The Class

This film follows a class of ethnically diverse students in a Parisian middle school French class. The film is done documentary style and has been one of the best reviewed films of late, even winning the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. At this point I have to declare that I'm definitely in the minority on this one. The film spends most of its time in the classroom capturing its routine goings on, which apparently in this class doesn't include a whole lot of teaching. The teacher seems to spend most of his time dealing with discipline and problem students, as many of these kids seem disaffected from mainstream French society. The film has good intentions in trying to show the difficulty that both teachers have in teaching and students in learning, in the equivalent of what Americans would likely call an inner-city school. Good intentions are unfortunately, not enough. The film spends way too much time following the minutia of the classroom experience. A little editing please. It's not till near the end that any type of real drama unfolds, and by then I was just hoping for it to end. This film is semi-autobiographical, and certainly has merit as an educational piece. As a piece of entertainment, it just falls flat.

Rating - 1 1/2 Stars