Genre: Drama
Director: Laurent Cantet
Starring: François Bégaudeau
Running Time: 128 minutes (plus trailers)
Oh dear. Another French film in which not much happens, but because of its ‘gritty realism’ it receives rave reviews from the critics. The Class, or Entre Les Murs as it is called in its native tongue is based on the semi autobiographical novel of the same name. The film was adapted by, and stars that author of the book, a French literature teacher named Francois Begaudeau, who in the film is called Mr Marin. Marin teachers the 3/4 class in a suburban Parisian school, which is made up of students aged 14 and 15, and are of various different ethnicities, interests and learning abilities. After an incident that occurs in class one day, both Mr Marin and one of his students find their position in the school in jeopardy. This film is essentially a year in the classroom; we follow the assignments and arguments that occur, and get an insight into the lives of both the students and teachers.
The Class is Frances nomination for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, beating out I’ve Loved You So Long, a film that critics adored and I despised (click here for my scathing review.) The Class is definitely a better film; better written, better directed, and despite having a fairly mundane subject matter, it is far more interesting. The films greatest strength and its greatest weaknesses come from its realism. Shot like a documentary, the cameras never leave the school grounds, and the direction is threadbare: there is no pulsing soundtrack or flashy editing. There is no real driving narrative, and the story simply comes from watching Mr Marin try to control his class. Through staff meetings, parent teacher interviews and of course the classes themselves, we get a brief glimpse into the home lives for the student, which gives us some explanation for how they act in school. Being a high schooler myself, I could identify with almost all of the situations and students, and my parents, both of whom are teachers, told me that the film accurately portrays what goes on behind the scenes as well. The actors are barely that; each student bears the same name as the teenager actor who plays them, and so despite the film being scripted, it comes across as being very authentic. It is hard to believe that this film could be interesting, but the dialogue is great and the characters fascinating.
Those were the positives. The main negative is that because the movie is so realistic that it sometimes feels like…well, like sitting in class, which is not what I go to the movies to see (especially seeing as I’m just back to school myself). Watching Marin is just like watching one of my teachers, and while I mean no offence to any of them, it’s just not that interesting. In fact, sometimes it’s dull, monotonous and seemingly endless. At the halfway point, there is an incident, after which the film becomes more gripping, but the lead up is so slow that it is almost unbearable. And yet, I cannot really fault the film makers, because had the incident occurred ten minutes into the movie, you would not have bought it. It is only because we have seen and experienced the frustration that both Mr Marin and his students feel that the incident is at all believable. The second half of the film is really good, but I am not sure whether it was worth the wait
The critical reaction for this film is not as baffling as it was for ILYSO, but the movie has still been over hyped. Even though there are a lot of things in this movie that do deserve praise, realism alone is not enough to give a film a fantastic review. Each character is interesting, the acting is all great, the dialogue very genuine and the movies conflict (when it finally arrives) creates some surprisingly intense scenes. However, despite all these pluses, The Class is simply not as good as the sum of its parts. There is so much that is great, and yet the movie is only good. Check it out if the trailer appeals, otherwise don’t bother.
The Class is in cinemas now.
