The film “The Wave” is based on an incident, which took place in 1967 at a high school in Palo Alto, California.
A popular teacher is assigned to teach a week- special project of autocracy. The students are initially unimpressed, and especially bored about the mention of Nazis. So, rather than explains autocracy, the teacher does a real demonstration of this movement.
The film shows us how the totalitarianism can grow easily in modern and democratic societies.
In the film the students have a comfortable life, but if we observe them with more attention, we notice that some of them feel alone, without motivation, without ideas in life and with families who don’t pay attention them. They end up by turning into easy victims of the “Wave”.
The pupils, little by little, starting to feel comfortable with the ideals of “the Wave”. They discover in the group values like unit, force, and identification. In the film, the individual behaviours contribute to collective desires.
Nowadays, realities like social inequality, the need to belong, the rootlessnes help in the promotion to fascist movements.
Among the students, the most weakness character are the first to giving in “the Wave”, others leave the group because they have some values or beliefs, other students go against it, but on the whole the class follow the teacher, who becomes the leader.
The teacher insists on orderly behaviour and suggests everyone adopt a simple uniform (plain white skirts and jeans). The teacher forgets the original point of the experiment and he finds himself by having fanatical followers.
The film is interesting because make us ask ourselves if a new dictatorship is possible in a modern and civilised society.
The Class (between the walls in French) is an interesting journey into a multicultural high school in Paris over the course of a school year. The class is a mix of a documentary and dramatic plot. It is not difficult to empathise with the main character, the literature teacher François Marin. He struggles to maintain order in his class of young teenagers, trying to create a good environment. We can see the process of educating a fresh class of bubbly and wide awake adolescents in a Paris suburban school. Today, teaching in public schools is more democratic, and the teacher allows student participation, and the student is encouraged to talk and become an integral part of the education.
Everything he tries to teach in class is constantly rejected and he finds himself arguing with the students that he so clearly wants to help. As the school year progresses the tension rises, until François finds himself in a difficult position. In my opinion, the students want to find their own identity in the hostile and tough society they live in. In the film the frustration of parents and teachers are clearly portrayed.
The film shows the difference between the education before versus the education now. For me, there are some values, like the respect, that now don’t exist in the classrooms. The lack of motivation due to new technologies and the low quality of education are some of the most problems, that existing in own societies. The quality of public schools is decreasing each year because of the high number of immigrants’ students that comes from different countries. Africans ands Asians are now citizens of France. The student Suleyman says in the film: “I have nothing to say about me because no one knows me”.
In this film the teacher is not a revolutionary person with innovative ideas like Mr Keating in the film “Dead Poets Society”. Mr Keating helps his students with original methods, but in “The Class”, Monsieur Martin tries to do his job the best he can, and sometimes he makes mistakes and he has to assume the consequences. I think the film is very realistic and very accurate.
Everything he tries to teach in class is constantly rejected and he finds himself arguing with the students that he so clearly wants to help. As the school year progresses the tension rises, until François finds himself in a difficult position. In my opinion, the students want to find their own identity in the hostile and tough society they live in. In the film the frustration of parents and teachers are clearly portrayed.
The film shows the difference between the education before versus the education now. For me, there are some values, like the respect, that now don’t exist in the classrooms. The lack of motivation due to new technologies and the low quality of education are some of the most problems, that existing in own societies. The quality of public schools is decreasing each year because of the high number of immigrants’ students that comes from different countries. Africans ands Asians are now citizens of France. The student Suleyman says in the film: “I have nothing to say about me because no one knows me”.
In this film the teacher is not a revolutionary person with innovative ideas like Mr Keating in the film “Dead Poets Society”. Mr Keating helps his students with original methods, but in “The Class”, Monsieur Martin tries to do his job the best he can, and sometimes he makes mistakes and he has to assume the consequences. I think the film is very realistic and very accurate.
