A Critical Analysis Of Francois Marin's The Class

The Class is a film that focuses on a teacher who, in his endeavors to help his students learn and succeed, ultimately ends up in a situation that spins out of control and a student is expelled, even though the teacher wasn’t himself sure what should have happened to the expelled boy. The teacher’s name is Francois Marin and his class is made up of young teenagers who come from many different backgrounds, many of them are children of immigrants who come from a number of areas around the world. While Marin’s actions resulted in the boy’s expulsion, Marin did not always fail. Sometimes he succeeded in his efforts and these moments were truly inspiring. A number of times he faced a difficult challenge but he eventually got through to the students. Watching him handle the class was a rollercoaster of emotions. Some moments were inspiring, others were discouraging and disheartening, and some were touching. For a majority of the beginning of the film, many students are somewhat closed-off or rebellious, something that as a student I can relate to. They do not really try their best, in fact some of them outright challenge the knowledge and authority of their teacher. The students don’t read the assigned homework, or they don’t respond or participate in class; it becomes a challenge for Marin, one that, if he ever

It appeared to me as though the film recognized that there is no simple solution to these problems; that all the film hopes to do is show the viewer the problem and let the viewer draw his or her own conclusion. It doesn’t feel fake, the cast do a good job in making it feel natural and realistic. The actions and reactions of the students seem genuine and typical. It is partly because of this that I, as a viewer, enjoyed the film so much, and that I felt so many different emotions throughout