It All Starts Today

A kindergarden in a poor zone. Its director working, in hard, passioned and deceived manner for the good of his students. Social problems, burocracy, suicide case and the support of his girlfriend, devasted school and new beginnings.

But, more important, wonderful result of collaboration of Bernard Tavernier and Philippe Torreton.

Obvious, more than a very inspired film, it is a precious testimony about the status and meanings, fights and idealism of teacher.

A great film, with powerful social message, so present in the French cinematography of the last decades , beautiful nuanced , for the lage slices of near reality naked facts, from abuse in different forms, against minors to the obtusity of autorities.

So, must see it ! For understand the pieces defining near reality essence.

This film is an excellent commentary of the sheer difficulties in trying to improve a bad situation when the whole system - from the families involved to the political authorities - are effectively working against you. It shows that it is vital to persevere because to give up would be awful. Its ultimately optimistic about the strength of the human spirit but scathing about the corrupting and degrading influence of the system.

The only criticisms are that the camera technique was very fluid which meant that the picture was always moving up and down, in and out of focus. This was interesting but quite taxing on the eyes. Also, it was perhaps half an hour longer than it could have been so it dragged somewhat in places. But a very good film. 4/5

In a region devastated by the closing of coal mines, and where one worker out of three is unemployed, Bertrand Tavernier tells us the problems of a nursery school's director who wants to improve the social conditions of those people.

He is the only hope for depressive parents but bureaucrats want him to look only after the easy cases forgetting about the problem children.

The challenge of throwing more than thirty 3 to 6 years old kids in the scramble as been taken up: their natural is convincing... and it goes for the director too.

I took part wholeheartedly with the pains and joys of the characters and lived it as if it was real life.

Don't settle down for a comfortable couple of hours easy entertainment. This film carries a message and it will thrash you with it. This is not a film with a stylised story set out in the classical beginning-middle-ending formula; it is a film which swings from scene to scene, at times hectically, with splendid unrehearsed sequences shot with continual changes and panning at frequently too high speed, swinging from schoolmaster to clusters of young faces, zooming in on one, lifting up to worried mothers bursting in, and back down to the schoolmaster, at trepidating speed, breathlessly, at whatever price, because the important thing was to get it all as it happened, how it happened; no way of organising thirty little kids to do the scene again: it would be just too artificial and useless.

The price is some lack of focussing, but it is worth the end result: Alain Choquart under Tavernier's orders achieves something monumental, something magical as his agility with the camera swoops around the school capturing every taut smile, every nervous finger-twisting, the first tears from a hysterical mother... Bertrand Tavernier comes out of that French school of film-making to which he adhered for most of his earlier output and from which he tried to break away with risky excursions into adventure cinema in 'La Fille DE D'Artagnan' (which must have worried Alexandre Dumas) and 'Capitaine Conan' (which must have worried quite a lot of people), as if in a desperate attempt to reach Hollywood-tradition epic proportions.

With 'Ça commence aujourd'hui' everything comes back to earth with a rather nasty bump: Tavernier gets down to the gritty bits of sordid suburbs on the edge of an industrial city (Lille) where in most families the father of the household is either out of work, or drunk, or both, or has run away; the local schoolmaster takes it on himself to fill the rôle of father, a job which Phillipe Torreton carries out brilliantly, aided and abetted by his girl-friend, Maria Pitarresi, who doesn't.

But perhaps the brilliance of the film resides in the sheer pace, as the cameraman has to keep his wits about him so as not to lose those gestures, in what must be the nearest thing to live, unrehearsed cinema: above all in the rapid shots among the small children, where there is no acting or interpretation - it is all too direct, too immediate for any kind of infantile amateur acting classes.

There may be a few technical weaknesses due to the way in which the film just had to be made, but the end result is monumental, a brilliant though agonising document.

Every European politician should be forced to see it: maybe a few of them would wake up and decide to do something useful.

"It All Starts Today" is an open ended slice-of-life tale which takes us into the world of a good-hearted, dedicated, and hard working French Kindergarten teacher who has a lot more on his plate than finger painting. Protag Daniel (Torrenton) not only teaches but runs interference for abused kids, wrestles with the local mayor for funding, contends with vandals, and juggles a host of economic, social, and school political issues all the while maintaining a relationship with his girl friend and her son. Though there isn't much of an arc to the story, this well crafted film does create a likeable character who shows us that the opportunity for heroism exists everywhere in life...even kindergarten. (B)