The Class

Synopsis: Teacher François Marin and his colleagues are preparing for another school year teaching at a racially mixed inner city high school in Paris. The teachers talk to each other about their prospective students, both the good and the bad. The teachers collectively want to inspire their students, but each teacher is an individual who will do things in his or her own way to achieve the results they desire. They also have differing viewpoints on the students themselves, and how best to praise and discipline them. The administration of the school tries to be as fair as possible, which includes having student representatives sit on the student evaluation committee. Marin's class this year of fourteen and fifteen year olds is no different than previous years, although the names and faces have changed. Marin tries to get through to his students, sometimes with success and sometimes resulting in utter failure. Even Marin has his breaking point, which may result in him doing things he would probabl
Genre: Drama
Director(s): Laurent Cantet
Production: Sony Pictures Classics
  Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 10 wins & 27 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.5
Metacritic:
92
Rotten Tomatoes:
95%
PG-13
Year:
2008
128 min
$3,700,000
Website
1,773 Views


- Hi!

- Ok, Francois?

And you?

Stephane... Francois...

- Still on the team?

- As ready as ever.

Hello.

- This one?

- At the back, please.

Hi, I'm Herve.

A sports teacher here for 3 years.

Welcome to all our new colleagues.

The students can be tough...

but they're good kids.

Hi, I'm Olivier.

I teach physical science...

and I've been here for 4 years.

I'm Patrick,

and I teach multiplication tables,

and sometimes mathematics!

I've been at this school

for a number of years.

Hello, I'm Anne.

I used to work in the Lyon suburbs.

I teach English.

I'm looking for my new colleagues.

Hi, I'm Isabelle

Nice to meet you.

I'm Christiane.

I'm Frederic,

I teach history and geography.

and I used to work

out in suburbs of Paris.

I'm happy to be in the city now.

I'm Julie, the year supervisor.

I'd like to welcome you all

and wish you a good year.

I'm Aline and I'm the cook

I'd like to welcome you all.

Thank you, Aline!

Hello. I'm Gilles,

I've been teaching mathematics

for many years

I'm retiring at the end of this year

I'd like to wish the new arrivals

plenty of courage.

I'm Francois

I teach French.

And I'm starting

my fourth year here

Welcome everybody.

We'll meet up at midday...

in the canteen for a drink

to mark the new year.

You get Wednesday like you wanted!

We could swap our classes

Nice, nice...

Not nice, not nice at all.

He's nice.

Not nice, watch him.

Not nice at all.

Nice, not nice.

She's not nice at all.

Arthur, your cap.

Good morning.

That's my place.

Get lost!

Calm down now!

Stop stirring things up

Remove your hood, please

You two back there,

there's place here.

- One up front.

- There's room here too!

Let's get one thing clear...

We waste 5 minutes

lining outside,

Do you realize

what 15 lost minutes means?

With 25 hours a week

and 30 weeks in the year,

we lose thousands of minutes.

In other schools,

they do a full work.

Imagine how far ahead they get

in a year

Figure it out!

We never do an hour.

Hand up to speak.

We never do an hour

You always say that!

Teachers say we do an hours class

but we never do.

All right it's 55 minutes.

Thats an important point

Stop saying other schools do an hour

They don't!

All I'm saying is that

we waste time. Like now.

To start with,

take out a sheet of paper,

fold it in two so that it can stand

on the edge of your desk clearly

and using block capitals,

write your full name.

Why write our names?

To know who you are

- But you know us!

- We had you last year.

Esmeralda,

half of the kids here are new.

Be happy. That way

people will know your name

I'm not doing it

I won't if you don't

You're right

For those of you who dont know me,

I'm Mr. Marin

- A marine?

- Very funny

Corny!

He wiped you out, sir

Come on, it shouldnt take so long

Five minutes to write a name

It's ridiculous

A biscuit for the firs day?

I'm OK, thanks

Rachel, a biscuit will buck you up

All right. "Witty"

That's word

we'll try to explain later.

Are there any other words

that you don't understand?

The word "condescension"

Yes, that's a complicated word.

Do you have any idea

what that might mean?

A vague idea but I'm not sure

You're not sure?

We'll talk about that later then

- Yes, Damien

- "Argentine".

