The idealistic young teacher reaching out to a troubled class of underprivileged kids - it should be the dullest movie cliche imaginable. Yet French director Laurent Cantet does something miraculous with it in this fresh piece of humanist, realist, optimist cinema, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes last year.
The teacher is François Marin, a slim, boyish thirtysomething teacher of French language and literature. We are to encounter him in the classroom, the staff-room and in the schoolyard, but never at home. We never find out about his home life or his personal life. His sole moment of privacy is glimpsed at the very beginning of the film: having a cup of coffee before gearing himself up for the fray.
My favourite scene in the movie is at the end when the students are sitting in the class ready to break for summer term. The teacher is asking each of them what they learnt that year. One student says 'volcanoes' another 'combustion' and another 'reproduction'. Finally the camera settles on the trouble-maker of the class. A spotty faced-teen with braces in her teeth who the teacher had previously called a 'slut':
''I didn't learn anything' she says apologetically
'You can't spend nine months at school and not learn anything' says the teacher
'Well I'm the living proof' she replies
'You must have got something from the books you read in class?'
'Your books are shit' she replies
'What about a book you read yourself?'
'The books I read myself?...well there's The Republic. The book The Republic' she says
[The teacher stares at her not quite believing she read The Republic]
'By Plato?' he asks
[She nods her head]
'You read that?'
'Yes' she replies
'How come?' he asks (remember these are underprivileged school-kids from immigrant backgrounds)
'My big sister had it'
'She does philosophy?'
'No, law'
'So what's it about?'
'Well there's this guy. His names Socrates. He stops people in the street and he asks them, "Are you sure of thinking what you think? Are you sure of doing what you do?"
'What does he talk about?' the teacher asks
'Everything. Love, religion, God, people, everything'
'It's good you read it'
'I know. It's not a slut's book!'...
The sheer lucid force of The Class is compelling and exhilarating. Cantet's final tableau shots of the empty classroom, like a deserted battlefield, made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle. There are very few films that can claim to make their audiences into happier and smarter people. I think this is definitely one. Highly recommended!
[Trailer]
