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By Gemma Brosnan FOR those expecting a clichéd stream of classroom niceties and disillusioned delinquents, Laurent Cantet's latest is much more than a pleasant surprise. The Class is based on the autobiographical French bestseller, Entre le Murs, which literally translates into "Between the Walls," by author and former teacher, François Bégaudeau. Set in a tough multi-ethnic school in the Parisian banlieux, it charts Bégaudeau’s daily battles and war between classical education and modern culture, his sliding desperation to keep control and idealistic desire to inspire the impoverished and ethnically diverse. Remarkably, Bégaudeau plays a version of himself and does it incredibly well, although considering the strength of his typical audience - his students heartily assassinating every word - it isn’t much of a surprise. The idealistic young teacher’s determination to reach out to a troubled class of underprivileged kids, should have left most of us nauseated at worst, and at best, laughably bored. Yet French director, Laurent Cantet, does something miraculous with this fresh piece of humanist cinema, drenching it in realism, optimism and grit, pouring a glass of ice-cold water over the saccharine coated Hollywood dross filling seats in most national cinemas and scooping the Palme d'Or award at Cannes last year. Like its American counterparts (Dangerous Minds and Freedom Writers to name a few), Cantet has outfitted Bégaudeau with a melting pot of cultural and racial variants, designed to keep the landscape interesting and about as real as it can get. However, unlike the other films that usually frequent this genre, there is no effort to pigeonhole identities, nor is there any effort to sanctify François.
Although much of its action is garnered through lively yet simple debate - one of the film's central dramas concerns François accusing two of his students of "acting like skanks", a slang term of variable meaning they choose to interpret as meaning ‘whores’ - the teacher never becomes characterised as sinner or saint, and it reveals a great deal of depth in Cantet's material.
Cantet spent months auditing Bégaudeau's classes, casting many of the students as themselves in the film, keeping the camera on a tight leash throughout, rarely venturing outside of the classroom. The little history we are given is delivered through classroom or homework exercises, usually in boyish braggadocio, excited chatter or occasionally whispered rumours. The students often react to the curriculum with scorn. Take the imperfect subjunctive tense, for instance: "Not even my grandmother spoke like that!" complains one girl. "It's from the middle ages," another student chimes in. Among the students, many of whom are of African descent, there's a shy, intelligent Chinese boy with limited skills in French; a raven-haired Goth; and a white French youth who dreams of attending a prestigious, way-beyond-reach secondary school. At one point, a gaggle of Bégaudeau's students bully him about a popular rumour that he's gay, but thanks to Cantet's unrelenting focus, we are never told if Bégaudeau is gay, straight, a Sarkozy supporter, Bruni worshipper or just happens to have a German uncle he’s actually quite close to. Though its ideas on the political majority prove fascinating and hugely entertaining, it's ultimately the film's clashing concern over education that elevates The Class from simple intrigue to a work of fervent discourse. Bégaudeau attempts to teach the students through classical texts, including The Diary of Anne Frank, but he is consistently overcome by a rambunctious, Internet-educated culture which leaves him frustrated and confused. So weak is Bégaudeau's own confidence in classical teaching, that when one of his sassier students quotes Plato's Republic at him, he is left almost totally speechless and utterly dumbfounded. Similar is Cantet's reaction to the hyper-modern, surprisingly well-rounded discussions that the kids often initiate, discussions in which François is often left scrambling simply to keep up. It’s not that the majority of students are aggressive or ill-tempered. It's just that their own agendas have little to do with the syllabus and although Bégaudeau’s attempts to negotiate is very often in vain, it provides a compelling and gripping insight into the tougher side of the classroom and democracy’s smaller battles and turmoil that rarely ever make it to screen. Out Now On DVD
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