Review of The Class (2008) by Mike M — 27 Feb 2009

Cantet notes the specifics of pedagogic life - one of the students, as one of any group of students always seems to, has a pen that leaks everywhere - but his real interest lies in what the French would probably call le va-et-vient, the push and pull, of the classroom.

Long sequences - set-pieces, in effect, comparable to the pyrokinetic highlights of any action movie - map out those sparky afternoons when everyone's keen to contribute, and the gloomy mornings where nobody's done their homework, half the class is nodding off and the other half, resentful after a bollocking, scarcely seem inclined to pick up the slack - until (and this is where Cantet and Begaudeau excel) a spell of brilliant, engaged teaching lifts the clouds and restores the light to the room.

.. It was an inspired decision on Cantet's part to cast Begaudeau as a fictionalised version of himself: no Robin Williams figure, this, inspiring meek "capitan, mon capitan"s from the young minds around him, but an incarnation of everything we expect a modern teacher to be: a combination of referee, alchemist, social worker, stand-up comic, traffic cop - marshalling his charges' diversions and deciding which are worthwhile pursuing, which to clamp down on - and finally something of the pupil himself, always willing to learn, and fill out the appropriate paperwork accordingly.

Above all else, he's an individual entrusted/burdened with a hugely important (*the* most important?) task: shaping - or getting in shape - the minds of a nation; the abiding memory of Begaudeau's performance is of the vein pulsing at his temple, both a tool, and consequence, of the job.

Give credit, too, to a supporting cast who perfectly embody what it is to be young today: bright and plugged in, in some cases spoiled, in others put-upon and prone to distraction. But save the most praise, in a film in which language is essential, for the English subtitlers, negotiating with supreme skill the declensions of irregular verbs and the argot of inner-city Paris.

Cantet may set the questions here, but the subtitlers' word is final.