This really is an amazing film. At least I think so. It does something that none of the other films we've reached do: it focuses on the classroom. Think about that for a minute. What is most of school but the classroom, and yet almost any movie or show about school spends as little time as it can in the classroom. "Friday Night Lights" showed no class in the pilot—and honestly, does little with the class throughout its five season run. Keating's class takes a backseat to the dramas of the boys. A lot of you found Pete Dixon's class unbelievable—as some of you found Escalante's class. Looking back, the only things we've watched that rival the almost total focus on the classroom found in this movie are "To Sir With Love." And the only shows we've watched that come close to the verisimilitude
that this has are, in my opinion, "My So-Called Life" with its bored students and classes that seem to blend into each other, and "High School" with its own boring classes and bored teachers. This may not be your experience, but for millions of American (and would seem French) students, it is theirs. Not that Marin's class is boring: but every time we see his class, he seems to wrestle with the students to keep them invested. Sometimes it works: sometimes it doesn't. And like every other teacher we've seen, Pete Dixon excluded, he is a fallible human being. He isn't Taylor or Escalante, though perhaps he wishes he could be. But we never know what he's thinking, really. Why is he even a teacher? I found myself asking that as we watched the movie today.
"The Class" is filmed as though it were a documentary. No music. No fancy camera angles. No movie star looks. Kids who are played by kids who don't look like they're acting. The class felt realistically messy, with people talking over each other. Who were we supposed to "relate" to? Who was the hero? Little seemed judged in this film by the filmmaker: it really was as if he just spent time in a Parisian junior high school populated by a truly diverse cross-section of France and turned the camera on. But this is a fictional story: it is judging; it is commenting; it does have a point, just as a documentaty like "High School", edited and formed deliberately, has a point. So:
1. Reaction to the film? Like? Dislike? And why?
2. The kids: Esmeralda, who just likes to stir things up; Khoumba, so proud and angry; Wie, fresh-faced and sweet, but never gets enough sleep because he's playing video games until all hours (that never happens here); Boubacar, feisty and who loves the Mali soccer team; Carl, who looks like he's a junior in high school and says he feels perfectly French, unlike several of the other kids; Louise who may be laughing at the committee meeting but was aware enough to take notes; and Souleymane, the "troublemaker" who takes good phots and whose mother does not speak French. What do you make of this class? You reaction to this truly diverse group of adolescents? Which one of them stuck out the most for you—and why?
3. Think about Marin, the teacher. Your reaction to him? Do you see a plan in his teaching? Do you see a larger goal for the students in what he's doing? Is he a good teacher?
4. Rick and I talked about the film a few minutes after class. "Confusing" was the word we used for it. What is this movie really about? Yes, about a "class"; we get that. But it's so plotless—the narrative is driven by the fact that these kids have to be in that French class and Marin is their teacher. So what do you see as a (the) major theme or conflict in the movie? And why do you say this?
For most of you on last night's blog, good length and depth. For a few others: not so much. Give this blog the same healthy attention you gave last night's. We'll finish the movie tomorrow and talk. A lot. See you then.
I liked the film. I like how raw and real it seems. Almost everything that happens in the film seems like something that would happen in a real junior high classroom.
ReplyDeleteThe class seems incredibly real. It seems like all the information and experience the teacher has with these kids is only a bit more and not much different than what we see in the movie. And they all seem incredibly multifaceted. So I think it's really interesting to see the teacher deal with all the different levels that the students have. (Honestly I don't think he does that good of a job.) Carl stuck out to me a lot. I think that's because we know so little about him while also knowing that there's a lot to him (which we find out when the teacher's saying he knows why Carl's there). Esmeralda also sticks out to me as kind of annoying. She doesn't seem super aware of those around her and her need to stir things up kind of bothers me.
I'm not sure Marin is that good of a teacher, honestly. I don't see him trying to instill values or a good work ethic or critical thinking skills in his students. It seems to me like he's teaching for the sake of teaching; he doesn't even seem to know why he does it.
I think the major theme has to do with coping with circumstance. Carl's obviously got something going on in his life and has to deal with that. Khoumba doesn't want to be there and doesn't feel she gets respect so she has to deal with that. Souleymane seems to be dealing with something in and out of school as well. And Mr.Marin has to deal with all of these kids in his class.
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ReplyDeleteI liked the film overall, though there were some moments of intense conflict that very much unsettled me. I think the film did a great job of portraying the realistic aspects of a public school in a French cultural setting. While these aspects were not necessarily pleasant, they were very realistic and raw. I also enjoy the close teacher and student interactions and the way faculties assembled to evaluate each student's performance and how to address the issues of each student ideally. I liked how the film portrayed these details, which I don't think most other films we've watched depicted to such an extreme extent.
ReplyDeleteI found the diverse group of students from different ethnicities very interesting, but I guess that is typical of most international schools. I do not like, however, how the students emerged from low-level background conditions, causing them to behave in such an insolent way that gives a wrong impression about their ethnical backgrounds. For instance, I do not like how Souleymane is the very unexceptional yet aggressively troublesome student while being Muslim at the same time. The tattoo on his arm kept giving me a troubling impression that he react too violently and cause a great degree of trouble that is severe. I did not like Esmeralda because she showed a very bad decorum and poor manners. She also argued with Mr. Marin too much in the beginning, giving Mr. Marin a difficult time due to her strong influence over the other students. Louise was the most docile among all of them, but even she showed a lack of intelligence and complete respect for Marin. Boubacer is a pretty nice kid, actually, but he also needs to learn to be aware of himself and control his temper. Carl is still in the shadows to me; I do not quite know him very well besides that he had a bad record that he's trying to get over.
