The Class

The Class was the winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and is now an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film. And yet, in learning about it at first I wondered how it would differ from the usual inspirational teacher film. It may be French but could it offer anything we haven't seen before from this type of movie? Well, never judge a teacher movie by its cover because this gritty, hyper-realistic story about a year in the life of a young teacher packs an emotional punch that completely took me by surprise.

There's a lot of chatter surrounding this year's Oscar nominees in terms of their star power, technical achievements and general glossiness. Indeed, many of the films touted as the year's best have a museum-like quality to them, as though the audience has been invited to look upon a beautifully rendered world through a cinematic plexiglass. It's lovely, to be sure, but has left me cold at times. That's why The Class stands out as something altogether different. To see what I think sets this movie apart from the pack, read more

Those of you who have seen Slumdog Millionaire recently may have caught a preview for the French film that received the Palm D'or at last year's Cannes Film Festival: The Class.

The movie is based on an autobiographical novel by François Bégaudeau (who actually stars as the character based on himself, François Marin) and follows his experience as a literature teacher in an inner city middle school in Paris. Story aside, the movie looks gorgeous and is getting rave reviews from film critics across the board. I especially like this review, which describes the movie as "an unsentimental slice-of-life story, shot on digital film with a cast of unglamorous unknowns."

I can't wait to see this when it opens Feb. 6. To watch the trailer, just read more

The 2008 Cannes Film Festival wrapped up on Sunday and with it came the prestigious awards ceremony. The top honor, the Palm D'Or, was given to Laurent Cantent's The Class. The film hails from France, a country who hasn't received the Palm D'Or for more than 20 years. The Class is a documentary-style drama that Variety calls "a fully sustained immersion in the academics, attitudes and frequent altercations of a group of junior high school students." The French trailer seems rather subdued, but I have a feeling that it's probably as powerful as Larry Clark's Kids.

Taking second place, the Grand Prix, was Matteo Garrone's Gomorra. IMDB describes the Italian film, as "a contempo Neapolitan mob drama based on an expose of Italy's criminal underbelly." Even though I couldn't understand a word of the trailer, it gave me the chills. It looks similar in tone to 2002's Best Foreign Picture nominee, City of God.

Special awards were also given out to Catherine Deneuve for her performance in A Christmas Tale and Clint Eastwood for his direction of Changeling.

To see the foreign-language trailers for The Class and Gomorra, read more

This week, the CBS sitcom "The Class" is letting fans behind the scenes in a very cool way. They're filming their table read and run-through — usually reserved only for the cast and crew — and putting them online for all to see.

The table read, which is when the cast and writers go through the script for the first time, was filmed on Monday, and the run-through will be Webcast live today starting at 4 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Pacific. You can get to both videos through the show's official site.

As far as I know, this is the first time a TV show has tried this, and there are a few bugs — a big one being that the video software CBS is using doesn't work on Macs. But I love the idea and would like to see some other shows try it, so read more

It seems like with every season there is a new Friends ripoff. The Class, premiering on CBS tonight at 8/7c, is one of those. The premise is that idealistic pediatrician, Ethan (played by John Ritter's son, Jason), plans a surprise party for his fiance to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the day they first met in third grade. The surprise is that Ethan actually gathers all of the members of their third grade class together for the party. His fiance is less than thrilled and bolts while the misfit crowd of former classmates remains to rekindle their long lost friendships. The class includes every stereotype imaginable. Luckily for CBS, How I Met Your Mother is on right after.

The weak premise and the unlovable characters of The Class mean that we probably won't be tuning in, but we will for sure be tuning in to last year's newcomer and far superior Friends-esque show, How I Met Your Mother. The new season starts up right after The Class on CBS at 8:30/7:30c. We can't wait to find out if Marshall and Lily get back together and continue their wedding plans and if Ted and Robin can finally make it work this time. And of course, then there is Barney. Got to love Barney!