Le Naïf aux 40 enfants

Philippe Agostini was first a cameraman ,married to actress Odette Joyeux who has a cameo at the end of the movie ;his career as a director was pretty mediocre .

This "innocent with 40 children " is his first effort ;based on a (more or less) autobiographical novel by Paul Guth.

Jean-François Robignac is a young lit teacher,newly graduated from university .Enthusiastically ,he starts in his job .Today ,no teacher, newly graduated from university ,stands a single chance to be ,in the sweet south of France .

He uses new teaching methods for French , introducing life (and slang) in his class.But the PTA president does not agree and he tells hims so.Pretty soon, he urges the other parents to get rid of this intruder who ,besides,is in love with a gorgeous student's married mother.

Actually nothing revolutionary ,the modernism of the methods is insignificant ,and one can wonder why Racine's "Phedre " should be studied at such an early age in junior high school;later ,Paul Guth was to be actually looked upon as a rather reactionary if scholar personality :his "Letters to your son who is sick and tired " essay is as stodgy as the final speech the teacher delivers on prize giving day in Agostini's film

Michel Serrault (cast as the teacher) and Jean Poiret (the PTA president) were then a comic team ;here the story is so predictable that their talent is ineffective : the year before, they were wonderful in Guitry's "Assassins Et Voleurs"; here lines by Guth are not really funny and you can see what the characters (the jealous PTA president,the nasty concierge who was in WW1,the principal ,the inspector)are up to from a mile off .Darry Cowl,who sells ladders ,has a very small part.Statuesque Sylva Koscina provides love interest.

The great cinematographer Philippe Agostini directed this tender comedy about a special teacher of french played by Michel Serrault who tries his best to learn french in a passionate manner to his pupils. And it works, he even falls in love with a pupil's mother, so the reality joins literature. I won't compare this movie to any other french movie because it sure isn't masterpiece, but Agostini's direction is surely intelligent if you remember his cinematography in masterpieces like "Pattes Blanches" or "Du Rififi Chez Les Hommes".

But I compare this movie to today's school, where there is no surveillance and children are so violent influenced by silly video games and using iphones for learning agressive actions. All these kids today cannot read one book, french school today is completely poor, and when I see this movie, I just say we have lost so many values (respect, culture, ...).

Don't miss Darry Cowl as a seller like he did in "A Pied, En Cheval, En Voiture").