Mr. Marin seems somewhat confusing to me as a teacher. He does not teach his students any important moral values directly, though I guess he probably did when he disciplined them. Otherwise, he would converse with each student about his/her personal issues in front of the entire class without concern for the student's open humiliation. In addition, when he engages his students into a certain topic, and once the students became too engaged and out of control, he loses his temper and screams extremely inappropriate things to the students that I'm not sure if he did so purposely or accidentally. Either way, he does not seem to ever follow the same page as the students, and he does not seem to have high regards or ambition for them of any sort.
I think a theme in the movie is trying to compromise with others on something. Mr. Marin tries to compromise with the troublesome students by talking with them after class and to their parents as well. Although he is not doing a good job doing so, he and along with all the faculties try to formulate different ways of addressing the students' individual issues. The reason why they do not succeed us that they fail to bend themselves and empathize with the students in their interests. I guess another theme in this film is the overall lack of understanding among the characters for one another.
I really liked this film. It was true. Or at least more true than many of the other things we've seen so far. It worked well. It wasn't until we were about 30-45 minutes in that I noticed that there was no music, and I like that. It made it more realistic. There's nothing other than the class. It was a bit exhausting just to watch it. The kids have some time between classes of course, but we didn't experience this break in classes. We didn't have any time between classes. The viewer experienced the class as an ongoing thing, as it is, in a way. Even when you aren't in class, there's still work to do. It never really ends until the class is over. The movie demonstrated the point that school never really ends, and what happens outside of school doesn't matter to the teacher. I liked that it didn't romanticize the classroom. It wasn't a perfect world; people talked over each other and disrespected each other, and so on. It had a level of truth that we haven't seen much of yet. And the French was fun.
ReplyDeleteI think that this class is a big unrealistic. First of all, it's very diverse. Even if a school were situated in a very diverse neighborhood, the class probably wouldn't be this diverse. Their personalities are so different from one another (along with their origins). There's one of every stereotype in this class. Everyone is represented. Khoumba stuck out most to me at this point in the movie. She's clearly going through something and she doesn't want to share with her teacher (which is reasonable). She is said to have undergone a huge change over the summer. It's interesting that someone can change so much so quickly. I am very interested in finding out what happened to her to make her "grow up". She seems like a regular character, but she has a background that promises to be fascinating. It makes her act in certain ways, and her actions spark actions in other characters. Later, she stops being her new self because she doesn't want to upset Marin. She has so much respect for him to stop being who she is on order to keep from disrupting his class. There's something interesting about her that I want to find out.
I think Marin is an okay teacher. His method is not to yell at the students or punish them, but rather to let them do what they want (as long as it's not disrespectful) until they figure out what they're learning in the class. He doesn't want to tell them the point of things; he wants them to figure it out for themselves. I think that he wants the students to learn to think for themselves, so he's teaching them by giving them something to do and letting them figure out why they're doing it. They question him as to why they are learning what they are learning, but so far, they haven't figured out that it's so they can think for themselves. They question him mainly to annoy him, and it works a bit, but he tries not to show it so they can learn what they need to learn. His method is to give them something to do and lay back. He'll answer their questions and he'll tell them how to start something, but he lets them figure out how to continue. He doesn't just hand the answers to them. I think he's a good teacher in this aspect. The bad thing about him is that he keeps his calm for so long and never gets angry at them, but eventually pops because he can't stand their comments anymore. It he could punish them early on for being disrespectful so they don't learn that it's okay, he would be much better off in the long run.
ReplyDeleteI think the major theme is the interactions between the characters and how they deal with their situations. For example, it shows Marin's interaction with Khoumba to show her history and give her depth. The film wants the viewers to realize that people have reasons for their actions that one might not know. It shows Marin questioning why Khoumba changed so quickly, but it doesn't give a reason for her change. The reason behind people's actions doesn't matter as much as people say it does. The reason that Khoumba change hasn't yet been revealed. The characters all interact in their own ways, and the point of the film is that the interactions mean something to each character. There doesn't have to be a plot to every story; the story can be about the characters, even if they don't grow in any way.
ReplyDeleteI had mixed feelings about the movie, I thought it was one of the most realistic movies we have seen, and many of the students and teachers seemed like people I know or have seen. On the other hand, I can't really find a clear plot in the movie, and at times Mr. Martin loses his temper at the kids or let's them dictate class which annoyed me.
I think Souleymane and Khoumba stuck out to me the most. Souleymane is a troublemaker and appears to not care about school at all, but when Mr. Martin tells him that his self portrait is excellent he seems really happy and proud. When Mr. Martin tells Souleymane that he is limited, Souleymane seems betrayed and really hurt that that is what Mr. Martin thinks of him. I think these contrasts really stuck out to me because there are definitely parts of Souleymane that I could relate too, but also parts of him that I really didn't understand which made him an interesting character. Khoumba stuck out to me because of her reaction to Mr. Martin. She accuses him of crossing the line and then picking on her specifically. She also writes him a letter about how she feels that he does not respect her. While Mr. Martin may not have picked on Khoumba, I totally get why she feels like he doesn't respect her or is explicitly picking on her. It's her letter that sticks out to me the most though. I think many students know they are supposed to respect their teachers but a teacher's respect for a student is not guaranteed. Many teachers are not told to respect their students and therefore may not respect the students which really does effect a teacher's teaching ability and wether or not the kids are willing to learn in his or her class.
I think Mr. Martin is an average teacher. He wants his kids to learn, but isn't able to connect what they are learning to their life at all and often gets off topic based on the students. He seems to care for the kids, but doesn't appear to have a clear idea of what he wants the students to learn.
