Review of The Class (2008) by Paul W — 12 Aug 2009

The Class made me pine for my school teaching days but I don't remember my former students challenging me like these students do to their teacher. It's a very intelligent movie that you can't immediately review until you try to digest the (many) themes here.

While most reviewers theorized on what it means to be French, I thought it was simply a movie about "attitudes." The teachers have a "you can't insult us" attitude while the students show a "whatever" attitude.

Of course, these attitudes clash and we see how it's played out after an unfortunate incident which results in the male student (Franck Keita as Souleymane) brought up for expulsion by the disciplinary committee which is farcical.

Francois Begaudeau brings the right conflict to the role of the well-meaning French teacher. The movie plays like a documentary so I was a little surprised to learn that they actually had a script and improvised as they filmed.

One of the best classrooms dramas I've seen and a welcome change to the Hollywood movie summer prodcuts.