Film Review

Lessons of Les Grands Esprits
for a Diverse Society
By Naoyuki Haraoka
Author Naoyuki Haraoka

Introduction
Immigration has become a big political issue in recent times andhas provoked a rise in anti-globalization sentiment around the world. It
is often considered to be not only a threat to job security for nations
but also a source of increasing income inequality between wealthypeople and poor immigrant families, as well as a serious deteriorationin education at schools with these poor immigrants’ children. With
massive inflows of immigrants into a nation, providing their children
with a good quality education and integrating them into society will be
crucial aspects of any successful immigration policy.
The Japanese government announced a new policy to expand theinflow of foreign human resources in 2018 in its “Basic Principles ofEconomic and Public Finance Management and Its Reform”. In linewith this, in April 2019 the revised Immigration Control Act came intoeffect aimed at boosting foreign labor during the next five years by aPhoto: ©
 ATELIER DE PRODUCTION - SOMBRERO FILMS - FRANCE 3 CINEMA– 2017

Japanese poster for Les Grands Esprits

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maximum of 340,000 in 14 working areas, including caregiving andrestaurants. It is hoped that this will help counter the decline in thelabor force in Japan resulting from depopulation in an aging society.
But even before the introduction of this policy, we have seen asteady rate of increase in the foreign population in Japan, whichreached 2.5 million on Jan. 1, 2018, the largest figure so far, and ispredicted to reach 3.7 million in 2025, equal to the population ofYokohama. Among these foreign residents, around 30% arepermanent residents. They have few work restrictions and are allowed
to have their families live with them. Thus, they are considered defacto immigrants. The number of such foreign permanent residents
has been increasing due to the policy of lowering the length of timerequired to qualify for permanent residence to 10 years since 1998.
This was aimed at mitigating the labor shortage. The increase in thenumber of foreign permanent residents will possibly mean an increasein the number of their children, and so school education for children
from diverse backgrounds is now an issue Japan must face too.

Les Grands Esprits
A French film, Les Grands Esprits, which premiered in cinemas inFrance in 2017 and in Japan in 2019, offers a good portrayal of theeducation gap in France between the children of wealthy Caucasianfamilies and those from poor African immigrant families.
François Foucault, a veteran professor of French literature at theprestigious Henri IV institute in Paris who was brought up in a wealthyfamily and whose father is a well-known writer, tends to be a little
pedantic and look down at students not doing well in his class. At thebeginning of the film, he is returning essays he has marked to each of
the elite students in his class, and does so with direct and harshcomments, such as “Anne, your work is wasteful, stupid and too
pretentious!” or “Penelope, your work is too light, completely toolight!” and so on.
One night, he gave a speech at a party about his idea to mitigate theeducation gap between those living in the central part of Paris and theimmigrant families living in the suburbs. That was to send a veteranprofessor to the deteriorating schools in the suburbs to support theprofessors there. There was by coincidence a government official of
the National Education Ministry listening to his presentation. She
asked him to realize his idea by himself. So he ended up accepting aFilmReview

position at a public school on the outskirts of Paris where many poor
immigrant families lived and the students were not much interested inlearning French literature.
The school is surrounded by burnt-out and abandoned cars, bushes
harboring suspicious men, and apparently delinquent youths gatheringin spaces between the apartment buildings. Foucault is at first veryscared by these scenes of ruin around the school – a significant
contrast to the surroundings of Henri IV. He is also shocked to see thepoor results of the exams which he set to assess the students’
academic level. They are all reluctant to study any subject and havelittle passion for improving themselves with knowledge and culture. Heis embarrassed to see that he cannot even read the students’ names
correctly, since most of the names are Islamic or African ones. Though
there is such a big gap between Henri IV and this school and it would
seem to be a challenge to teach them and get them to learn about
French literature, Foucault never gives up trying to improve them byeducation and tries to continue to be as sincere as possible in passing
on his knowledge of French language and literature.
He realizes that he cannot apply the same method to them as heused in Henri IV, but by a different method he tries to stimulate theirwillingness to believe in their future and abilities. With his guidance,
the students begin to acquire intellectual curiosity and start regaining
their self-confidence. As time goes by, their interest in learning grows
and finally the whole class has become indulged in reading Les
Miserables by Victor Hugo, one of the great masterpieces of French
literature in the 19th century.
Nevertheless, some serious trouble occurs on a school excursion toVersailles caused by Seydou, the worst troublemaker in the class. The
professors at the school, as is their normal practice, try to dismiss
Seydou from the school permanently. Foucault is the only one whotries to protect Seydou from being expelled, believing the school is the
only place where he could try again to be a better person. Expulsion
would take away his last opportunity to realize his potential as ahuman being. Foucault is determined to argue with the school’s
principal to protect Seydou’s future.
Foucault does not look like a superhero working for the interests of
the weak; rather, he looks like a conservative middle-aged professor
and is even a little snobbish in having never thought seriously aboutpoor people. But he is a devoted teacher and proud of being so, andbelieves in his sacred mission of leading students in the right direction
in life through knowledge of French language and literature. He always
tries to correct the students’ verbal language for politeness, as theauthentic polite expressions of the language are fading among theyoung generation. In sum, he is an excellent teacher, and more
importantly his passion remains unchanged regardless of where heteaches, whether at a prestigious school for elite students or a schoolfor poor immigrant families’ children. He finally comes to trust thestudents’ capacity to choose the right way to improve themselves atPhoto: ©ATELIER DE PRODUCTION - SOMBRERO FILMS - FRANCE 3 CINEMA – 2017

Seydou, a troublemaker in class, and François Foucault, a veteran professor of French literature

school, no matter how bad they may appear. The scene towards theend of the film highlighting the conversation between Seydou andFoucault reveals that Foucault’s efforts are even more rewarding.
The film’s title Les Grands Esprits suggests the encounter between
great spirits – namely the professor and the students. A distinguishedactor from the Comédie-Française, Denis Podalydès, plays the role ofFoucault, but the adolescents playing the roles of the students aremaking their acting debuts, including Seydou. Director Olivier AyacheVidal, formerly a photo journalist, had long been interested in
education as a key to future achievements, and was accordingly happy
to work on this film.

Lessons from the Film
Immigration is not a key issue in this film. Instead, it highlights
education. Education is a wonderful piece of human work that canshow the way to happiness for young people. A good and devoted
professional teacher must play a key role in education, and the lessonof this film is that education is even more important for a society withmore foreign workers or immigrants.
While the percentage of immigrants to the total population in France
was around 12% in 2017, in Japan the percentage of the foreign
population was less than 2.5% in the same year, according to United
Nations statistics. However, the numbers are continuously increasing
and with the recently revised Immigration Control Act could increase
more rapidly in the future. In this light, education for foreign residents’children will become an important policy issue for Japan as well. We
should have professional teachers like Foucault, with passion anddevotion and good trust in their students. We may have them already,but we may need more soon. Good teachers will be a necessity for adiverse society.
Naoyuki Haraoka is editor-in-chief of Japan SPOTLIGHT & executive managing
director of the Japan Economic Foundation (JEF).

Japan SPOTLIGHT • September / October 201967