I don't think there is a clear plot in the movie, but a main theme is the relationship between the teacher and the students. The movie focuses on this relationship more than it does on Mr. Martin's relationships with his fellow teachers or on the students's relationships with each other. The movie take place mostly in the classroom and the majority of the interactions and conversations we see are between the students and the teachers. The focus of the movie is on The Class and the main emphasis of the class is on discussion between Mr. Martin and his students.
I liked the film and thought it was pretty interesting, but it was so realistic at some points that it was stressful. When the tension starts rising in the classroom after Souleymane finds out what Mr. Marin said about him, I felt physically ill at ease. The characters were such accurate portrayals of real people that I was always afraid of what mistakes they might make (as real people constantly do, but those mistakes are always melodramatic and usually worse in movies and on television).
ReplyDeleteJust like the rest of the film, I think that the class is very realistic. Junior high kids are brutal and rebellious, and we saw that personality type time and time again among the class. They were as different from each other as any random group of children with clashing personalities and power struggles. Each one of them faces the most awkward years of their lives and we see kids with braces, dressing in all black, sagging, etc. Wei stuck out to me the most because he was very smart in a group of average teenagers and his situation was quite unique. Seeing how his parents didn't speak French well and hearing about the possible deportation of his mother made me feel very bad for him but also proud of him for returning and continuing to do well in the class.
He's trying to help the students learn about how they must act in life and what it means to live, but he's also human. He has a temper and makes mistakes, as we see in the scene when Souleymane walks out of the class. I think he's a good teacher because he seems to be trying his best and he generally wants the students to do well in his class and learn life lessons so that their futures will be slightly brighter.
I think the major theme of this movie is growth. We see kids as they grow up over their time in the class, of course, but we also see their growth into adolescence and into the people they'll be. When asked about what changed over the summer, Khoumba says to Mr. Marin, "I can't stay a child forever." This shows how she's in the process of becoming herself and that she's aware of the change. After the students write their self-portraits, the audience learns a lot more about how they view themselves and their lives and we hope for some sort of transformation by each student by the end of the film. Mr. Marin also struggles with change over the course of the movie; his desire to help the children requires some sort of self sacrifice in the form of giving up some of his preconceived notions about his role in the classroom.
I thought this film was interesting. I have trouble with films that do not have a clear plot, because I can often get bored with the lack of events. Though, I still thought that this film had good aspects. I liked how realistic the class was. It reminded me of my junior high in a lot of ways; the students fought with the teacher and each other, yet there was still a point to all of the madness. I liked the way this movie was filmed as well. It did not have the feel of a big Hollywood production which I think added to the realistic feel of the film. I did get bored about halfway through the viewing today, though. I think that the action that occurred where we left off today could have been introduced earlier in the film. I think that would have kept the viewers a little bit more engaged throughout the movie.
ReplyDeleteLike I said before, I think that this class is very realistic. There are a lot of unique personalities in this class. I think that they need a little bit more direction from their teacher in order to accomplish more, though. They are rebellious like any group of teenagers, but they are all sweet at heart I think. They might appear as cold and mean, but I think that is just because of the environment they are in. Carl and Souleymane stood out to me the most. Souleymane has built up this persona of being a troublemaker and a rebellious kid, but I think when we see those beautiful pictures of him, we see a different side of him. He has passion, we see it through his photographs, I think he just needs an outlet to express himself through. Judging by the way his parent-teacher conference meeting went, I think his home life is not great. He is probably confused because his home is a place where no one speaks French or really understands the school and situation he is in. I think he is a very complex character, a very real character, and I find him special. Carl stood out to me from the beginning. He seems to be reserved, and we don’t know what he did at his last school that got him kicked out. Though, I loved his self-portrait. I thought its simplicity was beautiful. He was not just reading a list of things he did and did not like, but rather he was expressing himself in a way that he was comfortable with.
I have not completely figured out Marvin yet. Maybe that is a point in this movie, that you will never truly understand Marvin, but the ending may bring more clarity. I personally do not see a plan or larger goal in his teaching. He teaches the material, but I do not see anything more than that. I admire the effort he gives to try and connect with his students. Though, we see with all the other teachers we have analyzed that they seem to have a purpose beyond just teaching the material. Keating teaches the kids to think for themselves, Thackery teaches them how to survive and thrive outside of school, and Escalante teaches his kids accomplishment. I do not see Marvin doing any of those things. I think that in order for him to do more than just slightly connect with his kids, he needs to have a purpose for teaching and to give the students something that they can take away from his class. Like we said in one of our discussions, we will not remember that math quiz we took last week. Those kids probably will not remember all of the educational things that happened in his class either, so I think it is important that Marvin gives them something more. I do not think at the moment Marvin is a horrible teacher. I also do not think he is a good teacher, but I think he also has potential. He cannot call his students “skanks” or let them think that they are worthless. Hopefully he will redeem himself as we finish the movie.
