Les fautes d'orthographe

Bearing more than a distant resemblance to Jean Vigo's famous work's spirit,"les fautes d'Orthographe" is ,as far as directing is concerned ,MTV quality.The supervisor's long hair is an unlikelihood: at the time,all the supervisors were wearing a suit and a tie,French's honor!I know what I'm talking about.And as for the rebellious mind,it could happen,yes ,but before 1968,it was almost implausible.

But given it is a true story ,we've got to take that for granted,at least in the lousy boarding school the hero's parents are running.Olivier Gourmet is good,but Carole Bouquet ,cast against type,wearing glasses,is amazing as a mother hen .

The young hero is a hung-up kid,afraid of having a shower with his mates ,and hated by a lot of them because he is the headmaster's sonny.As he is not very cute ,not very strong and not very good at spelling ,the only way for him to avoid becoming a punching bag is to prove himself smarter than the pack.The "school fund" which he creates and which sells stolen products will be his lucky break:as food at school is not exactly mouth-watering,selling "La Vache qui Rit" (cheese spread)or "Chocorêves" (literally "Chocolate Dreams"),chocolates French pupils were fond of which are no longer produced gives the ugly duckling the prestige he was longing for.

The film includes two versions of "Donna Donna Donna" ,the first one in Yiddish (the hero's parents and his best friend are Jews)and the second one in French.The French words to this old folk song are different from the English one Joan Baez (notably) used to sing in the early sixties.The song talks about a boy who dreams of being a man ;when he grows up,he will regret the time when he was a child.That was perhaps what the director/writer wanted to tell us in the end.