacher.
François Marin, a geekier, fenchier version of Daniel Craig, played by François Bégaudeau (who wrote the autobiographical novel on which the film is derived and, based on his excellent performance, has no inhibitions playing a character so close to himself) quietly sits with his coffee. He is framed almost from behind and his mood is difficult to read. The quiet pensive moment could one of reflection, frustration, relaxation. It's as if Cantent is saying, look, this guys got a lot going on but we're not going to tell you what. It is the first, last and only scene to take place outside the walls of the school (appropriately, the direct translation of the french title "Entre Les Murs" is "Between the Walls").
It's the first day of classes at this unnamed inner-Parisian Junior High School. At a politely uncomfortable pre-year meeting we are introduced to the faculty, a group that has their own strange a classroom dynamic. Each member states their subject and tenure (François' teaches French and is in his 4th year), the only personal information about them we will learn, before heading to class.
François' has no impact on the cacophony of overlapping conversations as he enters the room and the task of getting the class silent is met with resistance, as are all tasks. From simple requests, "why do we have to write down our names if you already know them?" to the value of the curriculum, "nobody uses the subjunctive when they talk in everyday life," the students turn their teacher into a modern day Sisyphus. To combat this opposition, François' takes an informal approach. Not unlike his cinematic predecessors he attempts to engage the students with a more conversational than didactic style in hopes of gaining their trust and forming a connection. But whereas, say, Michelle Pfeiffer's students eat it right up, François' students often use it against him. Though he may be talked to like a peer he is rarely treated like one. And while the buddy tactic has its merits, the students laugh at as his jokes and genuinely seem to like him, it blurs the authoritative line into a thin gray one.
Any and all discipline is very difficult. In one incident, Rachel (one of the more intriguing, prominently featured students), repeatedly refuses to read aloud in class. When François keeps her after and demands an apology, rejecting any he deems untruthful, Rachel is unthreatened, more concerned with the infringement on her afternoon plans. After he finally accepts her apology as genuine, Rachel quickly rescinds it as she walks out the door. This type of infuriating confrontation is one in an unending chain that equate François' job to pushing full force up against a brick wall. Clearly a dedicated teacher, what motivates his stiff resolve remains a confounding mystery.
Taking place over the course of one full school year, we gradually become acquainted with the individual students and the specific challenge each poses. The chosen method to attack these challenges, however, is in dispute. The benefit of punishment and praise is debated throughout the film in faculty meetings where staff members support contradicting tactics. Watching them tackle these delicate issues doesn't instill any envy for them. After pondering my own opinions on the subjects discussed I was forced to reconsidered the better part of my own time spent in a classroom.
In the films last third, where it most resembles a traditional narrative, the challenges facing the administration become more complex. Souleyman, at times a promising but frequently impertinent student, charges out of class, after François physically attempts to stop him, and inadvertently injures another student. To complicate matters, before the incident François, in a moment of frustration, insulted two girls during a heated exchange. The fallout tracks the decision of whether to expel Souleyman. François' involvement throws an additional wrench into the mix as he and his fellow staff members weigh the consequences expulsion will have on the boy's future given his tenuous life at home, against the consequences of allowing him to remain in class. Despite the outcome, ethically, there is no clear solution and that is the conclusion Cantet and Bégaudeau are after. There is no right answer.
This inconclusive subject matter is perfectly married with the film's unique look and feel. Forgoing the conventional use of wideshots to establish a scene within a time and place, there are no inter-titles denoting the season or how much time has passed. Cantet sets the camera up close on the actors faces, rarely any wider than a midshot, and keeps the action in the classroom. This creates an unrelenting pace that flows from day to day leaving little space to breathe in between. With no scenes cluing us in on François' hopes and dreams or the details of Souleyman's violent father, Cantet merely presents the events of the film without putting them in any sort of context. This not only makes the 128 minute running time fly by, but by not commenting it forces the viewer to be objective. Surprisingly by the films end, despite this arms length approach, the attachment that wasn't being forced upon you has been deceptively instilled. For a film seemingly so adverse to sentimentality, it yields some very moving ineractions, particularly in the final encounters.
At the center of this bold style are the, across the board, splendid performances from a group of non-actors playing versions of themselves (all the characters keep their real names). The classroom scenes in particular have a striking feel of vibrant spontaneity (much of the film was improvised) where not a single moment rings false. Credit Cantet for creating an environment that, with three cameras going at once, allowed these kids to perform at such high levels, to produce a multitude of fascinating moments.
But fascinating as it is, this vivid reality they've created doesn't really generate a thesis, and it doesn't intend to. "The Class" is more of an open examination that only asks questions. And while some of the questions may have been asked before. Never, in my experience, have they been so clearly illustrated. I think, particularly, teachers who have lived the reality this film depicts will appreciate that. I was constantly reminded of a friend of mine, while watching this film, who at one time taught 10th grade English at a High School in the Bronx. Furiously passionate about his job he would recount to me his frequent feelings of futility. "I have a "Dangerous Minds" moment at least once a day," he'd explain. "Someone will come up to me after class and say 'Mista, you're the only teacher I've ever had who really believes in me'." "And then the next day" he continued, "they'll come in not having done their homework."
Damn. If only he could've gotten them to stand on their desks.