4th July
The Class (France) documentary/drama 130 mins M
Winner Palme d’Or , Cannes Film Festival 2009
Based on an autobiographical novel by teacher Francois Begaudeau, this is the story of Marin, a teacher in an ethnically diverse, inner-city Paris high school. Although a drama, the film has the energy of a documentary. Through a series of extraordinarily perceptive sequences, it explores daily school life as Marin deals with adolescent behaviours, difficult parents and fellow teachers.
However, a heated exchange with one of his students spirals out of control, and brings into question his classroom ethics. The film avoids the clichés of the redemptive teacher and allows us to see Marin’s shortcomings as well as his strengths. It depicts the delicate bond between teacher and student, and the challenges for both in the contemporary education system.
18th July
Doubt (USA) drama 103 minutes M
This absorbing film pivots on the fraught relationship between Father Flynn (Seymour Hoffman) and Sister Aloysius (Streep), mother superior at the school attached to the church. He’s approachable, committed to the values of a liberal education, a 21st-century man. She’s a dragon, authoritarian, always seeing the worst in people. After Sister James (Amy Adams), a naïve novice teacher, tells Sister Aloysius there might be something amiss in Father Flynn’s dealings with a socially isolated black student (Joseph Foster), the older nun makes her move against him. Streep and Hoffman match one another move for move, accelerating from shrewd contempt until his urbanity is stripped away and her certainty has hardened into implacability.
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