SYNOPSIS: A tough inner-city middle school in Paris, a dedicated teacher named Mr. Marin begins the new term.  Taking on a class comprised of a melting pot of modern-day French society, he pushes and prods his pupils while striving to gain their respect.  And as each side challenges the other over issues both academic and personal, Mr. Marin and his students are about to get an education they'll never forget.

EDITORIAL REVIEW: The first thing director Laurnet Cantet did right when making The Class was asking the author of the original novel, François Bégaudeau, to write the film's screenplay. He then went a step further and cast Bégaudeau as the teacher, M. Marin, which is only fitting since his novel is a semi-autobiographical account of his experiences as a literature teacher in a Parisian inner-city middle school. The Class is telling a story, yet it often feels as authentic as a documentary, not just because the actors are incredibly convincing, but also because it has been stripped of traditional cinematic embellishments. There are no special effects or elaborate camera tricks. There isn't even a basic musical score. There are just the actors and the classroom set, and we're watching the events naturally unfold.

I suspect most Western audiences will respond to this movie, despite the fact that it takes place in France. It tackles issues many students and teachers will find relatable, not the least of which is the sense that bridging the gap between student and teacher is sometimes impossible. Marin starts the semester with the hope that he will connect with his multiracial students, who live in urban areas and come from lower income families. But as time goes on, he slowly realizes that they don't want to connect with him. I got the sense that neither side was able to see the opposing point of view; Marin has a hard time understanding why his students don't want to learn, whereas the students have a hard time understanding why Marin wants them to conform.

Take, for example, the fact that one of Marin's lessons covers sentence structure, which involves highly confusing terms like "imperfect predicate," or something along those lines. The students take none of this in, but when you stop and think about it, does anyone? In the grand scheme of things, diagramming a sentence hardly seems like a necessary skill ... unless, of course, you're planning on becoming a linguistics professor. It's not that Marin's students are stupid--they just don't see what the point is. Besides, it's not as if society wants them to be anything more than what they project; it seems that when you're automatically written off as a bad kid, there's little point in trying to be something else.

Mind you, none of this is directly stated. This movie is more interested in implications, which is to say that we have no real idea why there's such a disassociation between the students and the faculty. All we know is that it exists, and neither side knows how to make the other understand where they're coming from. And then there's the fact that most of the faculty base disciplinary decisions on statistical facts, and whenever a student faces a behavioral committee, they hear only generic spiels about how he or she isn't living up to his or her potential. This isn't quite the way Marin works; he bases disciplinary decisions more on emotion, which ultimately does more to harm his reputation than improve it.

There's a fascinating sense of camaraderie amongst the students, as if they all share the belief that teachers are the enemy. One of the most troublesome is Souleymane (Franck Kieta), the son of Mali immigrants with a bit of an anger management problem. There are also Esmeralda (Esmeralda Ouertani), who's of Middle Eastern descent and never feels valued by Marin, and Khoumba (Rachel Regulier), whose attitude seems to have soured since the last semester; just as smart as they are temperamental, both girls seem to know just how to use Marin's less conservative teaching methods against him. The only distant character is Wei (Wei Huang), the brainy son of Chinese immigrants. We don't learn much about him, although we suspect that his scholastic achievements are influenced more by duty than by a need to prove himself.

One of the best achievements of "The Class" is making us feel like we know the characters, and this is despite the fact that personal details are mostly kept hidden. We know, for example, that Marin is approachable as a human being, and he gets along just fine with the rest of the faculty, many of who are just as frustrated by their students as he is. But when it comes to being a mentor, something is seriously lacking; he can "teach" in the strictest sense of the word, but that doesn't mean his students are actually learning anything.

An important metaphor is introduced towards the end of the film, but to describe it would do you a great disservice. Let it suffice to say that the final few shots say volumes about the relationship between students and teachers, or lack thereof. It may not be immediately obvious, but if you pay close attention, I'm sure you will pick up on it. It's a refreshing approach to the typical Hollywood version of a school drama, where eager but inexperienced teachers are able to reach out to their at-risk students and forever change their lives. This isn't to say that "The Class" is a French version of school drama; it feels so genuine that genre doesn't even come into play. It's a compelling character study that enables us to see various points of view all at once, and it does so without lingering on extraneous details. I'd say that's quite an achievement, considering how easily it could have gone wrong. (review by Chris Pandolfi)

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* This DVD will play in North America only.  This DVD should play in most players outside of North America as well, but it's not guaranteed. This DVD will play in any computer DVD-Rom.  This is NOT a DVD-R.

STARRING: François Bégaudeau, Agame Malembo-Emene, Arthur Fogel.
DIRECTOR: Laurent Cantet.
AVAILABILITY: In stock! Ships within one business day.
LENGTH: 130 minutes.
LANGUAGE: French, with English / Spanish subtitles.
SPECIAL FEATURES: 1.85:1 (16:9 Widescreen); 5.1 Stereo; 1 disc; Making of; Commentary on selected scenes; Uncut.
VIEWER DISCRETION: Coarse language.
PICTURE QUALITY: Excellent picture quality. (what's this mean?)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: France (2008).
ALSO KNOWN AS: Entre les murs (original title).
DATE ADDED TO OUR LIBRARY:  August 14, 2009.