The Class continues Cantet's analysis of big societal issues, having covered labour relations, unemployment and exploitation of the third world in his previous three films. Based on François Bégaudeau's semi-autobiographical book, it uses a cast mostly consisting of Parisian inner city schoolkids under their real names, and is shot in a loosely documentary style, covering several weeks in the life of a class taught by Bégaudeau. Whilst the topics that arise - those of teenage and ethnic minority resistance to authority figures - are staple fare in the territory of the inner city classroom drama, what lifts Cantet's piece onto a higher plane is its refusal to sink into histrionics and it remains perfectly possible to see conflict between pupils and with their teachers from both sides, which makes the impact of the realisation that there's not necessarily a solution at hand all the more unsettling. The Class justifiably won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2008.7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment