'The Class' review

François Bégaudeau (Credit: Sony Classics)

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High school teacher François (François Bégaudeau) prepares for a new year at his school in a tough French neighborhood. The film focuses on one of his classes with a multicultural blend of students representing a microcosm of contemporary France. François’ open classroom fosters lively discussion but ultimately leads to a surprising confrontation, with unexpected ramifications for one of the teens.

The buzz: Last May, “The Class” became the first French film in 21 years to win the Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes film festival. It’s also France’s official entry for the Academy Awards’ foreign language film category.

The verdict: Loosely based on a semi-autobiographical book written by Bégaudeau and featuring a cast of non-professional teens, “The Class” unfolds more like a fly-on-the-wall documentary than a traditional narrative film. Finding its way into staff meetings, parent conferences and school board sessions, the film remains firmly grounded in the school, leaving the personal lives of students and teacher largely a mystery. That places the movie in a different league of classroom dramas, notably absent the sentimentalism or overwrought despair that usually characterize the genre. “The Class” doesn’t lecture, but that doesn’t mean its audience won’t learn something.

Did you know? The French title of both the book and the film is “Entre les murs,” which literally translates to “Between the Walls.” As in, everything in the film takes place between the school’s walls

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