Skirt Day (2008) User Reviews

confrontational

[SnoopyStyle · 8/10 · 31 July 2016]

Sonia Bergerac (Isabelle Adjani) is a stressed-out teacher dealing with the aggressive Muslim kids. She confronts Mouss during class and a gun falls out of his backpack. She picks it up and tries to teach Molière while holding the class hostage. Troublemakers Mouss and Sébastien had been picking on Mehmet. The principal had demanded that Sonia stop wearing skirts to appease the aggressive religious crowd and she pointedly refused. She demands a Skirt Day when all the girls wear skirts.

This is quite confrontational and definitely not for the politically correct. There is a battle for the soul of Islam and the movie isn't gentle about the situation. There is an uncomfortable clash of cultures and this dives right into the middle of it. Adjani returns to show her acting prowess. This movie tries to tackle big issues and not everybody will like how it's done.

Interesting subject, but too much clichés and issues

[nycterr · 6/10 · 30 March 2009]

A high school teacher loses it and ends up holding hostages half her class, turning the situation into a reflexive introspection on the various crisis of modern youths.

Isabelle Adjani, very pretty in her white skirt and blazer, and rolled-up sleeve holding "caids" at gunpoint, is unpredictable and convincing - the rest of the cast, amateur or not, is very weak.

The subject (education and equality) is strong, very relevant and more to-the-point than the very flat and bland take of the last Palmes d'Or "Entre les Murs".

La Journée de la Jupe takes it to another level, more brutal, more real and less entertaining. Less humor and more critical analysis.

The two weakness of the movie are the very feeble and bad acting on almost all the characters. And the overuse of Issues. During the hour and half, the movie feels obliged to tackle every single issues possible: from gang rape to condoms, from Islam to immigration, from respect to racism ... Too much. I was almost waiting to hear about Finance or the Ozone layer ....

Interesting subject but awkward construction.

Perfect "social thriller" about the "two cultures", and how they interact... or not :)!

[stuka24 · 8/10 · 18 March 2012]

A mix of "Entre les Murs" ("The Class"), Michael Douglas' "Falling down" and maybe "Negotiator" (2008), this gripping even if unlikely film stars Isabelle Adjani, showing she's a great actress, and Denis Podalydès as "Brigadier Labouret" , who doesn't have to show anything, as a cop with problems at home.

Everybody has an antagonist in life, his Salieri. In this case, our brigadier has Bechet, who wants swift action, "shoot first, think later", style. Labouret, maybe because he knows from experience how things can quickly get out of control, tries to help our beautiful heroine, Sonia Bergerac, a literature teacher in an underprivileged state high school. Isabelle Adjani being born outside France, it's clear why she chose to star this film, and some of her monologues when she's not out of control are of course her "message", like when she tries to educate her unruly pupils about the value of education, how they owe it to their struggling immigrant parents to achieve something for all they've left behind, and how life isn't that tough for students like them, but it's ruthless for those (foreigners) who don't.

The State is represented by Nathalie Besançon, (also playing a classy chief at TV series "Enquêtes réservées") always beautiful, but easily misled, and the school principal "Cauvin", a bureaucrat, like all of his kind, trying to save his skin above everything else.

This film will keep you glued to your seat, it would be a disaster on a lesser actress than Adjani. Unpredictable, out of control, "like an actor who has lost his plot" as others have written. My gripes are two: I would have liked a bit more of screen time to "Mouss", the violent bully, and his pal. What makes them be as they are? The same for the female pupils, or should I say victims, Farida and specially Nawel, Nathalie's unlikely ally, also with issues of her own. I also didn't believe in the feminist issues, like the film's title for instance, or Sonia's lecturing on how males and females differ in terms of attitudes towards them when they have sex. For a sophisticated Moliere teacher, I think this sounds too like pop psychology. I mean, is that her "reivindication" for the media, what Labouret asks her, doggedly, and mistakenly of course?

This is also a film that will keep you thinking. What would you do to engage this troubled, rowdy teens if you had to teach them anything? How do you think they'll fare in life? Farid wanting to keep his bonnett is just an example of a bigger issue. Is laicisim just a fancy word with a bunch of violent kids who want to be footballers, read People magazine and participate in TV shows? Sonia, no cultural relativist, (notice her surname, with heavy literary significance) pokes fun at her pupils's lack of intellectual ambitions, in a very "grand actor's" way. She starts by trying to give them the class she never could deliver. Like making them memorize the real and fake name of Moliere, etc. But later, she finally makes them participate in a sort of "Big brother" contest, among themselves, just showing she's beginning to engage the pupils using their codes and language, understanding the limits of XIX century "classical" education, specially to XXI century "fragmented" / postmodern pupils!

