[CRITICAL] BETWEEN THE WALLS

Go, we take his satchel under his arm, his fountain pen, his ink, his utensils of geometry and we are in class. It is true that seeing the first few minutes ofBetween the Walls, it is far, very far from it all. Here, it is a college neighborhood, mixing, teasing and rowdiness. All under the leadership of an administration – teacher and principal – sometimes totally overwhelmed by the events.

Shot camera on shoulder more often it is brought into a mounting jerky, but well-crafted. We find some of the ideas that we have already been able to see in the films of Cantet, such as Human Resources. Here we have the right to an adaptation of a novel by François Bégaudeau (the French teacher), was published in 2006. Point of actors, the characters all make their first in this movie and all play their roles.

Between the Walls begins with a plan for a teacher, look in the empty, questioning. One might ask what he thinks : he already ras the cap before they even begin the school year, or does he think he is simply what he is going to get to eat in the evening ? The answer is made. A sort of cloud hanging over teachers, new recruits or not. A silhouette in the shape of a question mark for some, another taking the form of a student disrupting the course to such a point that the class itself becomes uncontrollable.

It follows François Marin, a French teacher, with a class of 4th containing sometimes of prospective students, encouraging, sometimes of the “disruptive elements” as we like to define it in our school administration. An interbreeding of the breeds takes place, giving an atmosphere of sometimes heavy between some of the students. Also note the jousting verbal, languages that are specific to each and the film is having fun with these different expressions.

“The film must not take a sample or the centerpiece of a Trojan horse, in order to apply sanctions or laws that are even closer to the admonition, against students who are already a researcher themselves. “

Coming out of a college said to be normal or “high-end”, one begins to ask what happens and if this kind of behaviour or institutions exist in France. It will have to come down soon then, as Between the Walls follows a real class, to real teachers and a real college. It is believed to Be and to Have by Nicolas Philibert, with students having taken a few years of bottle and moving from the countryside to the suburbs. To conclude this parallel, we can not compare these two films, they live in two different worlds. However, there is a documentary side that fact that the fly takes. The film is a little over 2 hours, but we do not see them pass. The plans follow, little by little, one begins to get upset, annoy, smile, or laugh. This teacher does everything to calm down his class, to take an interest in something, to almost make it survive through the time. One is entitled to ask the question if Laurent Cantet don’t go too hard in the caricature of high school rebels, trapped in their cities, who live only by music and playing video games. A threatening shadow, that of undocumented migrants, and a probable return to the border, makes us fear the worst for young people lack of benchmarks.

Other questions about the disciplinary sanction. Should we, every time, exclude students that do not respect the rules of the establishment ? Is it not more to socialize the faculty rather than a “police infiltration too heavy ? It is the role of teachers or of parents to educate properly the children ?

We are dealing in a subject that is difficult to treat, it is closer to the case-by-case as a generality. A barrier is present between students and teachers, but how far should it go ? The film shows us professors by the time overwhelmed by the events. This teacher’ of French, who makes his fourth year in the college, is itself made up of doubts and words questionable. But that face adolescents 13 years of age who do not know what is an austrian, or who do not think that by the violence and vulgarity ?

Hence the fact that Between the Walls should not be a generality of our colleges. It should not be the example or the centerpiece of a Trojan horse in order to apply sanctions or laws that are even closer to the reprimand against students who are already a researcher themselves.

On the Palme d’or at the Cannes film Festival, the film can boast of being out first with honors. Between the Walls can be seen also by a call for help to a State that cares more about his money than his education, the more of its prisoners than its academics, more of its officers as its teachers. These who are overwhelmed by choices to make, words – sometimes hurtful – that are ready to come out, conditions work well too primary (the scene of the coffee machine is control) and psychological damage that can be irreversible.

The scenes of the meeting of inter-faculty or of the meeting end of quarter teacher / class delegates show without a doubt real problems in the field of the management of the institution.

The main thing is to see at the end of a football match between teachers and students which culminate in a melting pot of men and women who may very well hate than appreciate.

Your opinion ?