Reviews

Having seen and loved Sokurov's earlier film "Russian Ark", I found "Francofonia" a disappointment.

While "Russian Ark" also switches its scenes from one historical period to another, in that film it all came together into a coherent whole through its setting inside the Hermitage, as well as by its groundbreaking single take. "Russian Ark" was an astonishing cinematic tour de force. In comparison, "Francofonia" is just an incoherent jumble of unrelated thoughts.

The theme that gets the most attention in "Francofonia" is the period of the German occupation of Paris in WW2, when the Louvre's collection was evacuated and stored in various chateaux and other locations throughout France as a precaution against the chance that Paris would be bombed later in the war. Interspersed with this is a series of vignettes on mostly unrelated subjects. We see the emperor Napoleon telling the viewer how the best of the Louvre's art collection was brought to France by him as spoils of war; footage of Hitler being escorted around Paris to admire the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysées and other monuments; scenes from the siege of Leningrad; a bit on the policies of Marechal Pétain, leader of the collaborationist Vichy government; a history of the Louvre building since its beginnings as a fortress in the middle ages; and a lament about the risks of transporting art treasures in ships over the high seas. Throughout the film we hear the voice of the narrator, speaking in Russian.

It all comes across as a dose of revisionist history, where the underlying message seems to be: "The French were smart and did themselves a great favor by going along with the German occupation during the war, as witnessed by the fact that the Germans kept their hands off the Louvre's collection so that it survived the war intact. The Nazis were very cruel to us Russians, but on the whole they were not so bad." I didn't buy it.

The film is disturbing, but is brilliantly and meticulously constructed, with flashbacks and snippets of action, arranged so that bit-by-bit the viewer comes to grasp what has taken place. One theme is the potential for tragic consequences of succumbing to sexual temptation (think "Fatal Attraction").

But above all, this is a story of a criminal justice system going horribly wrong. A weak individual, already reeling from a terrible tragedy, is further victimized by the machinations of the prosecution. With no allies and powerless to defend himself from what is happening to him, in the end his life is totally destroyed.

"Entre Les Murs" is a stark portrait of the failure of European socialism. The teacher, François Bégaudeau, works tirelessly to impart some skills in French language and literature to his students, mainly 2nd or 3rd generation children of immigrant families, who have become so accustomed to being cared for by the state that they have no motivation to learn and no interest in what he's teaching. Before long, these kids will leave school, utterly unprepared to become contributing members of the society that provide them with everything, including of course, free education.

This film is a wake-up call. We in America seem to be headed down a similar path, and we are not all that far behind Western Europe toward a similar fate. What we are witnessing in France is a great culture on the brink of extinction. And sadly, its mortal wounds are largely self-inflicted.

There is the irony of the teacher who announces in the faculty lounge that she is pregnant. Then, as her colleagues proceed to epitomize French social customs by finding a bottle of Champagne in the fridge and pouring it out into fluted glasses, in the next breath she blurts out her hope that her baby will turn out to be like Wei, the one student in the school who shows any work ethic (and not coincidentally, the only one whose family we learn faces adversity–his parents are at risk of being deported).

And there is the woman from Mali, the mother of the most difficult student in the class, so coddled that she is unable to understand why her son's disruptive behavior and stubborn refusal to participate in school work should result in sanctions and unpleasant consequences.

"Entre Les Murs" is one of the best films I have seen in a long time, troubling though it is. As I was watching the film, my initial reaction was to be depressed that someone as talented as Bégaudeau would persist in a career as futile as trying to teach these kids, instead of going out and doing something productive. But then it dawned on me... he did: He made this film.

The classroom we are seeing is a metaphor for the contemporary French social system, and Bégaudeau's efforts to reach his students a metaphor for what he is trying to do with this film. Watching it, the audience is his class. Will we have the wisdom to absorb the lesson imparted to us by this gifted teacher and apply it in our own society? Or will we, like the girl in that poignant scene at the end of the film, realize too late that we have sat through the class and learned nothing?