The Class

A supremely confident movie, based on François Bégaudeau's semi-autobiographical novel Entre Les Murs and starring the author himself as the teacher at the centre of the story, it's easy to see why Laurent Cantet's movie has been such a critical success. Spread out over the course of an academic year, the film documents François' time as a French teacher, following his interactions with both the students and the faculty.

The first hour or so of the film feels almost loose, as the viewer is invited to observe the dynamics of the classroom and François' interactions with the class. These scenes are electric. Certain abrasive students come to the fore, not only as a way to avoid work but also as a way to confirm their standing amongst their peers and to question the socio-political prejudices of their teacher; at one point, a student asks him why he only ever uses Caucasian names when he writes out examples of French on the blackboard. However, this improvisational feel belies the work that has gone into the incredibly nuanced screenplay. We witness the ebb and flow of the classroom. A girl who was friendly the previous summer is sullen when she returns for the autumn semester, two friends fall out only to make up again a few weeks later, the more academically gifted students struggle to make themselves heard above their noisier classmates. François is aware of all of this but the students' private lives remain hidden as, indeed, does that of François himself. A parent/teacher evening provides the viewer with some context as to the students' home lives but the script acknowledges the impossibility of the teacher ever "knowing" his students and vice versa.

The climax of the film comes when two girls hear some disparaging remarks François makes about a Malian student, Suleiman, during a teachers' conference. When they inform Suleiman of what the teacher has said, François calls them both "pétasses", a word that that, in certain contexts, can mean "slut". This leads to a confrontation in class and Suleiman storms out of class, accidentally striking another student with his backpack. It is here that Cantet's fascination with language - how it can be used and misappropriated - comes most obviously to the fore. Although François tries to qualify his use of the word "pétasses" he eventually finds himself fighting with the girls in the playground, symbolically battling it out on their turf. His intellectualisation of the confrontation is of no use here and, as far as the two girls are concerned, he has shown his true colours. The additional possibility that Suleiman may be sent back to his home village in Mali adds a further dimension to the school's decision as to whether to expel him or not, and another layer to François' troubled central character.

The Class also involves a hugely moving final scene, which not only radically alters François' assumptions about his students but those of the viewer themselves. We are just as prone to the prejudices and second-guesses of the teacher. A student we had previously thought as sullen and disruptive reveals that she has not only read but understood Plato's Republic and another girl, one who we had barely noticed, reveals that the school year has taught her nothing, that she doesn't understand any of her lessons and that she is frightened about what her future might hold. It's a bold, upsetting final scene and one that lingered long in my mind.