Truant School (1949) [N/A]
Featuring:
Bernard Blier, Juliette Faber, Édouard Delmont
Written by:
Elise Freinet
Jean-Paul Le Chanois
Directed by:
Jean-Paul Le Chanois
Release Date:
April 8, 1949
Original Title:
L'École buissonnière
Genres:
Comedy | Drama
Production Companies:
Coopérative Générale du Cinéma Français
UGC Films
Production Countries:
France
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Runtime: 89
1920, in a small village in Provence. Monsieur Pascal, a young schoolteacher, is faced with a lack of interest from his pupils. He decides to radically change the methods employed by his predecessor. He listens to the children, draws inspiration from their discoveries and takes them out into nature. The pupils will rediscover the pleasure of learning, and he will rediscover the pleasure of teaching. But some parents and notables don't take kindly to this little revolution.
Soon after the Great War, the Provence village of Salezes gets a new boys' teacher: Mr. Pascal, a war hero with a diploma from a teachers' college. He rejects old methods: boys' sitting still with arms folded memorizing facts. He uses modern methods: he becomes their guide. The boys build a water-powered electric generator, interview their parents about shoe-making and cooking, draw, write poetry, and, after Pascal brings a box of type, put their own magazine together, printed on the backs of old ballots. Their new interest in critical thinking stirs opposition from the mayor and others. The teacher offers a deal: if even one student fails the national exam, he'll resign. All eyes are on Albert, an older youth who has failed three times.