The use of classical music (Mozart) to highlight the contrast between it, the "traditional culture" and the "all to modern" world in which our teacher fights is a resource that has been used before, but is effective, nevertheless.

There are two IMDb reviews you might like to check: "ck_104 from Lebanon" called this film a "committed/ social thriller", I think you can't expect a better one. And "herve naudet", himself a pupil like the ones we see at this tough film, who writes that Adjani lives her parts, and plays with her guts. I agree with "nyc host" from France that: "this film is more to-the-point than the very flat and bland take of the last Palmes d'Or 'Entre les Murs' ". And probably with ghibliii from United Kingdom here: (Adjani) "looks way too luxurious and sophisticated for the social milieu"

Nevertheless, it's a very good film by actor and director Jean-Paul Lilienfeld. I'm looking forward to watching more films directed by him. My favourite scene is of course her monologue with red lighting, in the beginning of the film and then later, you'll understand why.

Enjoy and think about it!

PS: Not because it's obvious it's less true: Adjani is stunning in her classy white tailleur and boots with high heels. Angel's face, really. Life's unfair :).

A dark claustrophobic little thriller

[ntsci · 10 September 2013]

I suspect every teacher has wondered if she/he be able to get the kids attention by pointing a gun at them. Having spent some time teaching I can really emphasize with Sonia Bergerac in this film. I loved the part where she starts to actually teach the lesson on Moliere and uses the gun to force an unruly student to cooperate. Of course real education can't function like that, but its probably a fantasy of many teachers.

The film contains quite a bit of irony, and random chaos. I don't wish to give away too much of the story, other than to say taking the students hostage was accidental, and once she had started she was completely unable to figure out how to get out of the situation. The film has a very claustrophobic feel to it. They are trapped in a small little drama while outside larger dramas unfold including political issues, debates about how the crisis should be handed by the police, dispute between cultures, and sexual exploitation of some students. But Sonia and her class are locked within a small sound proof room.

Isabelle Adjani once again demonstrates that she is a extraordinary actress who is entirely convincing in her role. Vulnerable at times, and scary in the next moment.

The film has comic moments such as her demand for a national skirt day, but is largely dramatic and tragic in its tone. The film explores the clash of cultures, prejudice, and the real meaning of sexual liberation.

Skirt power

[sergelamarche · 6/10 · 17 December 2018]

Comedy turning into drama. The teacher confiscate a gun of a student and uses it to get them under control, until things go out of control. Not as bad as USA shootings though.

Skirt Day Afternoon...

[ElMaruecan82 · 7/10 · 31 July 2023]

Set in a teacher's worst nightmare: the unruly inner city high school, "Skirt Day" centers on the most likely teacher to trigger the defiance of students: a bourgeois European woman.

The film opens with a group of tough adolescents from minor ities, and an attentive eye will notice beyond the profanities that punctuate their exchanges that boys and girls walk separately. In these schools, boys have a one-dimensional way to label too promiscuous girls, which doesn't make girls less 'nuanced' than their masculine counterparts...

From this early sociological scanning, as a teacher myself, I felt I was in familiar territory. When Sonia Bergerac (the teacher played by Isabelle Adjani) shouted that it was 8:20 and they were late, the way the local joker (there's always one!) said "no, it's 19" was a spot-on on the level of lousy humor we have to endure on a daily basis. The film effectively captures the inconvenient and politically incorrect truths about these suburban schools but it's for small details like this one that the realism succeeds.

Then Sonia struggles to climb up the stairs, looking like she's dressed for a Champs-Elysees gala and her skirt hardly gets unnoticed by the boys. There's a level of sexual tension preceding the theater session in a sound-proof class (a vital plot element) and the coming aggravation is so obvious we just wait for the moment Sonia will reach her breaking point.

Meanwhile, a brief exposition allows us to have a glimpse on the students' profiles: you have the loudmouth girl, the secretive one, the silent kid whose black eye betrays his status as the local punching ball, you have the two delinquents: Mouss, a b.lack kid and Seb, his red-haired buddy and in that grenade-like atmosphere, poor Sonia who makes it a point of honor to teach them Molière. Such dedication is as admirable as the preposterousness to believe they would care.

Watching her trying to teach about the man who gave him his name to the very language they keep violating struck me as one of these lost causes the educational system mandates us to commit and the tension and confusion grow so rapidly that the gun that pops from Mouss' bag becomes a defensive weapon for Sonia before she turns it back to the owner. And chaos ensues. I guess if a film tells the story of a teacher who turns her classroom into hostages, it's better not to have her having premeditated the act and so she is just a victim of circumstances, realizing that with the gun on her hand, she finally earned the one thing she never could get with her students: attention, if not respect.

