The title of this German film means "The Flying Classroom". The poster shown
above gives the wrong impression. There are no floating children in the
school.
The film is based on a children's book with the same name written by Erich
Kästner in 1933. Judging from a synopsis I've read of the novel, it deals with
several semi-unrelated episodes of things that happen in the school. I say
semi because it's the same children in each episode. The film concentrates on
one of the episodes. Apart from that, the film has been set in the modern
world. The children have mobile phones.
Martina is a 13-year-old girl in Berlin. She's been offered a free grant to go
to an elite boarding school, the Johann-Sigismund-School, in Kirchberg in
South Tyrol (the German speaking area in northern Italy). She has a two week
trial before the summer holidays, and if she's accepted she'll be a full time
school student after the summer holidays.
From the beginning she's caught up in the rivalry between the
internals and the externals. Half of the children live in the
school, the other half are the children of local residents and just visit the
school for lessons. Martina's grades are poor, so she has to take extra
lessons to catch up, but she still has time to put on a play about the
classroom of the future.
Just as important as her school activities is the relationship between the
strict head of the school, Justus Bökh, and a drop-out called Robert who lives
in a railway waggon on top of the hill. They both went to the school as
children and became friends, even though Justus was an internal and Robert was
an external. For reasons that the film doesn't make clear the two men haven't
spoken for ten years. Martina attempts to bring them back together.
There are a few things in the film that don't make sense. Why would a family in Berlin want to send their daughter to a boarding school in another country? A rich family might do this, but Martina's family isn't rich. Why is Martina given a grant? And the biggest problem I have is the time frame. How can Martina cram so much into such a short space of time? If they'd said six weeks or even four weeks I could have accepted it.
The film didn't really interest me. I couldn't relate to Martina's school problems.
The story of the two old friends reuniting was more interesting, but
it was spoilt by Robert being a chain smoker. It's supposed to be a joke,
because Robert lives in a non-smoking waggon, but I didn't find it funny. Is
that the sort of character that should be shown in a film for children?
The film didn't appeal to Oliver either. He was bored. After the first 20
minutes he kept bugging me, asking how long the film had to go.
It's curious that this is the fourth time the story has been filmed.
The book was filmed in 1954, 1973 and 2003. That's a sign that it must
be a good book. The previous three versions must have been better.
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