Bad Education: Anatomy of a Movie

Why does a filmmaker renowned for his ability to communicate a rich range of emotion so vividly and directly create a work with as complex a structure as is evident in Bad Education; one that distances as much as it engages, that hides as much as it reveals? In this lecture we will dissect that structure; the three key settings and how each is differently narrated; the significance of the film being in a noir mode; how the ending relates to the beginning and what it signifies. We will also link this work with the story’s first appearance in Law of Desire and subsequent re-appearance in Pain and Glory. The aim is to convince that Bad Education is a film that gets even better the closer and the more often one looks at it.