
Just like in class, you should raise your hand before talking in the movies.
By Anthony Buchanan
The Dead Poets Society archetype is dead.
No extremely supportive and inspiring teachers have graced the screen in recent times and perhaps this is a good thing. With few exceptions—such as the neo-conformist The Emperor's Club—American movies about kids in the classroom have moved increasingly away from the morally didactic standpoint of "stay in school and suffer and one day you'll be glad." Conversely, the archetype of the snarky nihilism of The Breakfast Club and Rock 'n' Roll High School rip-offs is also on its way out. Old-school, I know, but the origins of these movie myths go back a long way in this country.
French cinema is in a similar situation. The Class, which exists somewhere between the cliché of French youth education as romantic rebellion and a stance of relaxed hierarchy, simply shows the classroom for what it is. And it's about time.
Intimately framing the students and teachers equally, the almost exclusively hand-held camera observes fun, naughty behavior and innocent rebellion over the course of a single year in the class of Mr. Marin (François Bégaudeau).
Without apparent moral imposition, the story flows with the confident ease of director Laurent Cantet, who wants to leave out his own agenda and observe the classroom realistically. It's a rather daunting task, yet he manages it magnificently. The film pays close attention to the surrounding environment of the school, and realism, not sensationalism, is the key. The mundane is ever-present in this film, which commits just as much screen time to a conference discussion of a broken coffeemaker as to the issues of teacher/student dynamics.
Boring? Not at all. And dynamic? Big time. The students, each of whom is followed with a matter-of-factness similar to that of Gus Van Sant's Elephant, all have different stories to tell. Issues of race, class and socially imposed character well up with a post-colonial edge. These kids are fighting the expectations that everyone, including their teachers, has for them. In one of the film's three still shots, a boy stares straight ahead and tells about his interests, but nothing about himself. In another scene, a young man defends his uniqueness based on his eccentric dress and is called out by Marin, who claims the boy is simply promoting another form of conformity: that of the non-conformist. Well spotted.
If no one else is up to the task, teachers at least will appreciate the relaxed passive voice of this film. The amount of time taken up on goofy diversions in the classroom, like the oh-so-important rumor that the teacher is gay and is going to hit on one of the slackers, couldn't be more—guess what—real. But the occasional heartfelt attempts to play it the teacher's way by cooperating, however briefly, are equally sustaining. It's an example of what happens when a filmmaker sits back and simply observes. Two hours for a genuinely represented year of change are definitely worth it.
The Class
Directed by Laurent Cantet
Written by Robin Campillo, Laurent Cantet and François Bégaudeau, based the book Entre les murs by François Bégaudeau
With François Bégaudeau, Nassim Amrabt, Laura Baquela, Cherif Bounaïdja Rachedi and Juliette Demaille
UA DeVargas
128 min., PG-13