It All Starts Today (1999)

I love this movie so much

Good concept, poorly executed.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

A very mediocre French series "l'instit" contributed to giving the audience a false picture of the schoolteacher.In that poor sitcom ,actor Gerard Klein was some kind of superhero (on a motorcycle!) who acted like a pacifist Zorro or K2000.Bertrand Tavernier and his wonderful thespian ,Philippe Torreton,de la Comédie Française set the record straight.First of all,this is a true story,inspired by a schoolteacher's books.And Tavernier is an artist whose best works ("l'horloger de Saint-Paul" "la mort en direct" and his masterpiece" la vie et rien d'autre")deal with the dignity of man. And as the title says "the future begins today" as everything is possible when the man's young can still wonder,discover,and ... perhaps love the world before he discovers the darker side of it.Because ,for most of the children we meet in this movie,the darker side is at their door,inside their houses,and School is the only way for them of getting away with a somber future.There are courageous lines against the Champagne socialists -When the movie was released,there were commies in the French government-"I could have expected more from a communist mayor!" the teacher says to the notable who closes the canteen to the children whose family is no longer able to pay.There is a very realistic scene between the teacher and his inspector.Although the former 's work is admirable,the state employee slags him off because he's blind and deaf to the world outside him,all he wants to do is to climb the upper rungs of the social ladder .Never the inspector hints at the children's plight,his narrow-minded view remains abstract and completely mindless:how could a group of four year old toddlers be autonomous?A Tribute to the teachers ,who now more than ever need gratefulness and understanding,Tavernier's movie is deeply moving and deserves to be highly recommended.He equals Kenneth Loach here,not a small feat.

Bertrand Tavernier continues to prove he is one of the master modern directors. Although he made his name with a series of stunning period dramas his recent dissections of the failure of modern French society have been equally brilliant and It All Starts Today is his greatest yet. This simple tale of a struggling school master in a depressed suburb to care for his young charges in the face on uncaring bureaucracy and emotionally destroyed parents is a heart rending masterpiece from start to finish. If any foreign language film deserved the Oscar this is it.

Realism at its best. After "Captain Conan" and "Act 627", this must be the best Tavernier. The film has the essence of what a European look on social matters is. It moves you and leads you to a state of complete identification not only with the "hero" of the film, but also with the whole village dwellers. Their pain is your pain. Tavernier manages to create an atmosphere where people are real by letting the camera follow the protagonists and avoiding stupid camera movements and takes. Life is usually lived without make-up. Certainly, this is the kind of film Americans won't shoot and award. When you see it, you ought to pause and think.

This film would have been a fantastic documentary. Its contrived plot to make the statement is laid on so thick, it cannot even be saved by Cesar winner and Academie Francaise secretary Philippe Torreton's superb acting. It would have made more sense to spread the film's budget among the needy of this desperately problematic, depressed French town.