The Class, or Between the Walls to take the literal translation from the original French title is a wonderful "slice-of-life" film, almost documentary in feel, as the French do so well.
I saw Larent Cantet's Palme d'Or winner and Oscar-nominee this week and found it was a wonderfully nuanced and engaging film.
This film is certainly not for everybody. I have seen the criticism levelled at it that little happens of major consequence, that it doesn't have a defined structure of acts. Some people need that and that's fine, but i say why does something significant need to happen to have compelling cinema. A documentary like Of Time And The City can be beautiful, lyrical, engaging and enjoyable without ever presenting a sensationalist idea or event. European cinema, especially French and Italian I find, can frequently display truths in a compelling way and shame the easy spectacle of American and British cinema. Now I love US and UK films too, i embrace all cinema, but i don't see why a film need have a Plot (yes, with a capital P)
The Class may not be for everyone but there is a very definite place, i would say a need, for its type of cinema in the world and this example, much like Walter Salles' recent Linha De Passe or perhaps best of all Fernando Meirelles' masterpiece City Of God, is a deservedly acclaimed piece.
The film's portrayal of the harried relationship between a well-meaning but increasingly frustrated teacher and his teenage students of varying degrees of rebellion, both forced and natural (in and of themselves not the film) comes to a wonderful peak when the teacher loses his cool and inadvertently insults some female students. That the actor playing the role is the teacher who wrote the book on which his own screenplay is based allows him to so accurately portray the thoughts pinwheeling around his head without saying much in this scene. He was in a heated exchange and like anyone pushed to the limits of tolerance he mistakenly said something in frustration that he should not of said. Like we all do in such circumstances he then instantly regrets it, partly for offense he doesn't want to give - he really just wants to be liked by the students, which is why he is so pained by punishments etc that some of the other teachers, more happy to be the stereotype bastard teachers the kids see all authority figures as - and partly because he does not want to get in trouble for losing control of himself. He naturally then starts playing it down, feigning shock at their reaction; trying to talk it away by saying the insult means something else to him, etc. It doesn't of course and he is not surprised by their reactions, you can see all this in the performance, in his face and body-language.
I think this subtlety is the art of great acting. I never understand how consistently beuatiful, nuanced, realistic characters get overlooked contantly at the Oscars while bombastic Acting (yes, with a capital A) so frequently wins. It is why Sean Penn won for Mystic River and not for his sublime performance in Dead Man Walking - which he lost to the more showy and less subtle Nic Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. Penn's win beat the heartbreaking performance of Bill Murray. It is why Pacino laughingly won for his ludicrous part in Scent of a Woman but was overlooked in first two Godfathers and was not even on the radar with balanced stunning parts in films like Insomnia. Going back to Mystic River i always thought it so shameful Kevin Bacon was ignored. His pained performance was every bit the match of Penn's histrionics and Robbins sublime, but showier, role but his character was too real for people to see the genius. It is the same reason costume dramas always get into Costume Design categories and summer tentpoles always dominate SFX - the unsubtle and noticeable catches attention despite the fact it is the seemlessly complimentary which is arguably better.
For critics that say The Class doesn't go anywhere - I say, why need it? It is a slice of life, a snapshot of the frustrations and difficulties on both sides of the teacher/student dynamic. Could any adult watch the film's first half without marvelling at how such teachers constrain themselves when dealing with adolescents? And yet how many of those would then condemn the teacher for his latter actions out of hand and call for his resignation were they not seeing the full circumstances but were, say, reading only the portrayed student view in a newspaper. How many times have we all read of teachers doing something in a newspaper and thought the worst of them when we don't get the full picture, indeed, how often do we do this with all issues?
Ultimately The Class is an example of that type of life-peak cinema that the French do better than anyone, taking you into a world you don't know, no matter what your preconceptions. It still shouldn't beat Waltz With Bashir on Sunday for the Best Foreign Language award, which was the best film of the year in my opinion, but it is an excellent film worthy of attention.
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