www.list.co.uk/film
To Sir, Wh love
IT'S A PORTRAIT OF MUNDANITY AND ADOLESCENT HYSTERIA
Laurent Cantet's Palme D'Or winner The Class is the best film ever made about education. Paul Dale explains why every MSP should be made to watch it
rom Jean Vigo‘s revolutionary fable Zero (le
(‘oiuluit to Nicolas Philibert‘s celebration of
republican schooling litre er Avoir. education and cinema have always made odd bedfellows. The school as battleground as seen in Lindsay Anderson’s If... and Kinji Fukasaku‘s Battle Royale has long been a staple on which to hang simple—minded rhetoric. sci- fi allusion and murderous intent. And then there‘s all those great things about school — inspirational teachers (Dangerous Minds). learning tolerance (To Sit: Willi Love). flush faced romantic pop (High School
Musical) and insipid vampires (Twilight). None of
which. as is the reasoning of French filmmaker Laurent Cantet’s new film. really has anything to do with the reality of those who spend their days ‘within the walls' (as the film‘s French title Entre les Mars has it) of your average state funded school.
Cantet. a brilliant filmmaker who has already taken a pickaxe to the tyrannies of workplace politics. unemployment and sexual colonisation by the idle rich in Human Resources. Time Out and Heading South treads a fine line in The Class between reality
and fiction. Taking as its source the memoirs of
Francois Bégaudeau — a former high school teacher turned novelist. now scriptwriter and lead actor — the film shows the daily battle of wits involved in teaching an inner city secondary class (in Paris‘ unfashionable Belleville district). Bégaudeau plays Francois Marin. an extension of his former self — a
gifted and dedicated teacher who bears the weight of
ridiculous protocol and the petty complaints of his contemporaries in order to give the very best to his
40 THE LIST 19 Feb—5 Mar 2009
often resentful students. But this experienced and dedicated teacher discovers the fragility of the world he inhabits when he lets slip with a derogatory remark to one of his pupils.
In keeping with social realist traditions. (’antet‘s lilm draws on a largely non-professional cast (mostly from Paris' Francoise I)olto school) to create a
portrait of mundanity and adolescent hysteria. of
immigrant illiteracy and simmering tensions. It‘s a place where the good go to the wall while the mediocre survive by not giving a shit. In other words it‘s your average comprehensive in France. in Iingland. in Scotland.
If you want to know why. retirement aside. half of
Scotland‘s teachers are set to leave the profession in the next four years. leading to an unprecedented recruitment crisis. The Class will tell you why. For all our faith in schools as the bedrock of modern citizenship. teachers today are faced with a veritable plague of problems (well intentioned bureaucracy. mobile phones. disempowerment) that just did not exist when the cane was all the authority a teacher needed. No one wants to go back to those days. but neither do we want to lose the best of our generation. So. Fiona Hyslop. where‘s the pastoral care‘.’ Where are the learning enhancement centres‘.’ Crown Hills Community Centre in Leicester should be your template. Without places such as these. there is no future — for the kids or the teachers.
The Class, GFT, Glasgow and Cameo, Edinburgh from Fri 27 Feb. See Also Released, page 44.
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THE BEST FILM & DVD RELEASES
it Three Monkeys Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns with an elliptical film noir. See review. page 42. Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 27-Thu 5 Mar.
* Anvll! The Story of Anvil The greatest rock and roll story never told. See interview and Also Released. page 44. General release from Fri 20 Feb. * Che: Part No Bolivian nightmares for the great revolutionary in brilliant second part of Steven Soderbergh's biopic. See review. page 41. General release from Fri 20 Feb. * Gran Torlno Clint Eastwood's tremendous modern western. See review. page 43. General release from Fri 20 Feb.
* The Class A teacher's lot. See preview. left and Also Released. page 44. GFT, Glasgow and Cameo, Edinburgh from Fri 27 Feb.
* The International The bankers did it. Excellent old school thriller. See review. page 44. General release from Fri 27 Feb.
* The Good the Bad the Weird Leone's epic western goes loco in 19303 Manchuria. Out now. selected release.
1! Bolt 30 Super shaggy dog tale. Out now. general release. * Notorious Not the film about the fat dead rapper but the restored print of Hitchcock's very line 1946 espionage yarn. Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 20- Thu 26 Feb.
* Slumdog Mllllonalre Still showing. still winning awards. Out now, selected release.
* Vllld Japan Still plenty of dirty Japanese movies to see. Get yourself a season ticket. and a mackintosh coat. Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Tue 10 Feb.
* My Name Is Bruce Campbell is back on DVD. See interview, page 41. Out Mon 2 Mar (Anchor Bay).