The gun becomes her own microphone and through it, she'll shout a number of improvised revendications to the Raid squad, including the establishment of a national "Skirt Day" where woman and girls will wear a skirt to stand against mis.ogyny. At that point, it's sad to observe that some environments are so hostile toward woman that it takes a gun to empower them, but the ends justify the means.

On the paper, this is one of hell of a promise that director Jean-Paul Lillienfeld manages to pull with enough competence to make the film a little close to "Dog Day Afternoon' with the same social commentary as the Golden Palm Winner "Entre les Murs". I thoroughly enjoyed the film because somehow in the way Bergerac addressed her students: mocking their manners, their mis.ogyny and the way they can't align sentences without using profanity, there's a teacher-fantasy behind.

Isabelle Adjani who won the Best Actress César for her performance displays a range of emotions that pans over anger, bewilderment and fits of madness that only someone put in similar situations can understand. I've never felt Adjani overacted because you can't master your emotions with a turbulent youth that acts over-the-top, however I wish the film would have allowed a few quieter moments here and there.

I have a hunch that Lillienfeld was so eager to tick many cases that he needed to insert more subplots than needed. I liked his idea of providing a backstory to the negotiator (Denis Polydades) and make him a well-meaning schmuck under hierarchical pressure from his superior (Yann Collette) to Nathalie Besançon who plays the Minister of Interior with a firm grip. Then "Skirt Day" tries to expand to other territories while maintaining its own grip on the educational system: the principal (a tad too comedic Jackie Berroyer) deplores that his hands are tied by the Ministry and his school is either a "dump" for bad students or a provider for other dumps, parents insist that their children are saints and other teachers pathetically fraternize with the students by playing it cool, going as far as incriminating Sonia, who seems to have a prejudice against some communities.

While precious to the film, these aspects force Lillenfeld to jump back and forth between the inside and outside, making the hostage situation a series of vignettes without a palpable fluidity, it's one angry episode after another. The characters are not caricatures but some situations are because we're not given time to try to approach the characters as human beings but just archetypes caught in a web of confusion and so there's a dangerous element of predictability that Lillienfeld seems particularly aware of.

I suspect that he tries to counteract it with the deliberately misleading opening shot and then with the late twist about Bergerac's identity, just like Sonny in "Dog Day Afternoon", in a way it reveals more interesting depths about her character but the way it's just thrown like without being further exploited seems a bit gratuitous. "Skirt Day" has guts and heart and humor but it lacks some good thirty minutes that could defuse tension and allow us to know or at least understand the protagonists a little more...

A great "social thriller"!

[ck_104 · 9/10 · 16 March 2010]

This is a very touching story, very well done on all levels. A high school theater teacher, suffers from the impolite attitude of her students, and their continuous disrespect. She finds herself with a gun she found with one of her students, and ends up with half of her class as hostages. Here starts the complexed relation between people there. A very important thing that you should know, is the estate of Arab people living in France, their social phobia, and their lack of integration, that led to very big issues lately. That's what this movie talks about. With a great scenario, full of surprises and unexpected events, Lilienfeld makes an emotional social thriller, discussing rights of women, immigrants, Muslims, teachers, respect, pedagogy... Adjani is great in this part, i see she deserves her Cesar, as for the entire cast, especially the teenagers, very convincing. Some "committed thriller movie" is not something we see everyday, so do not miss this good one!

very flawed, but OK

[braquecubism · 6/10 · 8 October 2019]

Isabelle Adjani's face is immobile most of the time...too much botox? she looks young but not quite herself. and her hairstyle covers her face. I get she is middle school teacher, but couldn't they get her a better outfit, skirt. It looked like something at old navy in the bargin bin, and that white jacker. Ok she's older, isn't as thin, still. Her character is kin dof in an altered state- so the blank immobile face fits- but still.... Interesting on some levels, not the worse I've seen. Tries to cover a sensitive subject, racism, lack of hope or reach by marginalized French Muslim, lower class, rape. But are the French cops that stupid. I didn't like the end. O.K., we are not supposed to like the end. Trying to make us uncomfortable, but I think more trying to sensationalize the film. Maybe bec it tried to say something I gave it a week 6 (3 out of 5) & not lower.

