"Entre les murs" ("The Class" US title)

[Claude Mangold]

Has anyone seen this 08 Cannes winner ?

Any opinions on style and substance ? I had to keep reminding myself throuhout that this is a fiction film, not a docu.

Filmed in HDV, apparently.

[Russ Jolly]

Just saw Entre les murs/The Class yesterday. It's a fascinating film. Is it a documentary or is it a scripted fictional film? The answer is a definitive "yes". It blurs the lines between those styles capturing the spontaneity and realism of a documentary combined with the richly textured story arc of a scripted narrative. Shot handheld with 3 HD cams, all the action occurs within the confined space of the school ("Entre les murs" translates to "Between the Walls" in English) covering events within a class during a single school year.

In a terrific performance, the teacher is played by the teacher who wrote an autobiographical book about his experiences as a teacher - is he acting or is he just teaching? The press kit on the official website (SONY PICTURES CLASSICS | THE CLASS) has an interview with director Laurent Cantet and François Bégaudeau, the teacher who wrote the book and appears in the film as himself. The interview describes some of the process of putting this film together - though I'm glad I saw the film before reading the interview because part of my fascination watching the film was trying to figure out what was real and what was fiction.