The Class is based on an autobiographical novel by author and former teacher François Bégaudeau, about working at a tough multi-ethnic school in the Parisian banlieux. Remarkably, Bégaudeau plays himself, or a version of himself; and he does it very well, although as Peter Bradshaw reminds us 'teaching is all about putting on a performance commanding enough to subdue the toughest audiences' so maybe that shouldn't surprise us.
The class of 14- to 15-year-old kids in the film is made up of non-professionals, and their unobtrusively superb and authentic classroom scenes have apparently been devised through improvisation.
Definitely one of the better movies I've seen this year. There are a couple of contrived, overtly didactic moments, but the rest of the movie is so enthralling (who woulda thunk a language lesson could be so exciting) that they hardly tarnish the experience.
I thought it raised lots of interesting questions about authority and the legitimacy of authority in schools (related to descriptive and prescriptive modes of language and teaching). Naice.
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