The Class

2008

128 mins

Directed by Laurent Cantet
95%
82%
Award Winner

When The Class won the Palme D’Or at Cannes last year, it was the first French film to do so... More

When The Class won the Palme D’Or at Cannes last year, it was the first French film to do so for 21 years. It’s an adaptation of a semi-autobiographical novel by Francois Bégaudeau which deals with his experiences teaching literature at a rough school in a down-at-heel area of Paris. Bégaudeau himself takes the lead role.

Praised for its naturalistic style and realistic tension, Begaudeau says he hopes the film will open people’s eyes to the way things really are for the scallywags of our times: "I think it would be good for all those people who claim to be able to judge youth in two or three aphorisms to learn something new."

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Where to watch The Class

The Class is available to stream in New Zealand now... More on Apple TV Store and AroVision.

The Class | Ratings & Reviews

95_%161 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
82_%12,604 reviews
Audience score rating

"Talky in the best sense, the film exhilarates with its lively, authentic classroom banter while its emotional undercurrents build steadily but almost imperceptibly over a swift 129 minutes. One of the most substantive and purely entertaining movies in competition at Cannes this year."

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Variety

"Partially improvised, using a real (ex-)teacher and real schoolkids in note-perfect performances, Cantet’s film recreates life in a tough inner-city school with breathtaking authenticity."

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Total Film

"Here Mr. Cantet -- whose earlier features include "Human Resources" and "Time Out," two other dramas about systems of power -- has done that rarest of things in movies about children: He has allowed them to talk."

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The New York Times

"The movie is bursting with life, energy, fears, frustrations and the quick laughter of a classroom hungry for relief."

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Roger Ebert

"Masterful and unsentimental classroom movie reinvents the docudrama."

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New Zealand Herald

"The result is a film that succeeds on every level."

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Newshub

"The reality of François' classroom is so intense that it holds our interest even while the film's dramatic focus is building so quietly under the surface that we don't notice it at first."

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Los Angeles Times

"In addition to being one of the best school films of recent times, this is a troubling but gripping exposé of the cultural and racial divisions crippling Europe. Intelligent, well acted and deeply discomfiting."

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