DeleteI think that a major conflict in this movie is disconnect between the teacher and their students. I think Marvin brings this conflict to life in his constant struggles to connect with his students. He has not though, not yet, and I think that creates a barrier between himself and the students. I do think he cares about his students and wants them to succeed, but he never crosses the barrier between himself and his kids. We see that as well in the faculty meeting. The teachers in a way see the kids not capable of being real people. They are students with issues. The faculty meeting depicts that well; they go through the kids’ grades number by number, talking about their behavior as well. I do not think it is a time for them to look at the kids’ improvements, though. They do not examine the progress the students had made. I think that is why we see this disconnect between the teachers and students. There are no values, no life skills, and no sense of accomplishment the teachers are giving their students. In order to truly reach the mind of an adolescent, the teacher has to be willing to break down some of the barriers between students and teachers. There has to be a risk taken to give those students something that will stick with them. I think the lack of that from the teachers causes some of the conflicts in this movie
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ReplyDeleteI really liked the movie, mostly because of how realistic it was, and also because it showed how difficult the students can be. Most of the movies we’ve seen so far have portrayed students that, once given an exciting teacher, blossom into little mathematicians, which in many cases, is far from the truth. Some kids, despite the teacher, are behaviorally challenged and are stubborn no matter what. I also enjoyed Marin, because he had real reactions to the students instead of witty comments that would shock them into silence. From an outside perspective, a movie standpoint, its easy to label the teachers as criminals who don't care about their students. And this is true of some public school teachers, but MANY do care, and some of the asshole kids they have to deal with are not shown in films. Its very difficult to kick kids out of public schools, and some teachers have to put up with the worst of the worst. This class felt like my middle school classes, which is rather disturbing, but was refreshing because it doesn't romanticize school.
ReplyDeleteEsmerelda, to me, was so realistic. Quick to contradict, and yet still likable. She was smart without being unrealistically philosophical. Many characters in shows are so dramatic, but she was just your typical difficult moody student, which in any other movie would have felt out of place, but didn't in this one.
Aside from his skank comment, I found Marin to be a decent teacher. He wasn't as great compared to some of the other teachers we’ve seen, but those teachers didn't have to tolerate some of the stuff he did and most of them were very fictional and idealistic. He seemed to be a real teacher with real reactions, and I understood when and why he was frustrated. Since the movie almost had a documentary feel, I thought it was fitting.
I would say the theme is adolescence, even just middle school in general. Everyone is that room is moody and quick to turn on each other, even the teacher. Its confusing, because thats what middle school is. No one knows who they are, they just know they don’t want to be treated like kids. The teacher still feels that he has authority, one the kids like to break. They are looking for that balance, that mutual respect that will help the class run smoothly and have everyone, even Marin, getting along well.
It definitely was not a film that I would watch on my own time, but it was still enjoyable. I just love listening to French. I think it is a beautiful language. Besides that, I thought it was fascinating how much their culture relates to ours. Whenever I think of the European countries, I think of their education system being so much better than ours and more elite. (That idea may have been fed to me from Ryan Martin). This film really displayed how kids around the world are similar no matter where they grow up. The only reason I disliked the film a bit was because I wasn’t a huge fan of Mr. Marin’s teaching style. I didn’t find it to be very productive and I also found it invasive.
ReplyDeleteSouleymane stood out to me the most. In the beginning of the film, all of the students seemed like trouble makers. It wasn’t until the teacher conferences that I understood that Souleymane was more troublesome than the rest. He had such a short fuse and there seemed to be no way to discipline him. During the film I just kept trying to put myself and Mr. Marin’s shoes and what I would do to deal with him, and I was unable to come up with an answer. Souleymane has to want to learn and want to succeed, you can’t force it upon him.
As I said above, I didn’t think that he was a great teacher. I felt that he was too laid back throughout the film and didn’t set enough boundaries for the kids. I didn’t believe that they had much respect for him since he acted almost as if he as their peer in the way he would address them and pry into their lives. I am still unclear as to what his goal was. I never felt that he was teaching the students much, but maybe when we finish the film that goal will become more clear.
I feel similarly to you. I don’t feel as though it has much of a plot. The rest of the films we have watched the plots were given to you from the start. A group of troubled teenagers that needs to learn to be adults. A group of adolescents that have dealt with overbearing teachers and parents their entire lives and need to learn to have an opinion for themselves. But this film doesn’t show us any narrative. Maybe it is a disconnect between the cultures, but I am unaware of one. I felt like it was all over the place with many potential themes such as the troubled student Souleymane who finally learns respect and wants to do something with his life, or the teacher that learns from his students when he was presented with the letter from Khoumba. Truthfully I am very unsure of where this film is taking us.
I liked the film, because I thought they did a really good job of filming it as a documentary, and I thought all of the characters were very well rounded and real. No one was the protagonist and no one was the antagonist. There just a bunch of people trying their best. I did find it hard to watch in parts though. The scenes were very long, and often very intense. These scenes certainly added to the documentary feel, and I think they allowed the film to delve deeper into certain themes, but they took away from my enjoyment of the film. Which doesn't mean that they were bad though; I think I just need a longer attention span. Plus, I think its good that they made me feel uncomfortable. I had an internal debate going on throughout the movie, trying to justify each of the character's actions. I like the movie for making me think.
ReplyDeleteWhile the some of the kids' actions got on my nerves, (some of them were just plain rude sometimes), I had a reason to like all of them, and I do like all of them. As I said earlier, the movie does a very good job of showing gray area. Khoumba was being disrespectful to the teacher, but she did prove a point in her letter to Mr. Marin; how come he gets to call her insolent and disrespectful, but she can't call him anything? Souleymane is uses very vulgar language and is rude during class, but I feel that Mr. Marin almost goads him on by letting him get so worked up. Instead of just talking to Souleymane about grades after class, he embarrasses him in front of the whole class. No wonder Souleymane is angry. I did not approve of him hitting Khoumna though. That crossed a line. I really like Esmerelda. Its clear she is very intelligent, and I like her spunky attitude, but revealing a bunch of confidential and hurtful information to other students wasn't cool. I loved how we were shown so many different kids from different backgrounds. They all have their own strengths and their own problems. Their all just kids trying to figure stuff out.
