The leading actor in The Class, Bégaudeau, is a man of many parts novelist, actor, screenplay writer and former teacher. The film is loosely based on a Bégaudeau’s fictionalised account of his experience as an idealistic, novice teacher. Director, Cantet, whose parents were teachers, workshopped the script with Bégaudeau and a group of teenage pupils – with no previous acting experience – in a multi-ethnic Parisian school.
The filming process took a full academic year and together they co-created one of the best European films of 2008. The authentic knowledge of the education system and the commitment to improvisation results in a truly engaging cinema experience. The performances are grounded and honest, multi-directional tensions fizzle and spark and the teacher is as likely to get it wrong as anyone else. Raw and unpredictable the film appears to be a documentary but its not, the performances are simply natural.
And its fascinating to notice how a film can be hugely watchable and at the same time have social relevance far beyond national boundaries. Although the French students seem to be more politically aware than the average inner city British teenager, the issues, tensions and disaffection with the system and society are transferrable and help us understand. Reviewers have called this an important film and judging by the column inches dedicated to it, it probably is but make up your mind and tell us what you think.
For anyone who loves language, this cut-and-thrust is a heady delight, so rich and free-flowing in its rhythms that its hard to decide whether what were seeing is a verité-style documentary or a realist drama. Ella Taylor, The Village Voice
The Class is blessed with a gathering strength and power of expression to say this is an important film would perhaps be off-putting but it is, and please don’t be off-put. Derek Malcolm, Evening Standard
The Class confirms and extends Cantets status as one of the masters of European social cinema. Sukhdev Sandhu, Daily Telegraph
The best film about school-teaching I have seen a wise, funny cry of helplessness before the tsunami of anarchy that can be school-age adolescence Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