Argentine. What does that mean?

It's people who live in Argentina.

Right, the inhabitants of Argentina

Of course not

Damien, who lives in Argentina?

The Argentines

In a soccer match

Argentina's players

are called...

Footballers

Let's move on

Any other difficult words

in the text?

Henriette

Is there anything

that you didn't understand?

"Henceforth".

"Henceforth".

"Henceforth"

Thanks for the prompt, Samantha.

I think that will do,

Let's take a look at these words.

All right. Austrian

Wey was the one

who picked the word Austrian

Yes, Esmeralda.

We all know what "Austrian" is.

- People from Austria.

- Wey doesn't know and...

Maybe, but everyone else knows!

We get the message. You didn't

know "misleading"

...so you're not really

in any position to talk.

But everyone knows

what "Austrian" means.

Nobody's perfect.

- "Austrian" is not a very,

important word, Wey.

It refers to someone

from the land of Austria,

which is pretty tiny country.

We can live without the word.

Can anyone name a famous Austrian?

Mozart.

- Who?

- Wol Fang Amadeus Mozart.

- "Wol Fung" maybe if he

were English, not Austrian.

Any other famous Austrians?

Austria could vanish

no one would notice.

Seriously, it's south of Germany.

So check a map, Wey,

You'll see where it is.

Souleymane,

...can you note the words too?

I forgot my things.

No one can land you some paper...

I'll do it at home.

You'll do it at home. Sure you will.

That's your approach

Only work at home.

I'm serious!

If I could be sure of that...

Don't worry. It'll be ok

Let's move on to "succulent".

"Succulent" is a word that we'll try

to guess the meaning of.

What's is "succulent"?

Suck

Suck off.

Very funny, Boubacar.

Very witty indeed,

Here's a sentence...

...with "succulent".

"Bill enjoys a succulent...

...cheeseburger. "

Cheeseburgers stink!

- Who said that?

- Me.

Why "cheeseburger"?

Well, since you say that, you

think cheeseburgers aren't succulent.

Maybe, but they're crap.

OK, but what I just said

should have made the penny drop.

- What does that mean?

- Mean what?

The penny thing...

To make the penny drop,

No one knows the expression?

If the penny drops,

it means you understand.

When I say,

if cheeseburger stink

they're not succulent,

that should help you see

what "succulent" means.

- What's with the Bills?

- What bills?

The name Bill.

You always use weird names.

Weird? A recent US President

was called Bill.

Why don't you use Aissata

or Rachid or Ahmed...

You always use whitey names.

What names?

- Honky names.

- What's honky?

Honkies, Frenchies, frogs.

You're not French?

No, I'm not French.

I didn't know.

I am, but not proud of it.

Fine, I'm not either

Why use these names?

Khoumba, if I start choosing names

to suit all your origins, it'll

never end.

Just change a little!

What do you suggest?

Aissata! Fatou, no!

- No, Aissata.

- Aissata, Aissata!

Excuse me. You have class 4/3

in French?

I'm class supervisor too.

Know what book you'll be reading?

No, I haven't decided.

In history I'll start with

Ancien Regime

If you want to link into that,

what kind of books are there?

The Enlightenment will

be tough for them.

How about Voltaire? Is he tough?

He's not easy.

Candide, is simple...

Not in their year

Zadig...

Yes, but it'd be tough

You have 20 seconds.

No, we've not finished yet!

We've not finished yet!

We can't spend 2 hours on the

imperfect.

Dalla, I can give you the time.

Sir, my pen keeps leaking!

- It's crap

- Who has a handkerchief?

Me!

Rabah!

Ask before you stand.

- May I?

- Yes.

- Gently, Ok...

- The perv!

He touched her tits!

Just give him the handkerchief.

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Laurent Cantet

Laurent Cantet ([lɔʁɑ̃ kɑ̃tɛ]; born 15 June 1961) is a French director, cinematographer and screenwriter. His parents were schoolteachers in Ardilleux.His 2001 film L'Emploi du temps was placed at 99 on Slant Magazine's best films of the 2000s, number 9 of The Guardian's Best Films of the Noughties, and number 11 at The A.V. Club's top 50 films of the 2000s (decade).On 25 May 2008, he received the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, for the film Entre les murs. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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