The Class

Composite Score: 84.4

Starring: François Bégaudeau, Boubacar Toure, Carl Nanor, Esmeralda Ouertani, Rachel Regulier, Rabah Nait Oufella, Franck Keïta, and Jean-Michel Simonet

Director: Laurent Cantet

Writers: Laurent Cantet, Robin Campillo, and François Bégaudeau

Genres: Drama, School

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language

Box Office: $29.30 million worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                The Class is Laurent Cantet’s film adaptation of François Bégaudeau’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name (Entre les Murs in French) about a literature teacher at an inner-city middle school in Paris. The film stars Bégaudeau in the leading role of Monsieur Marin alongside a group of young people who portray the various students in his class. The film was the recipient of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and received an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature Film, being celebrated for its authentic look at public education and the difficulties and triumphs of teaching students from tough backgrounds. For myself, this film felt like the most realistic portrayal of students and the classroom that I’ve ever seen put to film.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                With its striking subject matter, I do think that The Class will probably be more resonant for people who work or have worked in the field of education before. So much of what I loved about this film has to do with how I personally related to the situations unfolding onscreen and the similarities I saw between Marin’s teaching and relating style and my own classroom procedures. People without those kinds of experiences might still find the realism of the classroom environment to echo some of their own experiences, but the film as a whole probably won’t feel quite so poignant at the end. Again though, educators or former educators are probably in for a real treat (and maybe some PTSD) when they watch this film. Other audiences might get at least a glimpse into that world and start to get a sense of sympathy or empathy for teachers when they ask for pay raises or increased resources or better support systems and the like.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                I loved every second of this film. It feels so raw and real thanks to the performances from the young students and from Bégaudeau, and it touches on so many issues within public schools and inner-city politics and education in general that it feels like it’s not just native to France, but speaking instead a universal language of educators who want to truly help their students. It all felt so real and frustrating in many ways because of how its story unfolds across its single school year. The classroom interactions, from the jokes to the presentations to the backtalk to the altercations, all felt lived in, and I suppose that’s also a testament to Bégaudeau’s writing and the adaptation work done by Cantet and Robin Campillo (who also wrote and directed another of my favorite modern French films BPM: Beats Per Minute, quick plug to watch that if you still haven’t). I felt Marin’s frustration with his students and his frustration with his fellow faculty. The clashes over the issues of discipline felt like they had been pulled out of some of my own experiences in after-school staff meetings. Everything about The Class speaks to the world of education from the perspective of someone who has truly lived it, and that is the kind of cinema that we need to connect parents and administrators with the teachers and students in the actual classrooms (or “between the walls” of the school, as Bégaudeau titled his book).

                The Class’s experiential take on education from the point of view of a single teacher gives the audience a unique but very authentic take on the world of the classroom that feels more real than just about any other film made on the subject, earning it a much-deserved spot among the greats. It might be more resonant with educators than other audiences, but its message of helping students and helping teachers is one that everyone should hear. It is currently available to rent on most streaming services for anyone looking to check it out soon.