The Class (2008 New York Film Festival Opener)

"The Class" ("Entre les murs") proves to be worthy of its recent Palme d’Or win in Cannes, under the rigorous attention of director Laurent Cantet who spent a year of improvisation preparation before adapting it to the film’s semi-improvised shoot. Real-life Parisian junior high school teacher Francois Begaudeau plays himself in the adaptation of his nonfiction novel about his experiences as teacher in modern-day Paris. The setting is inside a classroom of 25 multi-cultural students who are at once curious and rebellious under Begaudeau’s effortless and sincere teaching technique that responds to the groups’ specific needs. The performances from its first-time actors are fantastic, and Laurent exerts a calm patience over the film’s mainly interior settings, and shows a strong empathy for intrinsic dramatic rhythms of a loaded social setting. Primarily, the film is a candid macro/micro look at France’s educational system as well at the cultural complexity it contains. At the film’s post-screening press conference, Laurent Cantet described how the film will stir a common French debate about their schools serving the fundamentals of educational or in encouraging students to discover themselves. "The Class" is a magnificent cinematic triumph.

Rated PG-13. 123 mins. (A+) (Five Stars)