The kids are as Socratic as they are erratic in “The Class,” Laurent Cantet’s compelling, disquieting drama about a year in a Paris junior high school.
The film is based on teacher François Begaudeau’s nonfiction book “Between the Walls.” And in the first of many lovely choices, Cantet casts Begaudeau as teacher François, who rises (but perhaps fails more) to the challenges of his students, many the children of recent immigrants from Asia and Africa.
Taking the movie’s parallel-universe conceit further, the kids crammed into their seats are real students, not actors. The teachers gathered in the lounge to articulate hopes but also sincere frustrations are actually teachers in a junior high in Paris.
With one potent exception, the parents who accompany their kids to parent-teacher conferences are the real parents of those youngsters. Fatoumata Kante plays the mother of one of the school’s more disruptive students — handsome, cheeky Souleymane (Frank Keïta).
Don’t let all this verisimilitude seduce you into believing that “The Class” is a documentary. And don’t be lulled by the intimate, even intrusive, proximity of the three high-definition cameras Cantet uses to capture the nuances of that shared, charged space.
“The Class” is a rattling example of the improvised, workshopped film, where truths are uncovered, discovered, then refined more than scripted.
Early on, a veteran sits with a newcomer looking over the latter’s attendance sheet. “Nice. Nice. Not nice,” he says after each name. “Not nice at all.” Like much of the film, this moment rings wonderfully true and also a bit funny and sad.
The bright or not, show-offy or shy, talkative or reticent youngsters sitting in François’ classroom demand a teacher with the agility of an aikido master. They seem to be in a perpetual mood to challenge him — about his sexuality, the imperfect subjunctive, just about anything.
Esmeralda is a particularly intriguing practitioner of the Socratic method. She wants to be a cop or a rapper, she says. Played with warm insolence by Esmeralda Quertani, she sits next to Khoumba (Rachel Regulier), another bright, demanding student.
At the end of the previous year, François believed he had developed a good rapport with Khoumba. This year, they seem to be starting again at square one, or worse.
Sometimes, François comes through. He uses the kids’ combative energy to challenge them. For instance, when Souleymane coyly poses a personal question, François does a fairly good job of turning the questioner on his head.
More often, François seems to misjudge the complex lives of his diverse wards. He responds defensively when asked why he never uses names that might more closely reflect their experiences. In a classroom with kids named Wei or Burak or Bouba- car, why is he wed to “Robert”?
“The Class” is no sentimental “To Sir With Love” journey.
Like Hilary Swank’s character in 2007’s “Freedom Writers,” François has his resistent youngsters read “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Unlike his American counterpart, he seems to fumble the opportunity to connect.
“Your life is interesting,” he tells them as he assigns them an autobiographical sketch. But they sniff out the truth. Says one, “I don’t think our lives interest you that much.”
“The Class” was France’s entry this year for the foreign-language-film Academy Award. Its selection bodes well for an industry faulted — even by some French filmmakers — for exhibiting a certain cowardice in relation to its own contemporary woes and the challenges of immigration and class stagnation.
François, the character, fails his students from time to time. The film’s final act turns on a classroom incident that began with his use of a word.
But actor and co-writer François Begaudeau succeeds in revealing the chattering, poetic, cantankerous souls of these young men and women.
These kids aren’t always all right. But they are consistently riveting.
“The Class”
PG-13 for language. 2 hours, 8 minutes. Directed by Laurent Cantet; written by Cantet, Francois Begaudeau and Robin Campillo; photography by Pierre Milon, Catherine Pujol, Georgi Lazarevski; starring Francois Begaudeau, Franck Keita, Rachel Regulier, Boubacar Toure, Esmeralda Quertani, Wei Huang. Opens today at the Esquire Theatre.
