Review of The Class (2008) by Lesley N — 03 Jan 2010

Etre Et Avoir was the 2002 French award winning documentary about a one-room one-teacher village school where cute moppets are gently led through their ABC,s and 1,2,3s by their twinkly eyed grandfatherly teacher. Entre les Murs/The Class is the 2009 award winning improvised film about an inner city Parisian high school where gobby teenagers are dragged reluctantly through their subjunctive imperfects by their hip middle aged French teacher.

Francois Begaudeau, the teacher and writer of the autobiography on which the film was based takes the lead role, the pupils all use their own names,and their parents are actually their parents, so unsurprisingly this comes across as documentary rather than fiction. I..e not a lot actually happens. Which is good compared to the life-changing epiphanies that regularly pop up in your average "inspirational" teaching drama (Dead Poets Society, Dangerous Minds, Mr Hollands Opus, School of Rock, a billion others). I also had a sneaky sympathy with the unruly students who after all had to deal with a teacher who encouraged them to think freely and then played the authority card whenever they challenged him. Overall though, I found it all a little... throws chalk, wake up, you at the back..... dull.