The Class
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLaurent Cantet
Screenplay byLaurent Cantet
François Bégaudeau
Robin Campillo
Based onEntre les murs
by François Bégaudeau
Produced byCaroline Benjo
Carole Scotta
StarringFrançois Bégaudeau
CinematographyPierre Milon
Edited byRobin Campillo
Distributed byHaut et Court
Release dates
  • 24 May 2008 (2008-05-24) (Cannes)
  • 24 September 2008 (2008-09-24) (France)
Running time
128 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Budget€2.5 million[1]
Box office$28.7 million[1]

The Class (French: Entre les murs, lit. 'Between the walls') is a 2008 French drama film directed by Laurent Cantet, based on the 2006 novel of the same name by François Bégaudeau. The novel is a semi-autobiographical account of Bégaudeau's experiences as a French language and literature teacher in a middle school in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, particularly illuminating his struggles with "problem children": Esmerelda (Esmeralda Ouertani), Khoumba (Rachel Regulier), and Souleymane (Franck Keïta). The film stars Bégaudeau himself in the role of the teacher.[2]

The film received a unanimous Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, making it the first French film to do so since 1987, when Maurice Pialat won the award for Under the Sun of Satan. The Class was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but lost to Departures.

Plot

Set entirely in a secondary school in a working-class district of Paris, where most residents are first-generation immigrants to France born overseas, the film follows the year of a young teacher, François Marin, and the 25 pupils aged 14-15 years whom he takes for an hour each day for French lessons. A loner, he walks the narrow line between maintaining discipline and gaining co-operation.

From the start, wide differences are apparent in the class over standards of dress, deportment, knowledge, and application. A dispute arises over using the imperfect and pluperfect subjunctive, which he admits may be a bit of an affectation and a student questions whether François is gay. When pupils have to read aloud from The Diary of Anne Frank, a girl called Khoumba refuses because she does not consider it relevant to her life. In private, François forces her to apologise.

Success comes when he asks the pupils to write a self-portrait. An assertive girl called Esmeralda reveals that she would like to be a policewoman or failing that, a rapper. A difficult boy called Souleymane, weak in written French, submits his story in an interesting series of photographs (at a parents' evening, his mother cannot speak French at all). However, after an argument over football teams with Will, another boy who is problematic, Souleymane insults François and is sent to the head teacher's office.

At a teachers' conference to decide final placings, François defends Souleymane but his efforts are undermined by the two student representatives at the meeting, Esmeralda and Louise, who behave in a very childish manner. During the next class, despite the confidential nature of the teachers' conference, the two girls tell the others that François had it in for Souleymane. A furious François rebukes the pair, saying they behaved like "skanks" (French: pétasses). Uproar follows, in which Souleymane, after accidentally hitting Khoumba with his backpack, storms out and is suspended. Later, Khoumba pulls aside François, telling him that if Souleymane is expelled, his father may send him back to his native country, Mali, as punishment. After a disciplinary hearing at which Souleymane is supported by his mother, for whom he has to translate, he is ultimately expelled.

In the last lesson of the year, François asks each pupil what they have learned over the year. Carl has been inspired by science experiments in his chemistry class, Khoumba has warmed to music and enjoyed learning Spanish, Esmerelda professes to have learned nothing in school but then admits that she has read Plato's Republic in her free time. After they have all left the room, a quiet girl called Henriette comes back and despondently claims that she really has not learned anything at all. Outside, an impromptu football match has begun between the pupils and teachers.

Cast

  • François Bégaudeau : François Marin, the French language teacher.
  • Jean-Michel Simonet : the school principal.
  • Burak Ozyilmaz : Burak, top boy of the class.
  • Boubacar Touré : Boubacar, who accuses Marin of being gay.
  • Carl Nanor : Carl, who has been expelled from his previous school.
  • Louise Grinberg : Louise, top girl of the class and a student delegate.
  • Esmeralda Ouertani : Esmeralda, the other student delegate.
  • Franck Keïta : Souleymane, whose lack of control leads to him being disciplined.
  • Henriette Kasaruhanda : Henriette, the silent girl who says she has learned nothing.
  • Rachel Régulier : Khoumba, the girl who refuses to read.

Reception

The cast at Cannes Film Festival 2008

The film was the featured opening night selection at the 46th New York Film Festival in 2008.

