by Sandy Mandelberger, Film New York Editor Friday, July 18-------The winner of this year’s Cannes Film Festival’s most prestigious award, the Palme d’Or, will open the 46th edition of the New York Film Festival (NYFF), one of the most important film showcases in North America.The Class (Entres Les Murs), a gritty but very human story of the dysfunctional French education system, won the top prize at Cannes for its director Laurent Cantet. Three of Cantet's four features have played in ...

Laurent Cantet Entre les Murs - The classThe film:The Class, the third French film to be presented in Competition for the Palme d’Or, marks director Laurent Cantet's first journey to Cannes. Cantet, director of such socially aware films as Human Resources and Time Out, pursues similar issues with his adaptation of the autobiographical novel by François Bégaudeau, a young French teacher in a tough junior high school. Determined to instruct without breaking his students' spirits, he refuses to...