THE PLOT THUS FAR
A high school French teacher gets increasingly drawn into a precocious student’s increasingly transgressive story about his relationship with a friend’s family.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
Adapted from a brilliant play written by Juan Mayorgo, this film is a meta-narrative centered on Claude Garcia — a sixteen year old loner who intrudes upon the home life of fellow student Rapha Jr., and writes about it. What begins as a one-off weekend assignment for literature class, escalates with great passion and frequency when Claude’s teacher, Germaine detects flashes of talent and decides to groom the teenager.
It’s a multifaceted movie, showing different levels of interpretation. From the point of view of the teacher, it’s a subtle reflection of a middle aged failed man, who has to come to terms with his failure as a writer, and his incapability to inspire enthusiasm in class of bored students. From the point of view of the wives, it’s a refined portrait of middle aged unsatisfied women, and their need to find any kind of escape or consolation. But above all, the movie offers a lucid and intelligent gaze on people’s voyeuristic curiosity, on how much we are ready to do in order to see what happens behind closed doors and walls, and here the pair teacher-student works perfectly, and develops through the quick-paced writing of a story where the boundaries between reality and fiction become more and more faded, thus making it intriguing and engrossing.
The Blu-Ray comes with deleted scenes, bloopers, featurettes, gallery and a trailer. The 1080p transfer holds up for a quiet character study. The DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track is strong enough, but it’s mainly working with dialogue. It’s not like we’re getting a fully developed soundstage. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase to the curious.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!