The French Film Ça commence aujourd'hui (1999) was shown in the U.S. with the title It All Starts Today. Bertrand Tavernier was the co-writer and director.
The movie takes place in a small French city that has been devastated by the closure of the mines and the mills that provided employment. Now, the pattern of people without hope asserts itself--violence, crime, vandalism, and child abuse.
As would be expected, the schools are understaffed and underfunded. The mayor even cuts off school lunches for children who are too poor to pay. It's truly grim.
However, there are superheroes at work--the teachers who come to school and do their best every day despite so many obstacles in their path. Philippe Torreton brilliantly portrays Daniel Lefebvre, who is a classroom teacher and also the school principal.
Against all odds, he keeps the school running and maintains morale. The children adore him, and so do the other teachers. We don't normally call educators superheroes, but many of them are. Lefebvre is one of them.
My thought is that you could transfer this film to any U.S. economically depressed city or neighborhood, and it would work just as well. We know what the problems are. Now we have to try to help the teachers do their job.
The movie worked well on the small screen. It has a solid IMDb rating of 7.4, but I thought that it was much better than that, and rated it 10.
The movie takes place in a small French city that has been devastated by the closure of the mines and the mills that provided employment. Now, the pattern of people without hope asserts itself--violence, crime, vandalism, and child abuse.
As would be expected, the schools are understaffed and underfunded. The mayor even cuts off school lunches for children who are too poor to pay. It's truly grim.
However, there are superheroes at work--the teachers who come to school and do their best every day despite so many obstacles in their path. Philippe Torreton brilliantly portrays Daniel Lefebvre, who is a classroom teacher and also the school principal.
Against all odds, he keeps the school running and maintains morale. The children adore him, and so do the other teachers. We don't normally call educators superheroes, but many of them are. Lefebvre is one of them.
My thought is that you could transfer this film to any U.S. economically depressed city or neighborhood, and it would work just as well. We know what the problems are. Now we have to try to help the teachers do their job.
The movie worked well on the small screen. It has a solid IMDb rating of 7.4, but I thought that it was much better than that, and rated it 10.