Skirt Day

Isabelle Adjani shines in her "come-back"
Isabelle Adjani is a monument in the French movie history. So many memorable roles and movies. But as she enters the latter stages of her career, she's been very picky about what to do, and this movie was the first movie role she chose to take on in 5 years.

"Skirt Day" (La Journee de la Jupe) (88 min., originally released in 2009) brings a politically charged topic: a female teacher wearing a skirt who is teaching in a public school attended almost excusively by Muslim students. The kids are mostly a bunch of thugs and no-goods, from a poor unbringing. Adjani's character at some point flips and can't take the constant abuse anymore, and when by chance a gun is found in one of the student's bags, she takes the class hostage. Things evolve from there, and you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out. Beware: this is not necessarily a "politically correct" movie (certainly by US standards but also elsewhere), and this movie sturred up quite a controversy upon its...

skirt tastic
Skirt Day is the kind of film that's rarely seen in the states, this film takes a very touchy social subject and really makes you look it in the eye while avoiding stereotypes and clichés. This is one French film that doesn't care who it offends; Isabelle Adjani is fantastic she is unafraid of controversial projects. I say see this film with an open mind.

Perfect "social thriller" about the "two cultures", and how they interact... or not :)!
A mix of "Entre les Murs" ("The Class"), Michael Douglas' "Falling down" and maybe "Negotiator" (2008), this gripping even if unlikely film stars Isabelle Adjani, showing she's a great actress, and Denis Podalydès as "Brigadier Labouret" , who doesn't have to show anything, as a cop with problems at home.

Everybody has an antagonist in life, his Salieri. In this case, our brigadier has Bechet, who wants swift action, "shoot first, think later", style. Labouret, maybe because he knows from experience how things can quickly get out of control, tries to help our beautiful heroine, Sonia Bergerac, a literature teacher in an underprivileged state high school. Isabelle Adjani being born outside France, it's clear why she chose to star this film, and some of her monologues when she's not out of control are of course her "message", like when she tries to educate her unruly pupils about the value of education, how they owe it to their struggling immigrant parents to achieve...

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