French Cannes winning film opens in France
October 2, 2008
The Class (Entre Les Murs) by French director Laurent Cantet makes its big-screen debut in Paris theatres.
No French film in 21 years had done it. But in France last summer, the world-renowned Cannes Film Festival awarded its highest honor, the Palme d’Or, to Laurent Cantet’s film Entre les Murs (The Class). The gritty movie depicts a year in the life of an inner-city high school located in one of Paris tough culturally mixed neighborhoods. The film is based on a semi-autobiographical novel by the same title. The author, Francois Bégaudeau, also stars in the film.
The long-awaited release was a box-office triumph in Paris, attracting 356,494 movie-goers over 5 days on 368 screens, surpassing musical comedy flick Faubourg 36, despite the latter’s being released in fewer theatres.
Entre les murs – which translates to “between the walls”- debuts at a time when French schools are still in the spotlight. France’s 2004 ban on headscarves, which was extended to prohibit students wearing any symbols of religion in schools, including large crosses or skullcaps or stars of David, continues to be a controversial topic after it provoked bitter outcry and near-riots at the time. Only weeks before the movie was shown at the Cannes Film Festival thousands of teachers and students in France took to the streets to protest the government’s plan to cut over 11,000 education jobs including 8,000 teachers.
French director Laurent Cantet, best known for his 2001 film Time Out, gives The Class a documentary feel by using teenage non-actors, mostly students from the French school where the movie was set. The film depicts the struggles of a young idealistic teacher teaching in Paris’ rough 20th arrondissement where the tensions of poverty, race and culture spill into the classroom. The class becomes a metaphor for France and its current struggles with a changing racial landscape, political correctness and cultural clashes.
True to French form, the film is no feel-good picture like the US’s Mr. Holland’s Opus or the original teacher-as-hero movie To Sir With Love. A lot goes wrong in The Class, and much is out of the teacher’s control. Although it’s primarily aimed at adults, the French minister of culture, Christine Albanel, has recommended that it be shown in all secondary schools throughout the country.
The film wasn’t officially due to be released in France until October 15 but distributors moved the date forward apparently because it was scheduled to hit some other foreign cinemas Italy this month.
Entre les murs has reportedly been chosen by France for the 2009 Oscar nominations in the best foreign language film category. To be able to qualify, a film must be released before September 30. Director Cantet already has a 10-city tour planned in the US to promote the film. He got some help from the New York Film Festival, which opened its 46th year with the film on September 26.
The film opens under the title The Class in the US on December 12. The official announcement of the nominees for Best Foreign Film will be made in January, with the awards ceremony the following month. France is holding its breath to see if Entre Les Murs can top La Vie En Rose, which missed being chosen as best Foreign Film for France last year but nabbed the Best Actress award for its star, Marion Cotillard. France has not won the Best Foreign Film category since 1993.
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