The Class

Critically acclaimed, with the Cannes Golden Palm and an Oscar nomination, The Class tells the story of a young teacher in a rough Parisian neighbourhood, Francois (Francois Begaudeau), and of how he tries to give his students the best education despite their difficult behaviour.

The Class is halfway between a fiction and a documentary: there is no deliberate theme or message, exaggeration is kept to a minimum, and all opinions are given a voice; but it also has plot, sub-plots and strong characterisation. Many films have tried to get the balance right between realism and plot. Half Nelson revolved around a similar storyline, but quickly needed to exaggerate the personalities of its protagonists, and stopped being a film about a teacher and his class to become the story of two people. While this approach still produced an excellent film, The Class never falls into this trap and ends up managing the perfect balance between documentary and fiction.

This success, and the freshness of the film is mostly down to the cast: inexperienced actors, but experienced students were chosen to play roles not dissimilar to those they take on in everyday life, and Begeaudeau is the author of the semi-autobiographic book the film is based on.

The French title, Entre les murs ("within the walls"), gives away more of the film's intentions: to show something that is symptomatic of all modern classrooms, and to show a gap between everyday life and the classroom. This dichotomy is cleverly expressed throughout the film by consistent choices in directing and in photography. The Class provides essential food for thought for anyone considering going into teaching, and an entertaining and thought-provoking two hours for anyone else.

Pierre Schramm