Pas de vagues

Although I was never a teacher, part of some of my jobs in social services was to be a Personal Effectiveness tutor. I know how difficult young people can be. I left social work nearly twenty five years ago and things are different now. A few years before I switched careers, upon leaving a job I'd liked, the project manager and staff arranged a leaving do at one of the local pubs. The sixteen to eighteen year old kids were invited. Do that now and all the adults would be sacked and disbarred. Even socialising with the youth outside of arranged school or training events is discouraged. So when Julien took a bunch of favoured kids out for burgers it was very ill advised. Picking on Leslie as part of a poem was not too clever either.

However, Julien was clearly innocent of the accusations which snowballed because of family reactions, school politics and jealous colleagues. Every one of these players made things worse until Julien was openly undermined by fellow staff.

We saw the effects the baseless slurs had on his personal life too in his friendships as well as his relationship with gorgeous Walid.

Based on a true story as it was, I was disappointed not to see a conclusion. Nonetheless we can extrapolate. The original teacher switched careers into the film industry. That's a pretty sad hint.

The film leaves one wondering how many other lives have been ruined by spiteful and untrue accusations, especially these days when the complainant is meant to be believed credulously. I admire those in teaching and youth services but I'm so glad I'm out of that field. The film took me back with its sterling performances. I do recommend it.

I didn't like the way the story was constructed throughout the film. It had potential, but it was wasted. It would end without an ending and without a conclusion and it would need to have one. In my opinion, it's not worth going to the cinema. I saw it at the Varilux French Film Festival in São Paulo, Brazil. The performances were good, but the characters ended up being clichés. During the film we felt indignation at the protagonist being so foolish and naive, making us want to scream at him not to be such an idiot. The highlight was the children, who represented well the evil, anguish and guilt that can torment everyone at this age, especially the poorest and most vulnerable children.

This French film draws inspiration from the real-life experiences of its director, Teddy Lussi-Modeste, who also worked as a teacher. The story unfolds in a school located in Seine-Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris, during the year 2019. Initially, the film adheres to the conventional style of French cinema, introducing the key characters involved in the story of a gay teacher accused of inappropriate conduct towards a female student, but later gets lost in kind of an explanatory mode!

What begins as a minor incident rapidly escalates into a catastrophic situation that devastates numerous lives.

The screenplay is of decent quality, complemented by impressive cinematography, while the acting is average, and other elements of the production are merely satisfactory. At the moment, France faces numerous challenges as a nation, with the struggles within the education system being particularly severe. This film focuses on it in a way that very often feels tasteless or bland!

Watched this on an airplane but should have spent the time reading my book. M. Civil turns in as good a performance as can be expected, but the overall film is seriously lacking in dramatic impact and emotional engagement. Kinda surprising, given its the true story of one of its directors. Blah disguised as social commentary. Actually the kids display more emotion - probably because they're kids and kids are often quite cruel. I don't quite understand why that's true but I know their antisocial behavior is not unique to French culture - perhaps even more so in America. I just wish this film didn't have the French New Wave anti-climatic ending. Blah and blah again.

The intriuging idea and a sort of a novelty in this film while addressing the topic of the sexual abuse on schools and the thin and critical line of conduct that divides what's accepted by teachers and students is that here the main character, played François Civil in a phenomenal performance, is a gay man, with a loving partner, but he's not out in the open with his colleagues of profession, neither his students. If we'd look back at "The Hunt" and "Liquid Truth", it's always about heterosexual guys who happened to be ladies man; the new take shown in this film was quite reflective as audiences struggle to understand how misunderstandings and the perception of actions and words can damage reputations.

A remark made during one of his literature deabtes, where examples of beauty and certain sexual tone were used - mostly by the class - set Julien's into a downspiralling when a young girl (Mallory Wanecque) accuses him of sexual misconduct. It's up to the man alone find ways of defending himself, getting little help from his fellow co-workers (and they felt betrayed for not being honest about who he really loves), a headmaster who doesn't work all that hard to help him getting legal assistance; attacks from all the others students; the girl's brother who threats him of violence; and the troubles at home with his partner.

Teddy Lussi-Modeste's "Pas de vague" ("The Good Teacher") claims that the story happened with his own father. It's a little strange that things happened exactly in the weird and chaotic manner in which he presents things and scenarios; and while it has a wordly and poingnat debate over the issue, it's a little too eccentric to be taken seriously. Thanks to Civil and the character's struggle while dealing with too many chaos around that the film survives as a good thing.

It's easy to like the film, but it's not easy to accept or comprehend its gaps, like the denounce made by two other girls after the cellphone incident with the whole class mocking Julien. What's their ground for a police report? The helpless policial and judicial system procedures make it all look devastating hard and not allowing any line of defense for the man. And worst of all, this might look a bit odd, but many countries have a specific ruling that when a denounce like that happens, the teacher gets temporarily removed until further notice and until legal issues were set in motion. Julien continues to work, subjected to contempt from basically everybody.

Films like this must have a way to stay closer to reality as much possible, as audiences can relate with the situation and finds ways to understand the intricate moments of life, reflect on experiences and how one should deal with. Not much of wanting a cautionary tale but just a little close to it.

And again, François Civil makes the movie worth seeing. It's a very emotionally charged performance, acted out with gusto, power, passion and delivery, and the audience will remember all his pain and vulnerability, some humor as well, for times to come. 7/10.