The Class (Entre les murs) first published by Film4 Summary: In Laurent Cantet’s Palme d’Or winning drama, a Parisian teacher is constantly challenged by his multi-cultural class. Review: From Stand and Deliver (1988) to Dead Poets Society (1989) to Dangerous Minds (1995), the classrooms of the Hollywood mainstream have typically been ruled by lone…
“Everyone is responsible,” says the male Voice of Authority over the tannoy at the very beginning of John Hsu’s Detention (Fanxiao), before adding “…for reporting espionage”, and further warning that failing to do so is a crime, that inciting rebellious thoughts will result in punishment, and that subverting the government is punishable by death –…
Half Nelson first published by Film4 Summary: In Ryan Fleck’s debut feature, Ryan (The Believer) Gosling is an inner city teacher in crisis. Review: American cinema’s image of the inner city high school has always been divided along strict ideological lines, generally allowing for only two plot types: in films of a liberal persuasion, teachers are inspirational alchemists…
Class of 1984 first published by Movie Gazette Fresh out of smalltown Nebraska, idealistic music teacher Andy Norris (Perry King) arrives for his first day at the inner city Abraham Lincoln High School, and almost immediately clashes with Peter Stegman (Timothy Van Patten) - drug dealer, racketeer, pimp, psychopath, and pupil. The lawsuit-wary headmaster (David Garner)…
if…. first published by FilmLand Empire “College is a symbol of many things,” declares the Headmaster (Peter Jeffrey) in Lindsay Anderson’s second feature if…., which transplants motifs and ideas from Jean Vigo’s Zéro de Conduite (1933) to an England swinging between legacy and change in the late Sixties. The boarding school College House is a bastion…