by Sam Juliano
As we near the end of April there are more than encouraging signs. The fearful death number has actually dropped from 342 to 106 from Saturday to Sunday here in New Jersey. That is by far the most drastic change over a two-day period since this horror began, and while even one death is terrible the numbers in the Garden State are going in the right direction in a big way. Otherwise we are largely hunkered in as usual aside from the grocery and medicine runs. Wishing everyone continued love and safety!
With schools nationwide shut down indefinitely, I thought I’d put together a list of my Top 25 favorite films primarily set in boarding schools, grade schools and Universities. Anyone wishing to put together their own lists of any number up to 25 is encouraged to do so in the comments. Of course some of you will list a good number of my own canonical choices but may opt to add others to conform with your own taste. My numerical list is for a drama and to denote a slight preference but basically I love all the films on this list comparably.
1. Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939; UK)
2. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975; Australia)
3. Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987; France)
4. Anne of Green Gables (1985; Canada)
5. Wild Reeds (1994; France)
6. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969; UK)
7. Zero for Conduct (1933; France)
8. A Separate Peace (1972; USA)
9. Indignation (2016; USA)
10. Les Diaboliques (1955; France)
11 Twenty-Four Eyes (Japan; 1954)
12. Young Torless (1966; Germany)
13. Election (1999; USA)
14. The Outcast (1962; Japan)
15. Child’s Play (1972; USA)
16. The Children’s Hour (1961; USA)
17. The History Boys (2006; UK)
18. If……(1968; UK)
19. Quand on a 17 ANS (France; 2016)
20. The Freshman (1925; USA)
21. Stolen Kisses (2016; France)
22. Dead Poets Society (1989; USA)
23. Tea and Sympathy (1956; USA)
24. Les Disparus de St. Agil (1938; France)
25. The Chocolate War (1988; USA)
Horse Feathers, Tom Brown’s School Days, If…….., Carrie (Di Palma), Elephant, The Chorus, To Sir With Love and The Browning Version barely missed the list.
Our great friend and blogging associate Aaron West has recommended I poll the readers like I did in the past for our genre countdowns. While I know many are probably still in a kind of funk as a result of the COVID-19 horror, I offer you the opportunity here to participate by listing in order your Top 20 school-themed and/or set films being as strict or as liberal as you wish to compile it. At some later date months from now we can use the results to actually try and set up writers to do the countdown but for now we can at least reach a result providing enough people cast a ballot. Anyone participating can use any number of my own choices or runner ups in any order along with other films not mentioned. I chose not to include films like Chariots of Fire, Ordinary People and All Quiet on the Western Front, which although masterpieces I adore to the core of my being, are films with limited school setting content. Choosing them and others like them would diminish the project methinks. Thank You!