One of my all time favorites.

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

There are many things that this movie illustrates to what a teacher must face. This gives you a glimpse by putting yourself on the shoes of a teacher. The movie is able to show that, but in itself it lacks something. Compared to Freedom Writers or Stand and Deliver, this movie is not "engaging" for the lack of a proper word. I was disappointed to watch this movie maybe because I was looking something inspirational that could motivate teachers in doing what they do best. I do appreciate this film for highlighting what only educators are able to see in the shoes of a teacher.

Filmmaking in the wake of documenting a stage play with never-ending dialogue by neglecting the visuals, giving me a stretch of two-hours beyond tiresome.Nevertheless director Laurent Cantent handles a mass of youngsters and his self-fulfilling leading man, French writer/actor François Bégaudeau, well.While watching this unfortunate enough on my laptop instead in a theater, it seems that the film is not given any further exposure of what I have already been known from my own youth at a German high school.Coverage has been handled with a lack of a cinematographic enchantments in an all-too staggering hand-held documentary manner, which on one side gives me the feeling of being part of "The Class". On the other side mainly shot into the actors faces without sharing frequent physical parts as hands and feet of a desperately needed visualization of body languages.My overall feelings on the Palme D'Or Winning Picture from 2008 brings the Cannes festival's jury surrounded by actor Sean Penn, acting as president, in a tight position of just consuming a picture, in an otherwise respectively-speaking weak competition, instead of spiritual digesting it.In further doubt, the 2008 jury chose the most conservative film imaginable, benefiting a picture, which representing realities instead of interpreting, translating it into a proper cinematic vision.Furthermore the fact of being non-stop interior does not benefit "The Class", it makes the film claustrophobic, suffocating and arresting where is not really a need of showing school as a prison than a chance to live, what might have been an extraordinary cinematic experience with participations of Avantgardistic cinematographers such as Anthony Dod Mantle or Bruno Delbonnel.Here at running time marker 1h09mins30sec, the interest for the bulk of introducing characters stand still, even more with being just reduced to spectators of continuous accidents than being in demand to take a stand of controversy on current education in a self-determined so-considered civilized society.At times an Extreme-Close-Up (ECU) of pupils' hands and feet come through the editorial. But mainly Director Laurent Cantent loses himself in talking heads with shying away from essential human conflicts, how one finds his place in life or at least fight for his conviction."The Class" being an adaptation of the leading actor's novel with the same name, François Bégaudeau shares arguably no further insides of a spine, which should question of not challenge the on-going evolution on how education of constantly emerging next generation in the 21st century.So the picture originally title "Entre les murs" - between walls - concludes with a lecture on violent behavior between the educated and the educators, which stands still as anti-civilized action, putting everyone involved and participating in danger. Needless to say that mother and son get chased away, expelled from school.In comparison to an end of the 1968er student generation with the force of institutionalizing confrontations, this picture sees young adults as hopelessly sedated human beings, feelings reduced to love and being loved on pseudo-shifts; and furthermore taught to be part of a society as a single connecting wheel of a gigantic money-ordering clockwork machinery.In 2017, the time when I am reviewing "The Class" declares a whole generation (born between 1981 and 1997) on brakes, close to stagnation with no emotional evolution towards what came before.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

Laurent Cantet's absorbing film, 'The Class', tells an apparently true tale of the life in the year of a French schoolteacher. It's a portrait of an incredibly dedicated and imaginative man, working to engage with a mostly first or second generation immigrant class whose members are not bad children but who fundamentally have, in many cases, little idea of why they are in school in the first place. Teacher and script-writer François Bégaudeau plays the lead role; the self-portrait is flattering, but not overly so, the story of his efforts to cross the cultural chasm are fascinating and convincing, and the fruits of his labours real yet frustratingly small. One to watch if you've ever been tempted to utter the old cliché that "those who can't, teach".

............................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA and ORLANDO, FL It's very rare, indeed, when I'm at a staggering loss for words. Words are my business…having owned and directed my own language schools for over 35 years. But when I sat down to write this, immediately after viewing "The Class", my unmitigated ire and unbridled outrage only produced that most dreaded of conditions, anathema to all reviewers: Writer's Block! Several hours later, my blood having assuaged itself from boiling to simmer, I find myself, once again, anxious to share my impressions of this undeniably unique French film with you. "Class" refuses to be pigeon-holed. Perhaps a Documentary-Drama fusion, but not really a Docudrama, either. More akin to reality TV, only better! "Class" will certainly affect different people in strikingly different ways. How do middle-school teachers around the world maintain their grip on sanity and reality? I felt myself sliding down the slippery slope from just observing these French* kids flaunt their world-class insolence! But whatever your reaction to them, chances are "Class" will get to you like running your fingernails along a blackboard! Did you notice the asterisk on French* kids? Surprisingly, this inner-city French classroom was a veritable rainbow coalition: Africans, Caribbean Franco-Africans, Arabs, Eastern Europeans, a couple Hispanics and Chinese. Oh yes, and even some Gauls, born and raised! My spoken French is decrepit, but my ear is still fairly well-tuned and a myriad of different accents were very easy to discern, a few of them rendered somewhat haltingly. Encountering harmony and a real-time teaching classroom dynamic under these conditions pose a daunting challenge, to say the least. The problem resides in that 9th graders around the world are keenly aware of who REALLY is in control in the classroom.… They are! More often than not, their classroom comportment is an unabated and blatant non-stop provocation of whoever is teaching them. But God forbid should that teacher lapse into a single moment of normal human reaction to such constant torment! The unspoken undercurrent that is dissolving the foundations of education around the world is only too self-evident in this "Class". Just a few accusatory words from any student could instantly vaporize the career of any teacher. Francois, the real-life teacher exhibiting patience that would make Job look bi-polar in comparison, manages to defy expectation and give us an unprecedented surprise ending; apparently there IS something that most students still fear! Recommended to all teachers and anyone interested in the teaching process. 10*.....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA!Any comments, questions or observations, in English or Español, are most welcome! [email protected]