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Released by: Cinema Epoch
Released on: 12/21/10
Director: Jean-Paul Lilienfeld
Cast: Jean-Paul Lilienfeld, Denis Podalydes, Sonia Amori, Yann Collette
Year: 2009
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The Movie:
This French language film is about a schoolteacher, Sonia, who has a rough bunch of students in her class and has difficulty in dealing with them. There are a couple of stand-out douche bags, Mouss and his side-kick, who give her lip at every turn as well as bully some of the other students. On top of that many of the students are Muslim, and the males use their religion as a means of getting out of doing things they don't want to, such as take of hats and sit next to the females.
Sonia is really struggling this one day and gets harassed by the boys due to the fact that she is wearing a skirt, something the principal told her not to do because it offends the Muslims boys. She makes it clear that she will wear a skirt if she so chooses and it doesn't matter if any religion at all objects because in her opinion religion does not belong in schools. The tension really builds and she's at the point of losing it, when Mouss and his pal go to the back of the room with a book bag talking about something in secret. She goes to see what they are up to and a gun falls out of the bag. She picks it up, and threatens the students with it, holding them hostage. She's at the end of her rope, tired of being scared of the students, tired of the do-nothing principal being a pussy, and just plain tired of her situation in the awful school she in which she works. From here out the story takes some twists and turns and for the most part isn't as easy to predict as one might expect.
Technically the film is a tight little movie, very simple in the way it is presented, and plays out almost like a theater production (or a television movie, other than the language). Most of the activity takes place in the schoolroom with a small group of kids, as most of the kids ran out when Sonia grabbed the gun and fired it to shut the kids up. The movie has nothing fancy to it, which can be a good thing as it focuses more on the tale rather then the visuals. The acting appears to be decent, although not speaking French (other than swears) it's tough to know how the deliveries really are. The focus is more on reading the subtitles so it does distract the viewer from the really watching the performances.
The story is decent enough, although there is a pretty useless secondary story about the negotiator's difficulty with his estranged wife. There are some political undertones present, the main piece being a message that the Muslim religion should not be treated any different in the schools than Christianity or any other religions. That probably wouldn't be seen in a Hollywood production, and that makes the movie easier to sit through. If this was a Hollywood production, it's tough to imagine it would be anything more than a bunch of perfect and beautiful people being portrayed as tough cookies with a heavy handed message quite different than the one the French filmmakers conveyed. All in all it's an effective drama, although it does suffer at the end which seems hokey compared to the rest of the movie.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Skirt Day is presented by Cinema Epoch with an aspect of 1.77:1 anamorphic widescreen. The image is clear, colors look correct as do the skin tones, and the black levels look fine. The picture is average for DVD quality and nothing to complain about. No artifacts of note were present, and no issues to report.
The audio is handled by a Dolby Digital stereo track and sounds just fine. The balance seems correct between the music and the dialogue. There are no audio issues to mention. The sync looks like it is correct, and the subtitles are easy to read.
The extras are slim. There is a trailer for the movie and a three-minute still gallery that includes production photos. There's also trailers for other Cinema Epoch releases. That's it.
The Final Word:
Probably not much replay potential, Skirt Day is a movie made better by the fact that isn't a Hollywood production. The filmmakers spin a good yarn and for those into foreign dramas it's worth at least a once over. The lack of extras doesn't exactly help increase the value of the disc any further, putting this one into the realm of the rental.
