Critics reviews

Emphatically indebted to the hardcore vérité aesthetic of Frederick Wiseman, with no voiceover to explain anything or any captions to elucidate who's who, this French documentary tracks the long process by which la Fémis, France's most prestigious film school, winnows down thousands of applicants to just a lucky few.

Observing both these entrance processes and the acceptance committee's private discussions, Simon crafts a remarkably compelling portrait of the school from simple means; combining access and patient, direct observation of process in a manner that, for its straightness and lack of formal concern, has become unpopular of late.

The extraordinary achievement of Claire Simon's latest film relies on its ability to capture power at work... The Graduation is a potent film: it doesn't exalt the role of institutions but exposes their limits, absurdity, and humanity. It allows audiences to witness how the invisible energy with which institutions infuse individuals travels from body to body, without belonging to anyone exclusively.

Rather than building a frustrating barrier to understanding, this withheld information functions, exhilaratingly, in the opposite way: the more difficult it is to pin down how the decision-making process is organized, the less possible it is to be confident of our own reactions. Over the course of 120 minutes, the film steadily chips away at the notion that we might be able to judge the potential filmmakers on their artistic merits, leaving instead a void to be filled by our pre-existent biases.

Students stumble and sweat their way through answers that are ignored, misread, or overemphasised, and Simon (a former La Fémis instructor herself), with slyly critical brio, slowly puts the institution itself up for review, reiterating that for all its technical necessities cinema remains a highly intuitive, unquantifiable art form.

As problematic and difficult as the selection process can be, it aspires towards treating the value of artistic endeavors as something that cannot be measured on paper and requires critical and personal examination. What makes someone a great artist before they've made any great works of art? That becomes the central question and object of scrutiny at the heart of Le concours, making it one of the most compelling examinations of auteur driven cinema.

It offers a few worthy insights into La Femis' unique method of picking its pupils. But without any real context provided for those not already aware of the school's elite stature and specific pedagogy, this Venice Classics title may have a hard time finding itself selected outside of festivals and Francophone venues, with possibilities for pubcast play throughout Western Europe.