Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Movie review - The Class/Entre les Murs

So we trundled on down to watch the winner of the 2008 Cannes Palm d'Or. Set in a multicultural middle school in the 20e arrondissement of Paris, the movie is based on the semi-autobiographical novel by François Bégaudeau who also plays the teacher of the eponymous class. The movie looks at the struggles of trying to teach students something when they are unable or unwilling to understand. But is it prize-worthy?

The movie is presented, documentary style, as an academic year in the life of the teacher. The film begins with the teachers introducing themselves to each other and joking about how they try to teach their subjects (the implication being that the students are impossible). We meet M. Marin (
Bégaudeau) try to instill discipline into his class of surly 14 year olds. We meet his class; there's Wei - the Chinese immigrant who's older than the rest but finds it difficult to communicate, Esmerelda who's rude and yet clearly highly intelligent, Khoumba who used to get on well with M. Marin but is now surly, and undisciplined Souleymane.

We see the circular nature of problems in the education system: parents criticise the teachers for not being able to raise the grade of the school, the teachers are frustrated at have having to teach a state-proscribed syllabus that the students are not interested in or are not prepared for, while the kids complain about having to learn archaic things like the imperfect subjunctive that have no relevance to their lives. M. Marin walks a thin line between trying to be friends with this students in order to encourage their learning but also trying to keep the students in line. Ultimately things go haywire when he uses the term *pétasse* to scold the actions of some students in his class. But illustrative of the way the teaching system may be outmoded, the word has different connotations from the teacher to the modern jargon interpretation of the the students and they take offense (I had to look this up, a good discussion on the definition/translation can be found here).

My first reaction on watching the rowdy school scenes were *I don't remember school being like that!* Then again, I went to a single-sex private school were you were only allowed in if you could pay the fees so the racial and economic microcosm was different to that presented in the movie. And being
a disciplined supernerd meant that I didn't have difficulty explaining myself or learning anything teachers tried to drill. Some of the scenes are pretty repetitive and dull, but I'm sure that is the case for a lot of students in class.

If I had to really complain, there were times when the hand-held camera gave me a headache from the jiggling. Also, it was noted while the move addresses some pretty big issues, none are given a satisfactory conclusion. Of course, issues such as how to deal with problem students/interracial relations/inspiring students to learn are never going to be dealt neatly in two hours. And there was something strange at the end when *spoiler* a student distressedly tells M. Marin that she learned nothing in the course of the entire year.*end spoiler.

I've seen some comments saying this movie isn't as inspiring as others in the same genre like Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, Dead Poet's Society or To Sir, With Love. To them I say, time has moved on and Hollywood has a way of glossing over things so that problem people get fixed up with a little understanding. That doesn't happen in real life and The Class is meant to be reflective of 'real life' where an idealistic teacher is sometimes not enough to fix a problem student because in real life, idealistic teachers get cynical very quickly. In any case, a very intelligent and thought provoking movie on education and its role in society, raises questions about the best way to teach, and what to do when people just won't learn. And yes, it's very good.
8/10

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