At first, I liked Marin. He seemed to genuinely care about the kids, and I thought his plan was to try and get the kids to come out of their shells. He wanted to help them figure themselves out with the self portraits. But as the movie went on, it became clear to me that he really had no clue on how to help them. He was so contradictory with his discipline. He wanted them to talk, but never really taught them how. And he didn't always treat the students with respect. For example, I thought he was way to tough and rude with Khoumba. He didn't really try to talk to her. He just kept calling her insolent. Also, he didn't deal with class arguments well. He would let them get rowdier and rowdier and not discipline them until everything had spun out of control. He also didn't seem willing to admit his own mistakes. Like when he tried to change his use of the word "skunks". He had the potential to be a good teacher, but instead he let his own stubbornness and blindness get in his way. Plus, he let the kids play him like a violin. You could tell that they knew how to trip him up or get him wired up. So in the end, he wasn't firm enough when he needed to be, and to firm in other areas. He could have been a Thackery, but alas.
I think the main conflict in this movie is a question; can Marin get these kids to come out of their shells and help them mature, and can he mature and grow himself. I think this is the theme because the class seems to spend more time talking about personal things than literature. He's trying to relate to them. Sadly, to me it looks like he's failing. I thought the way he acted where we stopped today was very inappropriate and will be very hard to come back from. I think he has started to act more like a child throughout the movie. He did a good job handling the "Are you a homosexual?" question at the beginning. But he did a terrible job handling the grades problem. I'm interested to see if he can pull himself up in the last bit of the film.
Overall, I enjoyed the film. When it first started, I was bored out of my mind and struggling to pay attention, but as the movie progressed, I became much more interested. This is definitely one of the most realistic movies I've ever seen. It really made me feel like I was sitting in that classroom at some points. I like how almost all of the film takes place in the classroom because that's where students spend the most time. Most shows and movies stick to the social and athletic aspects of school.
ReplyDeleteThat class is absurd. They have to be the most rowdy, misbehaved and disrespectful group of kids in all of Paris. If I were Marin, I definitely wouldn't want to have any part of that class. It's shocking that the kids can be so ridiculous and still seem like a real class. That really shows how well made this movie is. Two of the characters that really stuck out to me were Carl and Khoumba. Both of them are really mysterious kids. For example, we have absolutely no idea of Carl's circumstances and why he comes to the school. With Khoumba, we are left to speculate over what caused her to change so much over the summer. Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow.
I really don't think that Marin is a good teacher. I don't even see his students learning anything. He tried to make his kids ponder and come to some sort of a conclusion about who they are, but they really didn't gain much from his assignment. I have no idea what he's trying to do with his students, but it's definitely not working. I think he should just try to stick to teaching the kids french grammar because a some of them desperately need it.
I think that confusion is actually an important theme in this movie because it's a huge part of life, especially adolescence. Adolescence is an especially confusing time because it's generally when people try to discover who they really are and this can be difficult for some. Marin even has his students do "self portraits" for the sole purpose of finding their true selves. The lack of a plot also contributes to the general feeling of confusion the film gives.
1) So far I don’t know how I feel about the movie. On one hand, I like the movie because of the realistic feel it gives off. I think it was really smart of the directors to really show the inside of the classroom from such an unbiased perspective. However, because of this ‘every-day classroom’ environment, I found myself getting bored a bit just because of the lack of excitement. While I say that however, I really did like how the movie is building up the characters so that we get to know them better; I especially liked the parent-teacher conference scenes. On a lighter note, I also enjoyed listening to the French language being spoken throughout the movie. I don’t speak it but I really like how it sounds so it was fun to listen along.
ReplyDelete2) I thought the class was pretty rough for Mr. Marin. They didn’t seem motivated for anything and he always had a hard time getting their attention. While maybe one or two students seemed respectful and quiet, the overwhelming majority of the class was pretty disrespectful and rude. I thought that the diversity of the class was interesting. Hearing the self-portraits the students made about themselves and watching the parent-teacher conferences really helped me to understand the differences of each adolescent and gain a wider understanding of the diversity. I think that roles began to emerge, a little bit like in The Breakfast Club, with Suleymane, for example, becoming the rebel and Wei becoming the gamer. Esmeralda stuck out the most for me, but not for good reasons. I was constantly annoyed at her and found myself disliking her more and more as the movie progressed. As you said, she likes to ‘stir things up.’ She’s always questioning Mr. Marin’s authority or picking on another classmate. The final straw for me was while she was laughing at one of her classmates bad grades as grades were read off at the teacher meeting. She never shows signs of being a good person, and only upsets the class.
3) I think Mr. Marin is an interesting character in the movie. At first, I didn’t know how to feel about him and probably still don’t. At times, he is able to grip his class and inspire his students. However, on the flip side, he does lose control of the class a lot, and most of the time is spent trying to get things back in order. It is because of this that I would maybe rule him as a bad teacher. I feel as though I do see a plan in his teaching however I just don’t know what his larger goal is. Through his lessons, he has encouraged learning. He’s done this by letting others read, give them interesting assignments like their self-portrait, and open up the class to discussion. While this plan has worked sometimes to grasp his kids’ attention, I don’t see the long term goal. This might be because I am trying to equate it to ‘To Sir With Love’ or ‘Stand and Deliver,’ where the teachers’ goal was to prepare the students for the outside world and also give them brighter futures. Mr. Marin has showed none of those ambitions and just teaches either because he likes it or it’s his only option. In accordance with the other movies we have watched set in the classroom, Mr. Marin has a tad of crazy in him. However, this crazy is not a good crazy and appears to just be pent up anger. We see it come out when he drags Suleymane to the principle and calls the two girls ‘skanks.’ While Marin does put all of his efforts into his teaching, which should be noted and appreciated, he doesn’t appear to have a larger goal for them besides tomorrow and cant keep control of his students, making him a bad teacher in my eyes.
