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Laurent Cantet is of one France’s leading contemporary directors. In a series of important films, including Human Resources, Time Out, Heading South, The Class and Foxfire, he takes stock of the modern world from the workplace, through the schoolroom and the oppressive small town to the world of international sex tourism. His films drive the hidden forces that weigh on individuals and groups into view but also show characters who are capable of reflection and reaction. If the films make their protagonists rethink their place in the world, they also challenge the positions of the viewer and the director. This is what makes them so worthy of study. Combining a fine eye for detail with broad contextual awareness, this book gives an account of all Cantet’s works, from the early short films to the major works. Martin O’Shaughnessy is a leading international writer on French cinema,especially in film and politics.

This book brings together for the first time five French directors who have established themselves as among the most exciting and significant working today: Bruno Dumont, Robert Guédiguian, Laurent Cantet, Abdellatif Kechiche, and Claire Denis. Whatever their chosen habitats or shifting terrains, each of these highly distinctive auteurs has developed unique strategies of representation and framing that reflect a profound investment in the geophysical world. The book proposes that we think about cinematographic space in its many different forms simultaneously (screenspace, landscape, narrative space, soundscape, spectatorial space). Through a series of close and original readings of selected films, it posits a new ‘space of the cinematic subject’. Accessible and wide-ranging, this volume opens up new areas of critical enquiry in the expanding interdisciplinary field of space studies. It will be of immediate interest to students and researchers working not only in film studies and film philosophy, but also in French/Francophone studies, postcolonial studies, gender and cultural studies.Listen to James S. Williams speaking about his book http://bit.ly/13xCGZN. (Copy and paste the link into your browser)

This paper demonstrates the possibility of the utopian use of late capitalist non-places through Laurent Cantet's film L'emploi du temps, arguing that the protagonist's mental breakdown caused by cognitive overstimulation open up an unexpected critical perspective through which the contradictions of the system become visible. With the help of Agamben's theory of profanation I argue that the hero's inoperative, free use of former sites mediating semiocapitalist flows offers an example of a form-of-life that is not captured by the apparatuses of commodification.

The essay is a detailed cinematic and cultural analysis of Ça commence aujourd'hui by Bertrand Tavernier (1999), Être et Avoir by Nicolas Philibert (2003) and Entre les Murs by Laurent Cantet (2008). It contrasts the cinematic depictions of three French schools in rural, urban, and suburban France. Through a comparison of locations, pedagogy, and student expectation, the essay shows a contrasted and diffracted vision of the French educational system portrayed in the films. In the context of school reforms debated in France, the essay points out the variety and complexity of different schools visualized through the cinematic lens, and it questions the French Republic's ability to successfully fulfill its mission to educate young citizens of various social, racial, and cultural backgrounds.

The essay is a detailed cinematic and cultural analysis of Ça commence aujour- d'hui by Bertrand Tavernier (1999), Être et Avoir by Nicolas Philibert (2003) and Entre les Murs by Laurent Cantet (2008). It contrasts the cinematic depictions of three French schools in rural, urban, and suburban France. Through a comparison of locations, pedagogy, and student expectation, the essay shows a contrasted and diffracted vision of the French educational system portrayed in the films. In the context of school reforms debated in France, the essay points out the variety and complexity of different schools visualized through the cinematic lens, and it questions the French Republic's ability to successfully fulfill its mission to educate young citizens of various social, racial, and cultural backgrounds.

\"It is an amazing, amazing film,\" said the head of the nine-member Cannes jury, US actor-director Sean Penn. Accepting his prize from Penn, [Laurent Cantet] added: \"I hope this film reflects the complexities of French society.\" Other members of this year's Cannes jury included US actress Natalie Portman and Alexandra Maria Lara from Germany, Mexican and Thai directors Alfonso Cuaron and Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Iranian-born comic book author and director Marjane Satrapi.

As director Laurent Cantet's harshly lifelike film unfolds, you realize that the movie doesn't follow the Hollywood formula. Poor middle-school teacher Mr. Marin (FranAois Begaudeau), a kind yet firm French language-arts teacher, is as outmanned as King Leonidas in \"300.\" The kids don't want to be there, and most choose to ignore Marin's studiously constructed lessons, choosing sleep or conversation with other slackers. The ones who do engage Marin are verbally abusive thugs who try to undermine and bully him. The few students who care about their grades shrink into their seats and speak only when Marin begs them, fearful that sounding too smart will make them targets. There is little support in the teacher's lounge, which is nearly as terrifying as the classroom. As Marin sits down for a breather between classes, another teacher all but pulls out his hair as he stumbles into the room, mourning his impossible plight. Another colleague tries to bully Marin into altering his curriculum, and later on someone else spreads rumors about Marin, calling two of his students \"skanks.\"