For teachers, Laurent Cantet’s Palme d’Or winning film, Entre les murs, is a mirror on their daily lives. For others, it’s a window into a public school system that has changed a great deal during the past twenty years.
François Marin teaches the French language to junior high students in the 20th Arrondissement in Paris. Over the course of the year, both teachers and students face many trials and tribulations. At the end, almost everyone admits that they have learned something and they all get along during a staff-student soccer match. However, the year is not a success for all, such as a student expelled for violent behaviour and another who wishes to drop out.
Debates occur frequently: in class, in the staff room, and during meeting. The protagonist must separate François from M. Marin for his own personal health and sanity. The film questions how important decisions are made in schools and whether they best serve the student: how should students be rewarded (and penalized)? Do the needs of the many (the class) outweigh the needs of the few (the student)? Doubt is cast on the relevance of the curriculum and whether anyone really knows anything (“If I claim to be a wise man, it surely means that I don’t know”). Students continually debate the matter of which African country has the best soccer team.
How can teachers best serve students? Youth require some combination of the curriculum, along with communication, critical thinking, analysis, socialization, self-control, organization, and countless other skills. Can it be taught in a single year, or over the course of thirteen years? As the characters find out at the end of the film, there are things more important than what happens between the walls of the classroom.
John Wooden said that teachers should never get angry with students who test them but they should always remain fair and firm. M. Marin does his best but even the best teachers at the school slip from time to time and need help. During the school year, both students and teachers make significant personal improvements.
The film is very realistic, posing as a documentary. It may run a little long but the story successfully creates drama and comedic out of mundane school moments. The screenplay is accurate, depicting many moments that may seem absurd when shown on the big screen but occur daily in school around the globe. The large cast performs very well and the audience develops a rapport with the teachers and the students, even those who disrupt the class. Cantet and writer François Bégaudeau ask relevant questions about the school system and its future direction.
One student struggles with writing but can succeed by communicating in other ways. Unfortunately, due to his self-control problems, he takes a step backwards. After expulsion, it is hoped the student will succeed at his new school but his fate remains unknown. ***½