Delete4) I was having these same thoughts as the movie progressed. I think that a major theme might be the struggle between the authority of Mr. Marin and the rebellion of the students. From the start of the movie this theme has been prevalent and I don’t really know who will win out. I also think that the students’ success in school is major conflict that is developing. We found out that most of the kids don’t have the best grades and so maybe Mr. Marin has to go on a mission to improve their grades, in order to improve their futures. I think that Suleymane would become sort of the head of that conflict as his struggles with his home life, grades, fellow classmates, and Mr. Marin are shown the most throughout the film.
1. I’ve actually seen this movie before, so I was familiar with the general plot and characters, and I’ve got to say I’m liking it less this time around. The first time I saw it, I liked it and felt really engaged in the plot and this time I am paying more attention to the characters and their motives. This movie to me feels very real and raw but at the same time it seems very strange and alien to me. It’s very strange for me to see a movie that feels so real with students behaving so poorly and disrespectfully towards each other and towards their teacher.
ReplyDelete2. I became very irritated and frustrated with the student’s attitudes and behavior towards each other and Mr. Marin. To me it seemed horribly disrespectful the way the students would ignore the teacher when he was speaking and talk back to him and then get an attitude when he would punish them for it. The students that stood out to me the most were Esmerelda and Louise. I think what they did by telling the students their grades before they were released and going against their duties as call representatives was a very immature and stupid thing to do. I think that the group of students was portrayed as almost obnoxiously diverse. The diversity I felt was too overplayed and was forced into being more of a component of the movie than it should have been.
3. I have mixed feelings about what kind of teacher I think Mr. Marin was. He seems to only be (attempting to) teaching the students the curriculum, not thinking as an individual or any sort of moral values. He loses his temper with his students pretty regularly and insults them or calls them names which is a really immature thing to do, and we don't really see him looking out for them in any particular way.
4. I think the theme or plot of the movie is based on confusion and identity as well as relationships. The students are trying to figure out who they are and are confused with themselves and each other and Mr. Marin. I think we will see these themes play out more as we see more of the movie and hopefully we will see the students get their attitudes in check.
1)This is not my most favorite film that we have watched thus far. In fact I found it somewhat slow and unmoving in certain parts in the beginning. I feel like where we have just left off is where the most climactic events and drama are occurring. I do however, feel that the movie does a good job of portraying a realistic classroom full of misbehaved teenagers along with their teacher (who happens to have a very complex character). I’m looking forward to seeing what happens at the end of the movie.
ReplyDelete2)I actually enjoyed the diversity of the group and I feel like it was definitely not a mistake to have it this way for the film. Having it this way gives the audience a sense of different people’s backgrounds and I think that’s very important for this film in order to show certain links between the kids and their personal/home/religious/ethnic backgrounds. That’s why I find the parent teacher meetings a very clever addition on the part of the director along with the “self portrait” projects. They give us a look into each student, so we see more than just the whiny, stubborn adolescent surface. Souleymane is a great embodiment of what the makers of this movie were going for, I think. His background is important in terms of who he is and we can see this in his self portrait (the photo of his mother who doesn't speak French). His character can’t go unnoticed and you can see his frustration and eagerness to fight back in the classroom when he interacts with his teacher and classmates. Once again, I’m eager to see what ends up happening to him at the end.
3)Marin is a human being. I can’t say I would have done his job any better. These kids can be a real pain to deal with and it’s frustrating when you’re not getting the respect you so think you deserve. To be honest, I’m actually not too clear on what his goal is/ what he teaches. I think perhaps he started off with a certain goal in mind, but that goal morphed over the course of this year due to the way he and his students interacted with each other. I think the goal to start off with was to teach these kids what they need to know in a way so that they understand it, whilst also teaching discipline and correct manners. He’s definitely not a great teacher. He is a flawed character like all of us are. And in some cases there is no excuse for some of the things he has said and done, but I can still see why he did them. I can see the frustration he feels, the failure, perhaps, he feels sometimes when he can’t even get an honest apology out of one of his students. I kept thinking “There’s definitely another way you could be doing this right now, Marin” during certain scenes in the movie, but now that I think about it—he is in a really hard position here, and in general he cares for his students (like Wei) and is interested in what they have to say (for what reasons though I am not entirely sure). I’m not going to bash this character completely, but he’s definitely not one that I trust entirely.
4)I think a major theme is the role of a teacher specifically in terms of the way he interacts with his students. Pretty much, 90% of the film I’d say is shot in the classroom. During most of those shots, what we see is student/ teacher interaction. There is constantly some sort of tension that sits in the room. Sometimes it is broken a tiny bit when the students are willing to cooperate with the teacher and read their work or volunteer to contribute a smart comment to a discussion, but even then there is a strange unknowingness in this class, and for the audience, for it is still not clear as to what this man is teaching these kids. At one point he teaches French grammar, and then the next minute he’s teaching “creative writing.” Right where we have left of, there is an obvious conflict that has been brewing for a while and has just now boiled over. This theme of student teacher interaction is very easily seen at this moment when the interaction is heated and really just not good. Hitting, blood, name-calling, degrading, lack of respect. Can’t wait to see how it plays out and how the theme carries through to the end.
