Class Act

By Kevin Lally

On September 26, New York audiences will discover for themselves what the Cannes jury knew back in May--that Laurent Cantet's The Class is one of the year's outstanding films. The Palme d'Or winner will open the 46th annual New York Film Festival, and Manhattan moviegoers are advised to buy their tickets early, since Sony Pictures Classics won't be bringing their prized acquisition to theatres until December 12th.

Cantet's film is an uncanny cinematic experiment. Actual junior high school teacher Francois Begaudeau, the author of four novels, plays a junior high school teacher, and his pupils are played by actual students at the Francoise Dolto Junior High in Paris' 20th arrondisement. All the teachers seen in the film are real teachers at the school, and even the kids' parents (with one exception) play themselves. But even though The Class feels like a Frederick Wiseman documentary, it's not. What we see onscreen is the result of acting workshops, and the teen performers are playing characters often unlike their real personalities. What's remarkable is how un-self-conscious and believable all the performances are--leading one to conclude that most everyone is a natural actor given the right kind of nurturing. As Begaudeau himself says, "Actually, there are a few stars pretty much everywhere."

The Class is also revealing of the challenges of teaching in an inner-city environment (even more so in a politically sensitive culture like France's). Older audiences may be shocked by the impudence of the kids in this film--the classroom atmosphere is light years away from my memories of school decorum. Yet, even though their rudeness is often dismaying, you can't help getting caught up in the lives and personalities of these diverse and candid kids. As for Begaudeau himself, he's a natural, with a movie future outside academia and literature if he ever so chooses. The New York opening-night audience is in for a treat.