Les Sous-doués (1980)
Directed by Claude Zidi

Film Review

What it lacks in artistic merit and originality, Les Sous-doués just about makes up for in visual jokes and comic momentum.  Like many of Claude Zidi's films, it achieves what it sets out to do, which is simply to entertain.  Admittedly some of the comic situations are laboured and repetitive, but there are some delightfully funny moments and, overall it makes an entertaining - albeit intellectually barren - piece of Gallic cinema.   The magnificent Michel Galabru puts in a typically faultless comic turn, whilst a fresh-faced Daniel Auteuil starts to make his mark, easily outshining his young co-stars.   The popularity of this film (now regarded as a cult classic) resulted in an equally zany sequel: Les Sous-doués en vacances.

Film Synopsis

Madame Jumaucourt has the dubious honour of being the head mistress of one of the worst performing schools in the whole of France.  Naturally, the school's lamentable track record is not down to her but to the undisciplined rabble masquerading as students who are determined to make her life a misery.  The school in question - although the use of the word 'school' in this context is highly suspect - is the Cours Louis XIV, one of the least desirable attractions of the town of Versailles.  It's the kind of teaching establishment that makes St Trinian's look like a model of educational achievement, and you wonder why anyone would ever want to teach at this ghastly place.

Enough is enough.  That is Madame Jumaucourt's opinion as she sets about introducing a rigorous new regime that is her last-ditch attempt to put an end to the school's lamentable reputation.  Smoke detectors are fitted in the toilets and the students are to be closely monitored at all times.  The teachers are allowed as much disciplinary leeway as they require, which is welcome news for the gym instructor who finally has an outlet for his sadistic impulses.  Far from bringing the students to heel, these draconian measures merely make them even more rebellious, and in the end they are driven to blow the school up with a powerful explosive device.  It's a desperate act that gets them into very deep water.  Their only hope of avoiding being sent to prison is to knuckle down and pass their end-of-year exams.  Either way, their detested principal will be content...