In 2008, Laurent Cantet won the Palme d’Or with The Class, a study of a multiethnic classroom in contemporary Paris. Now we have what might be described as the documentary version: an inspection of a “reception” class at a Paris high school, following a group of teens who are recent émigrés to the French capital. Bertuccelli’s film has a scholarly rigour to it, eavesdropping on lessons and interviews with the pupils and their parents. There are troubled kids, and troublemakers, certainly, but, shorn of the drama Cantet could whip up, it’s a little straight. Plus, with most of the kids from highly motivated backgrounds, this is less a study of social alienation than how to plane off rough edges to enable cultural integration. Still, Bertuccelli brings out the different characters nicely, and her film is always absorbing.
