Rent Class (2008)

No Redemption—Just Survival - Class review by griggs

Winning the Palme d’Or might make you expect a soaring tale of inspiration, but The Class is anything but your typical classroom drama. There’s no saintly teacher conjuring miracles from “problem kids,” no redemption arc that ties everything with a bow.

Instead, it’s a film about survival. François Bégaudeau, who also wrote the book, plays a version of himself as a teacher navigating a modern Paris classroom. His performance feels unvarnished, never heroic, often uncertain—exactly as teaching is. Around him, the students (played by non-professionals) are remarkable: argumentative, funny, cruel, bright, and inconsistent, sometimes all in the same scene. Their naturalism gives the film its charge.

Laurent Cantet’s direction deserves praise too. Shot in a documentary-like style, the camera rarely leaves the classroom, catching glances, tensions, and flare-ups that feel as if they weren’t staged at all. The result is immersive, occasionally exhausting, and entirely convincing. What emerges is a portrait not of redemption, but of the stamina it takes for teachers—an underrated profession if ever there was one—to simply endure.