WHEEL ME OUT - Laurent Cantet

Still from The Class

French director Laurent Cantet’s fifth feature, The Class (Entre les murs), is an enthralling dissection of inner city Parisian school life. The film, which explores the complex relationship between students and their teachers, claimed the Palme d'Or at Cannes Festival in 2008. It’s the first French film in 21 years to win this prestigious award.

Leading the cast is François Bégaudeau (former member of 90s’ punk band Zabriskie Point), whose own memoirs provided the inspiration behind the project. Wheel enjoyed some afternoon tea with Laurent to discuss his latest masterpiece.

Interview by Luke Seomore

What attracted you to the project originally? I had this desire to spent time in the four walls of a classroom because it’s a small world, a reflection of society. There are a lot of important questions being asked and we should look at them in greater detail, and all these issues are bound together in these thirty square metres.

Do you see the classroom as a microcosm of society? Yes. Also with this environment, it’s a very secret space. Only the people who interact with it actually know what goes on. Pupils for example don't want to talk to their parents, because it's their world and they don’t want them to enter. The teachers as well protect themselves slightly behind these four walls. As a profession you are very exposed - everybody has an opinion about them. So there was this curiosity, wanting to explore.

The majority of the film takes place in one room. Was that a conscious decision from the start? Yes. I always have this feeling that one shouldn't ask too much of a film. It lasts two hours ten minutes - in this case. If we want to be precise in what we want to say, it's in our interest to limit our outlook. It's true that I wanted very much to have time to concentrate on each character, on situations. I think also the film works by identifying with its characters, so, by reducing the situation it allows a more direct rapport with the characters.

Language plays a big part in the film. Did you explore the differences in how students and teachers interpret language? Yes there was this wide gap that I wanted to explore, in the sense that it can often lead to misunderstandings. Language is the tool for understanding what is in this world. The best attitude is not to say, “careful stop speaking that way,” it’s better to say, “yes there are other forms of language.” Also the language of the teenager is very, very efficient, jubilant and has strong, striking images. Having said that, the film is not complacent or patronising to this language, it also reveals its limits.

You worked with François on the script. How did you develop his book into a screenplay? The script is partly based around what the book has brought us. The book also gave us this particular character of the teacher. Having said that, we never tried to copy that character. The book is a chronicle, or a diary of the class; it hasn't got the drama lying through it. One thing that became the spine of the film, the story of Souleymane, I had written and created even before meeting François. So he acknowledged very early on that his book would be an element within so many other elements, because he was particularly interested himself in this experimental way of working together. He would have been quite bored if we had just tried to adapt the book, but this way there was a stimulating side to things.

François’ performance is very engaging but never too theatrical. How do you find the balance? I think we encounter a very human character who makes mistakes, who is searching for something. There is an aura around François himself, he is someone who is seductive, who seduces people.

What was your personal experience of Cannes Festival? Of course I was very moved, very honoured and very happy. But above all, very happy because we were all there to share it. It wasn't just one actor, one star. It was very much the result of a collective work. Also this film came to prove that this kind of cinema can be made outside the norms of convention and find its own position within the world of filming. Hopefully it will help producers and directors to go towards films they really want to make. WMO

Laurent Cantet on imdb

www.imdb.com/name/nm0134559/