The Class Reviews

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I was quite eager to check it out again. For the French cinema, this victory was quite a milestone since it was the 1st time in 20 years that a French movie won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. Eventually, I thought the whole thing was quite impressive and I think I enjoyed it even more with this rewatch. Indeed, by now, I have seen my share of Hollywood movies dealing with the same subject, the relationship between teachers and students, and even though some of them might have been entertaining, absolutely none of them was actually really convincing. Well, this movie was completely the opposite. Indeed, it was just so raw and realistic, it felt pretty much like a documentary even if you know you're actually watching a fiction. Another thing I enjoyed about this movie was the fact that there was no annoying and unnecessary sub-plots. Instead, it was completely focused and rather spellbinding to behold. Thanks to this movie, you can feel that being a teacher is probably the most important job in the world and probably one of the most difficult one as well. There was also the extra layer that this school was located in a rough neighborhood in the suburbs of Paris and it felt as if the classroom was some kind of pressure cooker ready to explode at every moment. As result, the whole thing felt sometimes like an hyper realistic thriller. Obviously, in contrary to your average Hollywood production, there was no cut and clear answer or conclusion. Eventually, some of these kids will be fine and some of them will be seriously messed up and the impact this teacher might have had on them at this point might be dubious. And, yet, the guy will keep trying again and again in the hope that he might achieve some kind of results with some of them which is quite remarkable. Anyway, to conclude, I turned out to be a great achievement and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.