A high school teacher takes her own pupils as hostages

[michel-verdier · 9/10 · 28 March 2009]

Adjani, as high school teacher, attempts to hold a class on a Moliere's play in the school's small theater. As usual, she receives continuous intimidation, pressures and insults from chauvinist pupils. Then a scrum between irresponsible pupils lead to a gun accidentally falling down at the foot of Sonia. Taking it, she wounds by accident one in the leg, and then initiating an hostage taking. Outside the school, police and political try to react to the situation. Inside the building, using the gun Sonia requires from his students her own vision and finally try to place them in front of their own contradictions : in a real secular society one religion should not be replaced by another one under the pretext of cultural exchanges and social improvements . This film points a finger at the whole confusion in today Western schooled society. This film presents a current and realistic situation!

Truly outstanding acting vs. an overburdened, unfocused screenplay

[I_Ailurophile · 6/10 · 30 April 2023]

It's well made from a technical standpoint, and in regards to all those facets contributed from behind the scenes that are often taken for granted. Be that as it may, there are two aspects of importance to this film. The first is the acting. Everyone in the cast gives a strong, highly admirable performance of earnest range, nuance, physicality, personality, and emotional depth, and the acting is unquestionably the highlight of the feature. Denis Podalydès, Sonia Amori, Yann Ebonge, Sarah Douali, and Khalid Berkouz all stand out among others - though by far, certainly Isabelle Adjani is the real star, and proves her skill once again. It's no wonder she won yet another César award for her portrayal of beleaguered teacher Sonia Bergerac; if her turn here is any lesser in comparison to her acting elsewhere, it's only because 'Possession,' for example, was a truly once in a lifetime tour de force. Though I've yet to personally see everything Adjani has been in, I can't wait to explore more of her oeuvre, and if I have the chance I'd love to see more from her co-stars, too. More than anything else, the value of 'La journée de la jupe' is in the strength of the ensemble, and it's worth watching just for them.

However, I did say there are two aspects of importance here. The second is the script. The premise is simple: a teacher, pushed to the absolute limit by a classroom she can't control, finds herself in possession of a handgun and events rapidly spiral out. I deeply appreciate what writer and director Jean-Paul Lilienfeld tried to weave into his screenplay; the feature plays with crucial big ideas worth dissecting. The problem is that there are too many big ideas for this one picture, and the narrative gets bogged down as a result. Herein are we treated to notions of racism, misogyny, violence against women, toxic masculinity, posturing, sexual assault, victim-blaming, religious persecution, hypocrisy, feminism, misinterpretation of stated ideals or proposals (deliberate or otherwise), gun violence and gun control, bureaucracy, public education, accountability, law enforcement and crisis management, immigration, latent tensions within communities, scapegoating - and much, much more. All these are topics worthy of examination and discussion. All these are topics ripe for utilization in storytelling. That this movie wants to say something about all of them is overwhelming, both for the viewer and for the movie; like a school student whose class presentation struggles with all the thoughts they want to mention surrounding a single subject (we've all been there), the result is that none of these topics are given the treatment they deserve, and 'La journée de la jupe' feels unfocused and a little floundering as a result.

As one last unfortunate impression to be left on us, the final scene is simply heavy-handed to the point of being a tad gawky rather than meaningful.

It's not a bad film. It's a good film, in fact. Lilienfeld's direction is solid, the effects and stunts are well done, and the production design is great. I like the music, even if it feels a smidgen ill-fitting in the last stretch. Everything looks and sounds good, and once more, the chief reason to watch is by far the tremendous acting. It's just regrettable that Lilienfeld's reach exceeded his grasp when it came to the writing. I can only commend the ambition and intent, and for what it's worth the characterizations are a treasure trove, but I think the screenplay and the realization thereof would have benefited if some of the many concepts broached herein were dropped so as to tighten and center the story. True, perhaps that unwieldy assemblage is appropriate in some off-kilter way, just as Sonia finds herself in an unmanageable situation with too many points that could be raised. That the character's dilemma sort of becomes the feature's, well, there's the rub. I think 'La journée de la jupe' is worth watching if one comes across it, overwhelmingly for the cast alone, and specifically but not exclusively Adjani. If you're looking for a precise, thoughtful drama of social issues, however - or even just a good, well-rounded movie generally - I'm just not sure that this is going to be the title to satisfy.

some social and some thriller, with a disappointingly predictable ending

[CrisPat · 5/10 · 2 May 2012]

The moment the teacher kidnaps her students and then gets into a hotchpotch of moral dilemmas which make her character ambivalent - obviously she had good intentions but goes the wrong way to achieve them, you would expect her to die in the end. It is disappointing to see that you are not disappointed - yes she dies.

The whole film starts from a very strong and challenging premise - the difficult assimilation of the Muslim immigrants into the French society - and just builds towards the inexorable death of the heroine. It didn't grip me though, and I found the pace slow. In its quest for social exploration, it lost the elements of the thriller. And as a social drama, it had too much thriller recipe to allow for the proper exploration of any of the characters.

