1. Plot

2. Cast

3. Reception
    Top ten lists  Accolades 

4. References

5. External links

The film received the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, making it the first French film to do so since 1987, when Maurice Pialat won the award for Under the Sun of Satan. The Class was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but lost to Departures.

Plot

Set wholly in a secondary school in a working-class district of Paris, where many inhabitants are foreign-born, the film follows the year of a young teacher, François Marin, and the 25 pupils aged 14 or 15 who he takes for an hour each day in French language. A loner, he walks the narrow line between maintaining discipline and gaining co-operation.

From the start, wide differences are apparent in the class over standards of dress, deportment, knowledge and application. A dispute arises over using the imperfect and pluperfect subjunctive, which he admits may be a bit of an affectation and is then labelled as gay. When pupils have to read aloud from a set book, The Diary of Anne Frank, a girl called Khoumba refuses because she does not consider it relevant to her life. In private, François forces her to apologise.

Success comes when he asks the pupils to write a self-portrait. An assertive girl called Esmeralda reveals that she would like to be a policewoman or failing that, a rapper. A difficult boy called Souleymane, weak in written French, submits his story in an interesting series of photographs (at a parents' evening, his mother can speak no French at all). However, after an argument over football teams with Carl, another boy who is problematic, Souleymane insults François and is sent to the head teacher's office.

At a teachers' conference to decide final placings, François defends Souleymane but his efforts are undermined by the two student representatives at the meeting, Esmeralda and Louise, who behave in a very childish manner. Afterwards, though sworn to secrecy, the two girls tell the others that François had it in for Souleymane. A furious François rebukes the pair, saying they behaved like "skanks" ({{Lang-fr|pétasses}}). Uproar follows, in which Souleymane, after accidentally hitting Khoumba with his sports bag, storms out and is suspended. After a disciplinary hearing at which Souleymane is supported by his mother, for whom he has to translate, he is expelled and faces possible deportation to his native country, Mali.

In the last lesson of the year, François asks each pupil what they have learned over the year. Carl has been inspired by science experiments in his chemistry class, Khoumba has warmed to music and enjoyed learning Spanish, Esmerelda pretends to have learned nothing but then admits that she has been reading Plato's Republic and is gripped by the character of Socrates. After they have all left the room, a quiet girl called Henriette comes back and despondently claims that she really has not learned anything at all. Outside, an impromptu football match has begun between the pupils and teachers, which François joins and scores a brilliant goal.

Cast

• François Bégaudeau : François Marin, the French language teacher.
• Jean-Michel Simonet : the school principal.
• Burak Ozyilmaz : Burak, top boy of the class.
• Boubacar Touré : Boubacar, who accuses Marin of being gay.
• Carl Nanor : Carl, who has been expelled from his previous school.
• Louise Grinberg : Louise, top girl of the class and a student delegate.
• Esmeralda Ouertani : Esmeralda, the other student delegate.
• Franck Keïta : Souleymane, whose lack of control leads to him being disciplined.
• Henriette Kasaruhanda : Henriette, the silent girl who says she has learned nothing.
• Rachel Régulier : Khoumba, the girl who refuses to read.

Reception

The film has received critical acclaim, achieving a 95% rating at Rotten Tomatoes out of 151 reviews counted. The site's consensus reads, "Energetic and bright, this hybrid of documentary style and dramatic plotting looks at the present and future of France through the interactions of a teacher and his students in an inner-city high school."^[3] Metacritic lists Entre les murs with a rating of 92,^[4] making it one of the best reviewed films of the year according to the website.

The film was warmly reviewed by the critic Philip French who noted: "There is a remarkable French tradition of school films, extending from Jean Vigo's Zéro de Conduite, to Nicolas Philibert's Être et avoir. Laurent Cantet, whose parents were both teachers, carries it on and he elicits marvellous performances... As the teacher at a tough, racially mixed, inner-city school in Paris, Marin (François Bégaudeau), neither weary cynic nor wide-eyed idealist, is a decent, determined realist... not a saint, though by the end of the school year he has exhibited some of the necessary qualities."^[5]

The film was the featured opening night selection at the 46th New York Film Festival in 2008.

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.^[6]

• 2nd - Dana Stevens, Slate^[6]
• 2nd - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times (tied with A Christmas Tale)^[6]
• 2nd - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune^[6]
• 2nd - Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor^[6]
• 3rd - David Denby, The New Yorker^[6]
• 5th - David Edelstein, New York magazine^[6]
• 5th - Dennis Harvey, Variety^[6]
• 5th - Ella Taylor, LA Weekly (tied with A Christmas Tale)^[6]
• 5th - Stephanie Zacharek, Salon^[6]
• 7th - Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader^[6]
• 7th - Robert Mondello, NPR^[6]
• 8th - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly^[6]
• 8th - Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer^[6]

Accolades

References

External links

• {{IMDb title|1068646|The Class}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes|the_class|The Class}}
• {{Metacritic film|the-class|The Class}}
• {{Amg movie|451976|The Class}}

• José Pacheco Gómez
• José Paciano Laurel y García
• José Padilha
• José Padilla, Jr
• José Padilla (musician)
• José Padilla Sr.
• José Padilla Sr
• José Padron
• José Padrón
• José Padrón Martín
• José Palma
• José Pancetti
• José Panizo
• José Paolo Guerrero Gonzales
• José Paranhos, Jr.
• José Paranhos, Jr., Baron of Rio Branco
• José Paranhos, Sr.
• José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco
• José Parlá
• José Parodi
• José Parra
• José Parra Martínez
• José Pascoal Jr.
• José Pascual Monzo
• José Pasillas