Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: Coluche takes us back to school in a comedy full of humor and tenderness.
Released in theaters in 1980, the comedy The Schoolmaster is a devilishly endearing little nugget. Freely inspired by Memoirs of an educator, the novel by Jules Celma, the feature film tells the story of Gérard Barbier, a jeans salesman who is fired. Having completed his baccalaureate, he then decided to become a substitute teacher. But he quickly realizes that this job is not what he imagined…
The strong point of this very feel-good Maître d’école, a big public success with more than three million spectators in theaters, is obviously Coluche. The comedian, in this role of a clumsy teacher completely overwhelmed by furious children, is absolutely formidable. And he’s really well surrounded by the cast, with notably tasty performances from Josiane Balasko and Roland Giraud.
With The Schoolmaster, director Claude Berri wanted, under the cover of comedy, to demonstrate how difficult the teaching profession was. In an interview given to Première magazine upon the release of the film, he declared that he wanted to demonstrate how much, for a teacher, “the border is fragile between freedom and discipline”.
Nevertheless, Berri wanted above all, with his feature film, to challenge “children and adolescents, all those who have suffered and still suffer at school!”
Le Maître d’école, which marks one of Claude Berri and Coluche’s three collaborations with Le Pistonné and Tchao Pantin, is finally led by two excellent songs, The Schoolmaster And The Sampa, respectively signed by Alain Souchon and Richard Gotainer. Want to go back to class?
Tonight on TFX at 9:05 p.m.