It also doesn't have a credible thread. In a high school where students shout at and threaten the teacher, carry revolvers and film the rape of their colleague, you would expect the soft looking, elegantly dressed woman to give up her high ideals at the first bullying or beating. She is not congruent with anything around her. Mouss, the other pupils, the minister representative - they are all half-baked characters, you only wonder why do they do what they actually do. The good-cop policeman is probably the worst construed - we understand vaguely he's got some family troubles in the background, but we can't really understand what drives him. With his superior not objecting to what is presumably a clear violation of procedure, he goes in for a heart-to-heart talk with the armed terrorist, he keeps protecting the teacher despite pressure from everyone around him etc. His motives get too little air time to be credible.

Yes, Adjani acts very solidly, the rest of the cast is on and off. But for a film to be enjoyable, it takes a lot more than that.

Isabelle Adjani, does it again, an incredible actress!

[froggyboy2000 · 10/10 · 25 May 2010]

i am french from pied noir origin. i am definitely touch by this movie. While some peoples might think, the film deals with too many different issues at once.first .Isabelle Adjanie, as usual, play with her tripe's, she play for her life, in this role of a french teacher, who lost the plot. we might think, as some reviews have express, there are concentrating on too many issues, but being from a french mother and Algerian father pied noir, i growth up in the city , as we call it in France, i growth up in the city, and when to a very similar school then the movie, the reason, this really strike a chord. the fact is, yes i did get racketed it, beating up, yes, peoples might choose to ignore or brush the issues the movies address, but i, who has been in the same city school, can assure the public, this movie strike a cord, simply due to the fact i have live every issues, ( except for the rape) address in the movie. this is a very honest and blunt account of what is going on in the poorest city state school! and yes i was in this type of school back in early 80's and the same problem were already present, one would have think, things would have improve, but sadly, today, my brother and my cousin being teacher, i can assure you, they will confirm, the situation did not get better but WORSE! Isabelle Adjanie doesn't act often, it was 6 years since she had made a movie, but Christ, when she take a role, she does not act, she live her part, like there is no tomorrow! With Camille Claudel, this movie top up the very long and incredible journey of an actress, who is probably the best actress we have in France.

Very disappointing

[ghibliii · 2/10 · 1 March 2011]

Mediocre at best. Important social issues but a in predictable plot, cheesy and melodramatic, weak cast, poor directing, and, as a whole, a really disappointing cinematic experience.

Once Isabelle Adjani might have been a star but here and now she is pathetic. Not only she is miscast -- looks way too luxurious and sophisticated for the social milieu and compared to the rest of the cast -- but, apparently, she had a lot of cosmetic work done and as a result her face now resemble an expressionless death mask. Not much of acting either. A parody of her former self.

Need I say more....

full of emotion

[thisissubtitledmovies · 10/10 · 9 December 2010]

excerpt, more at my location - Jean-Paul Lilienfeld has certainly ensured his new film Skirt Day will be talked about. Not only is it set in the hotbed of social issues that is Paris' outer regions, it also sees the return after a five year big-screen hiatus of Isabelle Adjani, one of the most celebrated actresses in the history of French cinema. Lilienfeld's film takes place in a lower class high school, and deals with some of the biggest issues of the day such as race, class and the French education system.

Full of emotion, hostility and dark humour, Skirt Day provides heart- pounding drama and astute social commentary in equal doses. All of this is capped off with a scintillating performance from Isabelle Adjani, who really does teach a lesson to any aspiring actresses.

A sort of french "Falling Down"

[searchanddestroy-1 · 21 March 2009]

Not a bad movie, rather effective one, not too much predictable plot and a very good performance from - an overweight - Isabelle Adjani.

She plays here a high school teacher who knows daily conflicts with her students, conflicts that bring her to madness. Social and racial problems are evoked here. She takes her whole class under hostage... Perhaps it could have been better made, with a little more carefulness, less clichés, and a bit more realism. But it's a good try. Adjani's character is heart gripping, convincing. You suffer for her. That makes this film pessimistic.

Not a great, but a good feature.

focus on police or students

[AvionPrince16 · 4/10 · 19 December 2021]

I really didnt enjoy the movie. It have some serious cliché, and i found the movie more focus in the police intervention than a problem of society or problem of education or teacher. I found it really not relevant in some points even if we can see the real face of the teacher and what she can stand and not stand. The situation is pretty dramatic and its pretty violent but i found it too much focus on the police interventtion: the idea was goood but the realisation was clearly there for me.