The film has received critical acclaim, achieving a 95% rating at Rotten Tomatoes out of 161 reviews counted, and an average rating of 8.06/10. The site's consensus reads, "Energetic and bright, this hybrid of documentary style and dramatic plotting looks at the present and future of France through the interactions of a teacher and his students in an inner-city high school."[3] Metacritic lists Entre les murs with a rating of 92, based on 31 critics,[4] making it one of the best reviewed films of the year according to the website.

The film was warmly reviewed by the critic Philip French who noted: "There is a remarkable French tradition of school films, extending from Jean Vigo's Zéro de Conduite, to Nicolas Philibert's Être et avoir. Laurent Cantet, whose parents were both teachers, carries it on and he elicits marvellous performances... As the teacher at a tough, racially mixed, inner-city school in Paris, Marin (François Bégaudeau), neither weary cynic nor wide-eyed idealist, is a decent, determined realist... not a saint, though by the end of the school year he has exhibited some of the necessary qualities."[5]

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.[6]

French researcher and education writer Philippe Meirieu observed that the film shows a teacher full of leftist good intentions, who nevertheless neglects any mediation and does not use any pedagogy other than a kind of dialogical lecture without any constructed learning situation. The teacher comes to rely on seduction, pressure and sanction without avoiding personal confrontation with some of his pupils. Meirieu is concerned about the reading that can be made of the film, which, by showing the difficulties and the explosive situation that emerges, suggests that there is no alternative or which would reinforces authoritarianism and anti-pedagogism.[7][8]

Accolades

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref(s)
Academy Awards 22 February 2009 Best Foreign Language Film Laurent Cantet Nominated [9]
Cannes Film Festival 14 – 25 May 2008 Palme d'Or Won [10]
César Awards 27 February 2009 Best Film Carole Scotta, Caroline Benjo, Laurent Cantet Nominated [11][12]
Best Director Laurent Cantet Nominated
Best Adaptation François Bégaudeau, Robin Campillo and Laurent Cantet Won
Best Editing Robin Campillo, Stephanie Leger Nominated
Best Sound Olivier Mauvezin, Agnes Ravez, Jean-Pierre Laforce Nominated
European Film Awards 27 February 2009 Best Film Simon Arnal, Carole Scotta, Barbara Letellier, Caroline Benjo Nominated [13]
Best Director Laurent Cantet Nominated
Image Awards 12 February 2009 Best Foreign Language Film Won [14]
Independent Spirit Awards 21 February 2009 Best International Film Won [15]
Los Angeles Film Critics Association 9 December 2008 Best Foreign Language Film Runner-up [16]
Lumières Awards 19 January 2009 Best Film Won [17]
Public Prize Won
Satellite Awards 14 December 2008 Best Foreign Language Film Nominated [18]
Toronto Film Critics Association 17 December 2008 Best Foreign Language Film Runner-up [19]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Entre les murs". JP's Box-Office.
  2. ↑ Manohla Dargis (26 September 2008). "Laurent Cantet's 'The Class': Learning to be the future of France". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  3. ↑ "The Class (2008)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  4. ↑ "The Class". Metacritic. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  5. ↑ Philip French review, The Observer, 1 March 2009
  6. ↑ "Metacritic: 2008 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Retrieved January 11, 2009.
  7. ↑ « Cette école ne ressemble en rien à celle que je défends » Entretien paru dans POLITIS du 18 septembre 2008
  8. ↑ Entre les murs : un film en dehors de l’École, Philippe Meirieu
  9. ↑ "The 81st Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  10. ↑ Mike Collett-White; James Mackenzie (26 May 2008). "French film wins top Cannes prize". Reuters. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  11. ↑ Peter Knegt (23 January 2009). "'Public Enemy' Takes Record 10 Cesar Nods". IndieWire. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  12. ↑ Elsa Keslassy (27 February 2009). "'Seraphine' tops Cesar Awards". Variety. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  13. ↑ Eugene Hernandez (8 November 2008). "Awards Watch With 'Gomorrah' and 'Il Divo,' Italy In Spotlight at 21st European Film Award Nominat". IndieWire. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  14. ↑ "NAACP Image Awards". NAACP Image Awards. Archived from the original on 15 July 2011.
  15. ↑ Susan King (22 February 2009). "'The Wrestler' wins at Film Independent's Spirit Awards". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  16. ↑ "34th Annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards". Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  17. ↑ Rebecca Leffler (19 January 2009). "Biopics in Lumiere spotlight; 'Class' best pic". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  18. ↑ "2008 13th Annual Satellite™ Awards". Satellite Awards. Archived from the original on 17 November 2011.
  19. ↑ "Past Award Winners". Toronto Film Critics Association. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
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