French Film Fest 2005---Bad Spelling

Rarely do we see a film so well put together that there isn’t a moment when one is less than completely engaged with the story. Jean-Jacques Zilbermann has created a fantastic and entirely transcendental tale guaranteed to take us back—regardless of age or nationality—to the days of our own youth and our years in school. Despite the plethora of personalities we will recognize from our own teenage years, there are no cardboard characters in the film.

The main character Daniel (played by Damien Jouillerot who we are sure to see again) says at a couple of points in the film that he was "born in detention." His parents are the founders of a boarding school and the film begins at a point when Daniel has switched from being a mere day scholar to a boarder in the dorms. It doesn’t take long for the class bullies to turn on Daniel since he is the son of the tyrannical principal. The boys are all struggling at that awkward age with some problem on another. Daniel’s is the delayed onset of puberty. In order to avoid taking a shower with other boys he’s willing to be placed out of all group activities. But he isn’t shy of using the secret set of keys stolen from his parents when one of his classmates Zygelman, a gentle newcomer, wants to retrieve some jam in the middle of the night. The boys are caught and punished, a friendship ensues. At one point Zygelman helps himself to the panty hose of a popular girl Suza-Lobo and spins a tale to Daniel as to how he came into possession of these tights. Daniel insists on safekeeping them for Zygelman lest he get into more trouble but is caught by the bullies who try to strip Daniel down. They find the stockings and are willing to let him get away in return for the sordid details. Eventually this incident spins out of control and the entire school is punished. The boys are slapped one after another by the tyrannical principal (Daniel’s father). When it is Daniel’s turn, his mother (the head of studies at the school) asks Suza-Lobo if Daniel is responsible. Suza-Lobo who has kept mute while all the other boys are getting hit says NO. Daniel is let go. His classmates now beat him, urinate on him, and subject him to worse humiliation.

We see Daniel back in his parents’ home (attached to the school) locked up while they picnic in the garden. He isn’t complaining, he has full access to the fridge and a break from the harassment of his classmates. He invites Zygelman in from the escape hatch in the bathroom and the two raid the kitchen and the liquor cabinet. They start to wrestle and as the tension mounts Daniel finds himself astride Zygelman, the winner. Zygelman asks what Daniel wants from him. After a pause Daniel says he wants help with his bad spelling. He has lost one of his few friends, a boy who has corrected his spelling mistakes for years. We realize that Daniel is truly too young to want anything else.

The bullying of his classmates and the oppression of his parents increase unchecked till Daniel one day gets violent in retaliation. He is warned by his parents that if he doesn’t change he will find himself at a nearby reform school. A school reputed to inflict greater corporal punishment than this one. If Daniel is to come out on the other side he must do something. He helps Griset, an insouciant classmate, steal a large box of chocolate candy from his father’s office. Later when Daniel is pummeled by bullies, Griset comes to his rescue. Daniel suggests that they go into business together selling the candy they have stolen, estimating they can make 1000 francs. Griset an anarchist says that the sticks of chocolate candy are metaphors for dynamite. They set up a co-operative. The business thrives and the tables turn. When the dorm teacher catches the boys, Daniel bribes him with an enormous piece of Bayonne ham and appeals to the man’s leftist temperaments. Everyone starts buying from the co-operative and donating items stolen over the holidays. Daniel ensures all sales are recorded. Except for Daniel’s tyrannical parents and a couple of teachers, everyone is au courant, in the know, at the time of the final climax.

Zilbermann shot the film in the school where he himself had studied. Introducing the film today, he said that he had worried about how he would recreate the way the school had been in the past but discovered instead that it hadn’t changed at all in the intervening time. His main challenge was to turn this place which had been a place of unhappiness for him to a place of happiness in the film. Zilbermann has accomplished more than that, he’s ensured that the school is a place of unhappiness for the entire audience before transforming it into a happy place. As Daniel suffers and struggles we endure with him.

The role of Daniel won Damien Jouillerot the César nomination for Best Promising Actor. Zilbermann had initially intended the film as a comedy but Damien Jouillerot—who lost some 70 pounds for the role by switching to Diet Coke—according to him brought a profound dimension to the film making it something more. One can only hope that American distributors will see how much more. I for my part cannot wait to find and watch his other films including L’Homme est une femme comme les autres (Man is a woman like the rest), Tout le monde n'a pas eu la chance d'avoir des parents communistes (Everyone wasn’t lucky enough to have communist parents).