Passion for Life

Mr. Gilbert's song, "Things Are Seldom What They Seem" is a handy guide when looking at American translations of French movie titles. The title Passion For Life may draw a lot of customers, but a more accurate translation of the French title Ecole Buissoniere would be "playing hooky."

The movie opens with the arrival of a new teacher at a small village school. He finds that the retired teacher, a strict disciplinarian, has managed to stifle any student interest in studies. Mr. Pascal, the new man, soon succeeds in making the students interested in their work.

While most of the town's parents are happy about this new interest in studying, a small, powerful faction on the town council objects to Pascal's demands for adequate school facilities. This faction is led by an antique dealer who was trying to buy a valuable antique chair from an old lady when one of the students who had been studying the town's history recognized the chair's historic worth, and told the owner not to sell.

The council decides to fire Pascal unless the whole senior class passes the government examination for a graduation certificate. As an added obstacle, they insist that Albert, a boy whom they consider the village loafer, also pass. Actually, association with Pascal has made a new boy of Albert, and he passes with the rest after making a Tom Paine-type speech eulogizing Pascal and freedom.

The film's simplicity is its greatest charm. Virtue, that is, the teacher, triumphs, and since he is not stuffy about triumphing, it is pleasant to watch. Bernard Blier plays the teacher at a leisurely pace, and the naturalness of his performance allows him to get away with such lines as, "I will be your companion, your guide, your friend."

Although a tinny sound track and home-movie photography is implicit in most foreign films, Passion For Life contains enough good, light humor so that its technical defects are not overwhelming.