Review of The Class (2008) by Caleb C — 30 Apr 2011

A highly effective piece of work. It tugs on so many different emotional strings that it is almost impossible to look away from. Here we have a French teacher working in a school in a rough area of Paris.

What we get to see is the reactions and consequences of these out of control students and how the students bring everything down and possibly the teacher with them as well. There are moments where we really feel for the teacher here and squirm for how much he has to put up with.

Then we have the teacher enter the facilty/teachers lounge as well as situations involving parent/ teacher interviews. It is truley a bit hard to watch everything this teacher goes through, but all in all the performances and the script here is so genuine that it's hard to tell this is just 'a movie'.

It really echoed what one may see in reality in any situation like the ones that go on here. for anyone that is a fan of the indie film scene this is a must, but a wider audience may not recieve or enjoy it as much if looking for something that is 'enjoyable' so to speak.

I found it to be one of the best foreign films I've seen from 2008.