Those are some great films. I don’t know the purpose of this, but if you’re just looking for any film (good/bad/old/new) set or taking place in primary school, there’s Son of Rambow, which I saw last week. Found it adorable.
The original BAD NEWS BEARS, still the best American movie made about kids.
Haven’t seen SON OF RAMBOW, let’s focus on films set-in, focusing on, or revolve or have portions revolve around primary school. While administering a mid-term today I was trying to think of just how many I could name.
Two Ozu classics:
I WAS BORN, BUT…
GOOD MORNING (a remake of the above)
have two great scenes set in school.
Payne’s ELECTION (nails the worst students, the officious ones)
Truffaut’s SMALL CHANGE (great movie to show to kids, along with AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS, a staple of high school french classes)
Truffaut’s THE WILD CHILD (sort of about school, about the guy who developed the Montessori method)
I’m missing some obvious ones, I’ll try to think of more. Would be grateful for any recommendations.
I’ve always been a fan of Dead Poets Society
Abbas Kiarostami’s Where Is The Friend’s House
If…
Simon’s post reminded me of all those awful inspirational teacher films:
MR. HOLLAND’S OPUS
MUSIC OF THE HEART
STAND AND DELIVER
THE EMPEROR’S CLUB
GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS
(haha) FREEDOM WRITERS
DANGEROUS MINDS
(oh my god) HIGH SCHOOL HIGH
I can’t remember the name of it, but I remember one with a twenty-something Richard Attenborough playing a prep school boy. (This is where IMDb has theauteurs beat).
oh oh
How could I forget?
Frederick Wiseman’s classic HIGH SCHOOL
also:
ROCK AND ROLL HIGH SCHOOL
Jim Belushi as THE PRINCIPAL
Tom Berenger as THE SUBSTITUTE
Nick Cannon as the UNDERCLASSMAN
jesus, I think the 6 films in my first post might be the only good movies about school.
Actually, I’ll rule out all those teen comedies of the last 30 years. From now on, pre-1980 titles only, let’s see what we come up with.
I thought “primary school” referred to the years before high school. Am I wrong?
Yeah, some of the aforementioned don’t fit the thread.
my fault, I was typing in haste. Primary and secondary are what i’m looking for. preferably what people consider to be the best films set in or about grade school.
Heathers
Check out the article posted this week in The Auteurs’ Notebook about Wiseman’s HIGH SCHOOL.
welcome to the doll house?
um……lady in white?
breafkest club?
one of the guys
scream?
pump up the vol.
carrie
back to the future
dazed and cofused and brick dont really count, you tell me…..??
im just tossing shit out i know
i tell you what the wonder years on dvd there you go, i know not a film…
If….
400 Blows
Au Revoir Les Enfants
Rushmore
i’ll count dazed and confused, REALLY idealizes it.
Malle’s MURMUR OF THE HEART (1977) should qualify, the coming of age of the 15 year-old Laurent, played slyly by Benoit Ferreux. Its son/mother incest scene was controversial and drew loud boos. But the film is honest and funny, with a fine comic ending. (I once read that Malle had planned suicide for Laurent at the end. That would have been a tragedy.)
If… is an amazing film, but it doesn’t really feature primary school. The Squid and The Whale centers on the family, and only loosely touches on primary school, but it does so as honestly and brilliantly as any film I can think of.
yeah, MURMER OF THE HEART briefly takes place at that catholic school (with Michel Lonsdale playing the least subtle pedophile EVER (I think only the one from Diff’rent Strokes was more obvious)). But let’s focus more on the school setting and less on adolescence, and try and find more pre-1980.
Ah, I see you meant to include High School as well. In that case, I have to nominate Hoop Dreams, even if it a documentary.
I know I’m going to take heat for this, but Donnie Darko is one of my favorite teenage/high school movies. The film somehow connotes this sense of sheer awkwardness that seems more authentic than most attempts at depicting teenage angst. It’s also irreverent, dreamy, and a bit melodramatic just like so many high schoolers.
and THE GUINEA PIG was the film with Richard Attenborough
now THAT needs a DVD release.
How about Volker Schlondorff’s YOUNG TORLESS where the school setting is everything? A film with a few Bressonian moments (the murder of the fly on the page with pen and ink). The opening scene, the boys crossing the bleak potato field, nicely anticipates THE TIN DRUM. The players are all excellent, especially Marian Seidowsky as the victim. Matthieu Carriere as Torless is almost girlish in his looks and in the way he carries himself, and as one reviewer pointed you, you except him to be the victim of the torturers.
Strictly speaking of grammar/primary school…
The Wall by Alan Parker.
The scenes of the teacher’s humiliation of Pink and the subsequent cowing of the Teacher by his wife at the dinner table. Of course, the scene with all the masked children singing their way into the meat grinders was pretty cool.
Yes! Yes! YOUNG TORLESS!!!!
Love the book too. Robert Musil’s writing needs more attention from American readers. Excellent translation available from Penguin. Everyone should read it.
welcome to the dollhouse
It’s not technically primary school but there is a place in my heart for Kindergarten Cop. Worryingly, when I was younger, my 10 year old sister had a huge crush on Arnold Schwarzenegger so I was subjected to many of his films, many times over.
Half Nelson
Dead Poets Society
“Au Revoir Les Enfants” by the wonderful Louis Malle. He did equally wonderfully with Laurent, the teen, and Michel, the boy, in Souffle au Coeur (Murmurs of the Heart.)
You have to go to Europe to find children and young people handled properly in film. American directors, in my humble judgment, can’t do it. Name one American film in which a child or young person has been properly directed. And don’t tell me My Friend Flicka.
Truffaut’s (1976) “L’ARGENT DE POCHE” deserves a mention.
Rich Uncle Skeleton
As I get ready for work, I’ll toss off a couple of my favorites:
THE 400 BLOWS
TORMENT (the scene at the beginning when you see the large windows and it’s pouring rain nails it for me)
THE BLUE ANGEL
AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS
ZERO FOR CONDUCT
RUSHMORE (school idealized)
That’s all I have time for, go.