School's Out (french: L'heure de la sortie) is a 2018 French social drama

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by

Sébastien Marnier Sébastien is a common French given name. It is a French form of pasté Latin name ''Sebastianus'' meaning "from Sebaste". Sebaste was a common placename in classical Antiquity, derived from the Greek word ''σεβαστος'', or ''sebastos'', ...

who co-wrote the script with Elise Griffon, based on Christophe Dufossé's 2002 novel of the same name.

Synopsis

Substitute French teacher, Pierre Hoffman finds himself in charge of teaching an experimental class of twelve gifted students at the renowned Saint Joseph College. The class had witnessed their previous French teacher commit suicide by jumping out of the window, and Pierre is treated with hostility and distrust by the class. The class hall monitors, Apolline and Dimitri, are ringleaders of separate subgroups in the class, and Apolline soon pits herself against Hoffman. Hoffman begins following Apolline and her followers after class and witnesses them engaging in disturbing and violent rituals.

Cast

Laurent Lafitte Laurent Lafitte (born 22 August 1973) is a French actor. He is known for playing the role of Patrick in ''Elle''. In March 2016 he was named as the host of the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival The 69th Cannes Fil ...

as Pierre Hoffman *

Emmanuelle Bercot Emmanuelle Bercot (born 6 November 1967) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter. Her film '' Clément'' was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. Her 2013 film '' On My Way'' premiered in competi ...

as Catherine * Luàna Bajrami as Apolline * Victor Bonnel as Dimitri

Production

In 2017 it was announced that

, who had previously directed the 2016 thriller ''

Irréprochable ''Irréprochable'' (English: ''Faultless'') is a 2016 French thriller film written and directed by Sébastien Marnier. The film stars Marina Foïs, Jérémie Elkaïm, Joséphine Japy, and Benjamin Biolay. Plot Out of job for over a year, Const ...

'', would helm the project and that

and

had joined the cast. Filming began on June 12, 2017, and a 2018 release date was announced.

Reception

The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics, and holds rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

. The film's cinematography, score, and acting were praised for heightening suspense, while the direction and story were criticized for falling flat in places. EJ Oakley of The Panoptic gave it 4 out of 5 stars, and praised the performances of Lafitte and Bajrami, while noting that the film did not satisfactorily tie up all of its loose ends and subplots.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 7175992 French thriller drama films 2018 films 2010s French films