Delete1. Overall, I liked the movie ok. Like John said, there isn’t a central plot, which at times made it difficult to focus. Mostly, I liked this movie because of the thought-provoking questioning that went on in the classroom, done mostly by the kids and sometimes Mr. Marin. To me, one of the most interesting ideas was raised when Esmeralda and others asked why exactly they needed to learn French grammar rules. They argued that, conversationally, no one spoke with those rules in place. It made me realize that perhaps grammar rules are a bit arbitrary and archaic, and also what exactly does it mean for a language to be “formal?” It reminded of how some American works are ridiculed because they are written in vernacular English, even though, in some communities, that is the way to speak and write. I feel as though this idea and all the other questioning raised awareness in Mr. Marin, though it didn’t really change him after all. I liked how the movie was shot and how we were able to follow the progression of the students. I disliked the whole situation of the movie; it felt as though the school faculty was trying to help the children but ultimately only cared about themselves and the kids that fit their bourgeois expectations.
ReplyDelete2. The class consists of a mix of people, each with distinct personalities and many opinionated. I felt as though the class was very realistic but they also all seemed very divided. The characters that stuck out most to me were Esmeralda and Souleymane. I liked how Esmeralda called out Mr. Marin for his contradictions and at times tunnel-vision perspective, even though she didn’t have a respect for rules and could at times be rude. Esmeralda stood her ground and didn’t respect Mr. Marin unless she felt like he deserved it. She sold him out to the class at the end because she didn’t trust him. I don’t think she was wrong in not trusting him, though obviously she could’ve gone about her actions in a more polite manner. Souleymane was clearly smart, but liked to be troublesome. He seemed to antagonize many and come off as really tough, (he probably was very tough) but his true, real confidence of self seemed to be lacking. Mr. Marin could have connected with him, I feel like, but he ultimately betrayed him.
3. I think Marin is a fine teacher so long as the students are obedient and willing to learn. With a class like his, however, he can’t get past certain things, and is unsuccessful. He has the right ideas and the drive, but his plans are never quite executed the way he wants. I feel like he appreciated the students’ questioning and liked to probe and question them, but he never actually listened to the stuff they were saying. He would always act as if though their thoughts were intriguing, but never used it to his advantage and to ease the divide between them. He was still trying to create “cultured” kids and enforce rules without really hearing what they had to say. I also think at the end when he lashes out at the girls, calling them skanks, he does it out of anger but at the same time that’s what he thinks of them, what he will think of them, unless they can find a way to “make it out” and fit his standard.
ReplyDelete4. I think the major themes/conflicts of the film were economic divide and power. The faculty of Dolto high is all (almost all?) white, middle to upper-middle class, teaching a very diverse group of students, racially and socioeconomically. The kids in Mr. Marin’s class always pointed out he was a “frenchie,” (and other terms) someone of a higher class, someone who was seen as “dignified,” and “posh” perhaps. Mr. Marin always played dumb, asking “what was that?” but he never really seemed to hear what he was saying. They don’t trust him for that reason, because they felt like he was trying to condescend or belittle them. He could have used their mistrust to his advantage, but he doesn’t. There is a large divide between the students of the class as well
Some get along, but only in pairs, and the rest feel as though they are tense. The divide also becomes racially charged at some points.
I feel like the faculty does want to help the kids, but it upholds the very system that placed/keeps the kids in their misfortune. And then the teachers punish the students for not trusting or believing in this system. It seems like they are all just going in circles, but maybe something good will happen tomorrow.
At first, I found it hard to stay awake during The Class, but as the plot intensified subtly, I felt myself feeling reeled in to the character's problems. As many people have already mentioned, this film was bitterly realistic. I even found myself often questioning if it was a documentary or not, even though I knew it was fictional. The students matched my experience of European kids exactly- loud mouthed, slightly rude, and very opinionated. In public schools in France and many other European countries, this amount of diversity is expected. Watching the movie unfold nostalgically took me back to my days in the International School, and it almost seemed like I was sitting in the classroom because of the shaky camera angles and lack of music. It all seemed too real. I almost think that the reason why they made the beginning a little slow is to relate the viewer's experience to the student's experience of boredom in the classroom. With all of these things in mind, I did end up enjoying the movie and I'm really curious about what happens next and how it will end.
ReplyDeleteThe diversity in this group of students is what makes it so interesting. In movies like To Sir With Love, Room 222, The Dead Poet's Society, High School, and Stand and Deliver, the student body is never very diverse, but the teacher is what makes the movie interesting. In this movie, I don't really find anything particularly interesting about the teacher. My favorite character is Esmeralda, because she always has an extremely clever comeback for the teacher, and I wish I had that amazing ability. But jokes aside, I am drawn to her, and I can't really put my finger on why. I did love the scene where she told the teacher that she goes into the city a lot after school, and it was almost like she was trying to prove to him that she is tough and can handle anything.
From what we have seen so far in the movie, I strongly dislike Marin. If I were in the same situation as the students and had Marin as a teacher for the first time, I would probably act the same way. When he got mad at the students and lost his temper, he made a lot of poor decisions, like name calling towards the girls, and calling Souleymane "limited." He didn't seem to be setting a good example ethically. I thought it was interesting that he encouraged the students to share their personal lives. Maybe as the movie goes on we will figure out a strategy to his teaching methods, but as of now I can't really seem to think of any planned strategies.
In my opinion, the theme in this movie is social friction - on a student to student basis or teacher to student basis. Nobody seems to get along. A lot of times, the kids pick fights or start conflicts just for the thrill of it because no one is going to punish them, and there is nothing much to lose. The students, like Wei, who are hopeful for a future for themselves and work hard in the academic field are the students who don't pick fights. I think one of the reasons why this movie is so confusing is because the students are at a time in their lives where everything is really confusing: middle school. A lot of choices were made in the making in this movie to depict a very realistic middle school experience.
