François Bégaudeau must have been astonished. The first home-grown film in 21 years to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes and it was his work. All he did was write a book about his life – teaching middle-school kids and the hassle it can be… What he didn’t count on was the impact the film adaptation would have on audiences as it shows cultural clashes, respect issues and a complex bunch of teens that don’t seem to think they have the world at their feet. Nor did he realise his film The Class represents a modern look at his homeland France, for both domestic and international audiences.

Entre les murs (Between the Walls) is an award-winning book of Bégaudeau’s life teaching middle-school kids French literature in inner-city Paris. Although only semi-autobiographical, Bégaudeau’s involvement increased to collaborating with director Laurent Cantet on the screenplay and portraying the lead role on screen. With the adaptation titled The Class, Bégaudeau plays François Marin, who as the class supervisor and French literature teacher has an open discussion teaching method, encouraging the kids to open up. He is faced with 13-15 year old teens (who all play themselves) that are unsure of themselves and how they’re seen by others; they often lash out at Marin as they don’t know how to cope with his pressing, unconventional queries. These arguments create the centrepiece of the film as one by one the characters fight for their say. It must be said off the top: for a group of amateurs, they give a strong ensemble performance. Sure, you might say teens playing troubled teens wouldn’t be too difficult, but their intensity shown through static camera shots is amazing.

Although presented as a documentary with hand-held cams and plenty of moving close-ups, it has all the drama of a conventional film as we are given a running plot, interweaved between the classroom and staff meetings where we witness developments bigger than the school confines. The Class holds together with a gradual movement, slowly building up to a scene and then giving us moments of brilliance. The scenes in the classroom have extra tension to when the action is moved elsewhere, but the film picks up to give us an eye-opening way out. Unlike other teen films, there are only verbal sexual references and even they are few, but there is plenty of racial tension as the mixed-race class use cultural differences as a shield to hide behind. The multiculturalism of France, seemingly similar to Australia’s in part, is highlighted heavily in the characters and classroom discussions. The Northern Africans take swings at each other through soccer teams, particularly Mali-born Souleymane and Moroccan Nassim, and in between there are Chinese-born Wei and Carl from the Caribbean, who still impacts on entrance mid-film. We only need human nature to understand the impact a multicultural society has if we let it and Cantet shows this particularly well in classroom scenes and interaction between Souleymane and his mother.

The Class is a raw film and can be hard to watch. Marin, although demanding respect, is a teacher who gives back whatever the students throw at him. Calling girls Louise and Esmeralda ‘skanks’ is a pivotal moment that escalates the film to a different level. It’s a subtle contradiction to previous scenes detailing French grammar, a suggestion perhaps that we should all watch the words we use in our lives. There are many critical issues presented in the film with history and philosophy used as a metaphor for speaking to the people; Anne Frank and Plato questioning the way we think and why. Some plot points are left unanswered, but wanting to learn more about the characters (which you will by the film’s end – they’re an intriguing bunch) proves a success for Cantet in his filmmaking – with Bégaudeau, he positions the focus and tension well.

Verdict:

With two ending shots that beautifully linger on screen, The Class is a serious take on not just teen identity but French identity. Bégaudeau’s story, with strong direction from Cantet, gives us a significant film that is demanding but accessible. Deservedly Oscar-nominated, it has a strong chance of winning the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2009.

*French with English subtitles*

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