The Under-Gifted

A French comedy. A group of secondary school students has failed the final exam. Their families enrol them at a private crammer; the school promises a pass and charges a great deal. The school itself is a joke. The teachers are tired, there is no method, the discipline is nominal and none of the students studies. From there the film is a series of attempts: cheating systems, plans to get hold of the exam paper, false identities and efforts to fool the head of the school. What the narrative is interested in is not education but the exam: the film takes aim at the pressure around the French final exam and the crammer business that feeds on it. The humour works by the habits of its period: plenty of noise, crowded scenes and situation comedy. A young Daniel Auteuil is in the cast; he later became one of the best-known names in French cinema and this is an early role. Michel Galabru and Maria Pacôme are also in it. Claude Zidi directed; he made some of the most-watched comedies of the time. The film was a large hit in France and a sequel followed. Who it is for: anyone who likes French comedy of the 1980s and school comedies. Who it is not for: anyone measuring by today's standards; some of the jokes belong to their period and there is very little room for women.