I thought this board might do well to have a topic a bit like the PJ Book Club one in offtopic: basically somewhere to come and comment on a film you've just seen that doesn't have its own topic or you can't be bothered to search to see if there is one.
Anyway, I'll kick off proceedings. I just finished watching The Class (Entre Les Murs, en français) and it's bloody brilliant. It's François Bégaudeau playing himself in a semi-fictional depiction of his own experiences as an inner-school Parisian teacher - though you wouldn't have realised he's not trained as an actor given the fact that he gives a fantastic performance in the film. It really gave painted visceral image of how difficult it is to get through to 'no hoper' kids. I think the saddest part of it all was towards the end when a girl, who until this point we hadn't actually seen in the film, comes up to François and tells him she hasn't learned anything in the whole year. It was sort of eye-opening to the fact that the loudest, most disruptive students take up all of this time and energy of the teaching staff, and students like this who struggle silently are nothing but ignored. No easy solutions, to be sure.
It's a shame Bégaudeau doesn't seem to have any inclination to turn his hand to any more acting, because I really was impressed. The kids were pretty phenomenal too.
Anyway, I'll kick off proceedings. I just finished watching The Class (Entre Les Murs, en français) and it's bloody brilliant. It's François Bégaudeau playing himself in a semi-fictional depiction of his own experiences as an inner-school Parisian teacher - though you wouldn't have realised he's not trained as an actor given the fact that he gives a fantastic performance in the film. It really gave painted visceral image of how difficult it is to get through to 'no hoper' kids. I think the saddest part of it all was towards the end when a girl, who until this point we hadn't actually seen in the film, comes up to François and tells him she hasn't learned anything in the whole year. It was sort of eye-opening to the fact that the loudest, most disruptive students take up all of this time and energy of the teaching staff, and students like this who struggle silently are nothing but ignored. No easy solutions, to be sure.
It's a shame Bégaudeau doesn't seem to have any inclination to turn his hand to any more acting, because I really was impressed. The kids were pretty phenomenal too.
