Really, your first impressions could hardly be less accurate! The Class is about as far from a stereotypical Hollywood teacher/student drama as it's possible to be while still being in a classroom. For starters, it's based on a novel written by the guy who also plays the lead role in the film, and the novel was based on his own teaching experiences, so it doesn't idealise teaching or schools at all. But on the other hand, nor is it utterly downbeat: yes, the kids are rowdy and don't learn much, but none of them are the cliched "tough kids who just need love" or whatever other rubbish Hollywood usually pedals. Nor are the teacher portrayed as saints: all the characters in the film feel like real, living, breathing human beings, with all the complexities that entails. In a way it's a typically French film, in that it basically consists entirely of people sitting around and talking, but somehow it's absolutely engrossing and engaging at all times.
Recently I've been rediscovering all the amazing films that came out of France in the 1990s, which were basically the films that I grew up on: sad and beautiful and uplifting and deeply humane films like the Dreamlife of Angels and It All Starts Today, and the Class is very much in that tradition.
