Le Plus beau métier du monde (1996)
Directed by Gérard Lauzier

Film Review

Gérard Depardieu gives a typically robust performance in this surprisingly dark black comedy about the trials and tribulations of being a schoolteacher in an inner city school in Paris.  Despite the simplistic ending (where all the problems are suddenly and miraculously solved by a single piece of good fortune) the film does offer a fairly convincing account of life in some rough multi-ethnic areas of France.  The film is well paced, the characters are well drawn (up to a point), and the mix of comedy and dramatic tension generally works quite well.  The scenes with Daniel Prévost are by far the most memorable bits of the film, helping to compensate for the film's sillier moments.  Overall, an entertaining film - albeit one which accurately reflects some very depressing truths.

Film Synopsis

After an acrimonious divorce, Laurent Monier takes a teaching job in a problem area just outside Paris so that he can be near to his children.  He finds himself in the school from Hell, where the teachers have no authority, the pupils run riot and the senior staff have long given up trying to bring any notion of discipline into the classroom.  Monier is assigned the worst class in the school and his new pupils waste no time turning his life into a nightmare.  He immediately gets on the wrong side of Aziz, a tough Arab boy whose brother, Ahmed, is the leader of a band of thuggish criminals.  Before long, Monier finds his life is scarcely worth living...