At times the lack of plot got to me and parts weren’t very interesting, I thought, but many parts were very intriguing. I think the viewer can connect with the teacher and I felt bad for him–like other teachers we’ve seen, he is not put in a position to succeed. These were the worst batch of kids we’ve seen so far. Even troublemakers in the other movies had a soft side, but these kids are just out to bother the teacher and bother each other.
ReplyDeleteLike I said earlier, I thought this was the worst class we’ve seen so far. The teacher tries to control them but he finds himself in arguments he can’t win. There is some learning–not much, but some–but Mr. Marin spends more time arguing with his students than teaching. The students do not cooperate and do not follow instructions. Esmeralda stuck out to me the most because she was mostly a nasty girl. Everything that came out of her mouth was rude, and she purposefully stirred up trouble.
I really felt bad for Marin. He deals with the students in an immature way at times–engaging in pointless arguments, calling out students–but at times I felt like he had no choice. The students do not respond to threats of punishments, and Marin can only send so many students to the principal. There were flashes of teaching and learning, but the movie focuses on the problems in the class. I think Marin would be a good teacher if taught in a better environment. He is energetic and shows a personality to the students, both signs of a good teacher.
A major theme in the movie is developing relationships with people who are very different than you. At Paideia, it is pretty easy for students and teachers to develop positive relationships. Teachers want to teach, and most students want to learn, and both have stable lives. In this movie, the opposite is true. Students don’t want to learn–they don’t read Anne Frank–and the teacher often seems more concerned with winning arguments with the students than teaching. The students come from many different backgrounds–one mom doesn’t speak French, one mom might have to go back to Japan, and one mom doesn’t know why her kid is Goth–and it makes it harder for the students to get along with each other and the teacher.
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ReplyDeleteAlthough I felt the first part of the movie was a little slow and boring, I liked the film overall. As I said in class, I felt that I was watching a documentary the entire time due to the great acting of all the characters and the rawness of the film. I liked most of the characters, excluding Esmeralda and Louise, and was intrigued by some of the movie's most intense moments.
ReplyDeleteI thought the class and the depictions of the students were both very realistic and relatable. At my public elementary school, I dealt with several students that were exactly like the ones in the movie. There were always troublemakers that sat in the back of the class like Carl and annoying, back-talking girls like Esmeralda, Khoumba, and Louise. You also can't forget the incredibly hardworking kid who barely said a word like Wei. I really liked this movie due to the fact that I can really relate to the film and that I can put myself in one of those desks. The one that stuck out to me the most had to be Carl. Although it was odd we never learned Carl's backstory, I felt that it made the story more interesting and intriguing.
I think that Marin handled what was given to him pretty well. This group of kids is easily the worst-behaved group we've seen so far, even worst than the ones in To Sir, With Love. Marin tried to connect with these students, and somewhat succeeded with the self-portrait project. The film mostly focuses on Marin's attempts to mediate conflicts that occur within the class, and he seems to do a good job of that until the "skank" incident. In my opinion, this incident was very unprofessional, but absolutely understandable due to his short temper and his attempts to help these students. From an academic standpoint, it is hard to determine how good of a teacher he really is. In order to really help students academically, you must first build a base of trust and respect with them, something Marin did not do a good job of.
I believe the movie is about dealing with conflict. To start, Marin was put in the position to teach a bad group of students who did not respect him whatsoever. He had to deal with the difficulty of fully getting through to these disrespectful students and helping them learn. Marin has to mediate conflicts with the trouble-making Souleymane and the back-talking Esmeralda. I thought the film somewhat tries to teach us to try and solve conflicts the right way without hurting anyone. However, this is something Marin did not do a very good job of because Souleymane gets expelled and his students don't really end up respecting him in the end. If anything, the film teaches us what not to do in this kind of situation by showing us someone with good intentions in an environment where it's impossible for him to do anything.
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ReplyDeleteI really wanted to like this movie, especially since I recognize and appreciate the total authenticity of it, which I think is something almost all of the movies we’ve watched lack. It seems so real that I kept forgetting it wasn’t a documentary. But I honestly didn’t enjoy this movie at all. And maybe that’s because it is so life-life, because there’s no Hollywood ending or, at least in my opinion, any characters to root for.
ReplyDeleteI was at first appalled at this class. I know they come from disadvantaged situations and maybe I was sympathizing too much with Marin, but watching Marin try to teach that class at the beginning of the movie gave me a headache. They were just so unpleasant, maybe even more so than the kids in To Sir, With Love (although maybe not). But they did grow on me during the film, and even when I didn’t like them at the beginning, I still wanted them to improve and to be happy. Soulemayne stuck out to me the most. He was arguably the most unpleasant, the most unhappy and stubborn and troublemaking, but I wanted desperately for him to break out of his angry exterior. I kept expecting him to, and I was so excited when he did his self-portrait with pictures and Marin hung them on the wall. I thought that would be the turning point, that Soulemayne would suddenly become attentive and more enthusiastic. But no such luck.
Marin frustrated me. I could see that he had good intentions, although I did not see a specific plan in his teaching. I think he really did want to help the kids, and he at least sometimes recognized that they were getting screwed over by the school—like his argument with the teachers after he reports Soulemayne. Marin comes so close to being a good teacher, but then every time he pulls back and ruins it. He has so much potential, and yet he is never able to fully execute. He would do something like start a good conversation but then get in an argument with a student. I also wish that he would have praised the students much more—I think it would have gone a long way.
I put my finger on a specific theme of the movie, but I think it is making a statement about school systems and maybe society in general, how difficult it is to break from conformity and change the things that need to be changed. I actually think the plotlessness and resulting similarity to real life is the most important part of the movie’s message. It’s making a statement about how things often times don’t change, how major events occur and create a small ripple but then we go right back to our previous routines.