Le Brio

Neïla is an Arab student from the banlieue, and she arrives five minutes late to her first lecture at Panthéon-Assas, the most prestigious law faculty in Paris. Professor Pierre Mazard humiliates her in front of the whole class in a speech that does not bother to disguise its racism. It is filmed, goes online, and he is hauled before a disciplinary committee. His punishment: he must coach her for an inter-university rhetoric competition. The premise comes from something real, the annual rhetoric contests held at France's grandes écoles of law, where students are given a subject and asked to argue it as eloquently and inventively as they can. Daniel Auteuil plays the professor and Camélia Jordana plays Neïla. Yvan Attal directed. Its strongest quality is that the teacher is never fully absolved. He can be a good teacher and still stand behind what he said, and the film does not treat one as the antidote to the other. The shape is still familiar, though: racist white professor, gifted girl from the estates, a story about learning to speak proper French. The performances and the dialogue carry that shape rather than escaping it.