Entre les Murs (The Class) (2008)

Finally, a film that gets the teaching profession RIGHT! I am so sick and tired of movies like "Freedom Writers" that show that in order to be a "great teacher," one must sacrifice his/her personal life and paycheck for the students. Not so with THE CLASS.

While I think THE CLASS (ENTRE LES MURS) is a fantastic film, I also have to say that it was not a comfortable one for me to watch. The reviews of this Palm d'Or winner have been glowing, but I did not "enjoy" watching it. As a teacher, it hit far too close to home. I saw so much of myself in Francois Begaudeau's cinematic version of himself (the film is more or less a dramatized version of his real life as a teacher) that I couldn't sit back and enjoy it as a masterstroke of cinema verite. Instead of wowing over the fact that I had just seen one of the first-ever realistic portrayals of the teaching profession, the wheels were busy turning.

Maybe even though I am in the teaching profession, I want, as a film-goer, the Mr. Holland/Mr. Keating version of inspirational teacher I would frequently turn to for motivation and idealistic fortitude. There's little of that here. M. Marin (Begaudeau) is idealistic, to be sure. He allows for a chummy looseness in his classroom management that opens the door for a few too many loose comments from students that end up causing one problem or another. It's not that he's trying to be "cool," per se. But I think he thinks he's trying to be fair, or at least treat each child as worthy, regardless of their backgrounds or reputations.

I feel like I manage my classes in a similar manner, so what happens to this teacher in THE CLASS was startling and uncomfortable. Through a natural series of twists and turns, the diverse student population of the rough and economically-stunted suburb of Paris that attends this school start to turn classroom discussions into "street conversations" about race and the politics of authority figures versus those who are expected to submit to them. As would be any teacher's nightmare, the students are often quite witty and clever, able to pick holes in their teacher's logic and resist authority just for the hell of it, a Thoreau-style resistance that might be entertaining to the average filmgoer, but bordered on a horror film for me.

One tiny problem I had with THE CLASS is that it is SO realistic that it almost lacks a narrative rise of action until it finally gains a climax when one of Marin's comments to a few students gets him in trouble and another student faces expulsion for unacceptable classroom behavior. In this moment, the brilliant complexity of the film reveals itself. This teacher is both the one who is provoked to use insults worthy of his students and seemingly the only teacher on staff who is willing to work to help a troubled kid succeed instead of just kicking him to the curb.

Having said this, I have to overlook a slight narrative flatness and bitter realism and say that because THE CLASS manages to show the teaching profession as it really is -- with all of its contradictions and "why am I putting up with this crap for so little pay"-ness -- it is deserving of being called one of the greatest films ever made about the profession of teaching, if not something more.

4.0 out of 4