L'école des journalistes: A messy trip through old-school newsrooms

Is it worth watching?

If you have a thing for vintage French cinema where everyone is shouting over each other, you might get a kick out of L'école des journalistes. It’s for the folks who like their comedies a bit frantic and unpolished. If you want a tight, logical plot, keep walking. You’ll probably hate how much Alfred—the photographer—makes you want to reach into the screen and just shake him.

Fernand is the guy trying to keep it together. He wants to be a real reporter. But having Alfred around is like trying to write a serious piece with a toddler throwing spaghetti at your typewriter. It’s exhausting.

The whole thing feels like a stage play that got lost on its way to a soundstage. There’s this one scene where they’re trying to track down Clara Sergy, and the camera just lingers on a hallway door for a second too long. You can practically hear the director whispering, "Is she coming out yet?" It’s kind of funny in a sad way.

Comparing this to something like Danton is a total stretch. They aren't even in the same zip code of intensity. It’s more like those smaller, frantic energy films like The Big Town Round-Up, where the fun comes from the sheer absurdity of the lead character’s bad decisions.

The Photographer Problem

Alfred is the kind of jerk who ruins the vibe. He’s always smirking. Why is he smirking? Nothing is happening! He just stands there, looking like he knows a secret that isn't actually there.

• The dialogue is fast. Like, blink-and-you-miss-the-sarcasm fast.
• The lighting makes some rooms look like a dungeon and others like a bright, sunny porch.
• I’m pretty sure someone dropped a prop in the background around the 20-minute mark and just left it there.

The movie gets noticeably better once they finally stop talking about the "art" of journalism and just start running around. When it stops trying to be a smart satire about the press and just embraces the chaos, it’s actually decent. A bit silly, though.

Watching this, I couldn't help but think of the pacing in Sweet Music, though that one had a bit more rhythm to its madness. Here, it feels like the reel speed was bumped up to 1.1x just to keep the audience awake. Maybe that was the point? Or maybe they just ran out of film and had to hurry.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even a particularly well-made film. But it has this weird, frantic heartbeat that’s hard to ignore. ☕