Il supplente

I also saw this at a screening of the Oscar-Nominated Live Action Shorts. I've only seen one or two other films in my life that have made me laugh this much; people in the theater were still laughing until well after credits. The energy and expressiveness of the actor who plays the teacher were a joy to watch, and the students also play their roles marvelously. The initial surprise is followed up by many more, and the unexpected jumps in the plot only add to the enjoyment. The whole thing is a fun new twist on the theme of trying to hold on to the creativity and joyfulness of childhood in the adult world.

On the off-chance that an Italian teacher is reading this, I'd highly recommend using this in class!

Some artistic ability should go into a short, but this story of a boring obnoxious rich guy who goes into a classroom and pretends to be a substitute teacher has no such artistry.

He humiliates students, as some teachers I have known in the past, do, and then goes to his job.

The students may be real enough. They don't seem real, though, as it begins with a young school boy getting along well with a gorgeous girl, then ogling at a relatively pale and plain girl who walks by. Surreal perhaps, but not at all realistic.

The obnoxious title character has no value, and we never care about him, or the other characters. None of them are amusing. None of them are interesting.

Total garbage.

I saw this movie at a special showing by a local film society of all the Oscar nominated Live Action Shorts about a week or so before the Oscars were announced. I seriously doubt that the film will win, as although it is funny and interesting in places, the film is a bit inconsistent and there are two other nominated films that are simply better (TANGHI ARGENTINI and AT NIGHT).

The film begins with a rowdy class filled with teens. The substitute enters the class and begins to act totally bizarre--often demeaning and mistreating the kids for his own pleasure. Later, when the Principal walks in and sees the madness the substitute has created, the sub runs and the REAL reason he was doing what he did becomes apparent.

As I said, the film was uneven. In parts, it was pretty funny but at others it seemed rather mean and purposeless. Not a great film, but at least it was an interesting one.

UPDATE--Apparently I am lousy at guessing Oscars, as MOZART OF PICKPOCKETS just won the award for 2008.

We saw the Oscar nominated shorts at our local Indie theater and loved them. The short films don't get enough credit. If they were shown more frequently I feel they would give budding artists a chance to display their work and people would come to see them. If they could get them shown before regular releases then more audiences would enjoy and be able to see them also.

This short was by far my favorite of all of them. I am just hoping at some point this will be available on Youtube or somewhere so we can watch it again. Does anyone know how to get it on video? I loved it and so did my husband. It was genius. It's not fair that I can't find it online so I can share with others. We will then watch for this writer/director to do other work. The main character was a great actor too. The whole idea was fun and inventive. Comedies never get the respect they deserve.

"Il Supplente" is a comedy short movie released in 2007, that stars Andrea Jublin as a substitute teacher in an Italian secondary school. Andrea Jublin, who also is the director of the movie, plays the lead role as a substitute teacher who must face a whole group of noisy teenagers. In the classroom, there are two teenagers that appear more than once: a boy, who is always asking for his ball signed by Del Piero, and a girl, who is always writing poems. The plot is about a substitute teacher who gets into a disordered classroom of teenagers to take the control and humiliate(in my opinion) the students. The film is really funny and has a lot of humor in all the different situations that it presents. The film has a good opening scene, just in the moment when the teacher gets in the classroom and confiscates the first little thing he sees: a little blue ball, that is signed by the Italian football player, Del Piero. This short movie takes place in a secondary school in Rome, Italy, and it has pretty good acting. The chosen place to film it is good, too, and I really liked the script.