The Class

The Class is my dream movie! More than anything, I want to make a neo-realism style film following the lives of teachers, students, parents, and administrators. I have notes for potential plot lines and everything. It's the one film I really, really want to make before I stop making movies.

Director Laurent Cantet beat me to the punch. Kudos Cantent - you bastard!

Yeah, yeah, sour grapes.

At any rate, The Class is brilliant. It was interesting to watch a school system from another culture and relate to it. Some situations are universal. From the parent/teacher conferences to the attempts of getting the apathetic teen to produce. What moved me on screen, as well in real life, is the teachers. When a students' mother is in jeopardy of being deported, the staff passes around a hat to raise funds because, "lawyers are expensive." Man, I have seen that more than once.

A major connection I made was the diverse student body. Where I teach, we have students from a wide range of cultures - Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, Nigeria, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Iceland, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The film revealed the challenges with simple things like communicating with parents, the stress of being 'illegal', and the customs of some cultures we don't have a lot of experiences with.

Another trait I admired of Cantet's film is not letting his characters off the hook. He does not turn the film into a cheesy melodrama about one man's quest to redeem himself. No, The Class travels the same route as the powerful tv series The Wire where all of the characters have a little dirt under their finger nails.

The neo-realism style was perfectly executed. In fact, I don't see another style that would have fit The Class. Most of the characters were played by non-professional actors, which helped give it that documentary feel. I haven't seen a film flawlessly pull off this style since Raising Victor Vargas.

If you ever read this Cantet, just know that I am inspired to start developing my stories and experiences. Maybe, just maybe, I can capture the magic you have because The Class is truly a brilliant piece of cinema. Thank you for making this important film that not only captures the social system of our schools, but the social fabric that makes it all up.

I would love to write more but I have some papers to grade.