Word: begaudeau
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Lumiere Theatre this evening and told them that the top prize was awarded "unanimously": Entre les Murs, a.k.a. The Class, Laurent Cantet's affecting portrait of a Paris junior high school teacher and his restless, demanding students. Immediately a cheer went up, as Cantet, his star Francois Begaudeau and the 24 kids in the movie swarmed onstage, beaming as if they'd all graduated summa cum laude. They kept smiling through Cantet's long, fond acceptance speech, then were joined by other cinema dignitaries - including Robert De Niro, Dennis Hopper and Faye Dunaway - who were there as presenters. Suddenly...
There is a family of 25 in Laurent Cantet's The Class (Entre les murs): 24 students in a Paris junior high school and their teacher. This affecting, docu-like drama is based on a book by Francois Begaudeau, a former teacher who has the lead role here. His students, a poly-ethnic bunch that includes kids whose parents come from Algeria, Mali and the Caribbean, are encouraged to challenge their teacher, to find ways to speak their most urgent thoughts. This is a French class, but the more important lessons are in self-expression and self-discipline, in learning...
Hollywood would take Begaudeau's book and turn it into Blackboard Jungle or Superbad. There are dramas within the class, but Cantet dispenses with melodrama to get to the truths inside these kids and the teacher who gives totally of himself to get through to them. (The kids were discovered in a school in Paris' 20th arrondisement, put through a long workshop period to play characters who were part fictional, part themselves.) As the film unfolds, a half-dozen or more of the children reveal distinct, tough and touching personalities...
| 1 |