Je pleurai. je pleurai, and je pleurai again. Even though there's a happy ending, those kids simply melted my heart. As did Mathieu. It was incredibly emotional.
It's a fest for the eyes, as well, the clothes, the whole scenary: the school, everything, it was perfect.
Many people say that it's a French Dead Poet Society, but I completely disagree. Apart from the fact of the music, the main characters are radically different. Keating is a revolutionary, very smart and composed man. He's got some courage and imposes respect. Mathieu, on the other hand, at first sight is a stupid little chubby man, he imposes no respect at all, he's clumsy, shy, ridiculous... But in the inside he always means well and he too has courage and is revolutionary, but sometimes he understands that he has to punish the kids because there isn't another way out. Keating is stubborn and would never do anything that follows the system, he has to do it his way. And apart from that, this movie moves fluently (or more fluently) and it's got a different esthetic. And apart from that (I'm sorry I must be extremely annoying), the French just got it, no one can do better movies than them, they just got it.
Without any comparissons, this is a magnificent film and it offers us two hours of pure pleasure, tears, and astonishment. You simply can't believe the beauty of what you're seeing. My favourite scene was when Corbin is interrogued by Mathieu because he discovers that he stole the money, and he ask him why he did it, and he says that he did it because he wanted to buy a hot air balloon. Jesus Christ! My heart simply melted and I exploded in tears. That's just it: you cry because of the beauty of the film, because it's so beautiful it really moves you. Another scene that I loved was the end: when Mathieu is leaving and Pepinot comes running behind him and askes him to take him with him. Then Mathieu tells him to go back to school, that he can't take him and gets on the bus. Two seconds later the bus' door opens and Mathieu comes out and carries Pepinot inside with him. And it was a Saturday (people who saw it understand). Dear God, I couldn't stop crying. And in the beginning, the close-up of Pierre getting ready for the concert, the camera goes up and you can see tears in his eyes, right after he finds out about her mother. That was very touching as well.
Although, there's only one thing I would change. In the beginning, when Pepinot shows Pierre the class' picture, Pierre asks the name of the prefect. Given that Mathieu changed his whole life around, he was actually a complete turning point in his life, as it is obvious because of Pierre's success in the world of music, I think he should have remembered his name. Not only remembered, but gotten into tears when he sees the picture and the diary.
Despite its only flaw, this movie is one of the best I've ever seen.
