Movie poster for ‘The Class.’ Courtesy photo
Review By KELLY DOLEJSI
“The Class” (2008, rated PG-13), perhaps the only film I’ve seen starring a real-life middle-school language teacher, will screen at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Mesa Public Library.
Laurent Cantet’s award-winning drama cinematizes François Bégaudeau’s semi-autobiographical novel “Entre les murs” (“Between the walls”), which is also the film’s original title in France. Onscreen, Bégaudeau, who based his book in part on his own experiences teaching French and literature at to 13-year-olds in Paris, plays François Marin, a dedicated instructor amongst a group of well-meaning professionals trying, with mixed results, to teach.
“The Class” gives audiences a lot to like, and has been duly recognized around the world, including at the Independent Spirit Awards (winner — Best Foreign Language Film) and the Academy Awards (nominated — Best Foreign Language Film).
Unlike many other how-do-we-reach-these-kids?-style movies, this is ambiguous, unsentimental, and detail-oriented. It captures the Zen-like quality of teaching, wherein one never knows when a perfunctory lesson might evolve into something profound or something dangerous.
It also allows audiences see both the students and educators as imperfect, culpable humans, rather than clear-cut victims or heroes. Best of all, the climax involves an incident with no obvious right answer and plenty to reflect on, leaving viewers to do the work for themselves.
“The Class” is part of the Mesa Public Library Free Film Series, which brings movies to the library’s upstairs meeting-room theater on the first Thursday of nearly every month. All screenings are free, thanks to the Friends of Los Alamos County Libraries.
Coming up in the series are “Edward Scissorhands” May 5, “A River Runs Through It” June 2, “The Way, Way Back” July 7, “A Most Wanted Man” Aug. 4, “Bad Day At Black Rock” Sept. 1, “Election” Oct. 6, “Born Yesterday” Nov. 3 and “Paper Moon” Dec. 1.
For more information, call the library at 505.662.8240 or check online at https:////www.losalamosnm.us/library/Pages/default.aspx under “Events and Classes.”