Highschool
Directed by Frederick Wiseman
1968

I love the universally simple topics (and titles) of Wiseman’s films. His second feature, appropriately named ‘High School’, literally shows us the every day workings of a high school, from the mundane (gym class aerobics) to the unusual (a student run simulated space flight). Whereas most high school documentaries I’ve seen in the past have focused on certain students, documenting their educational career’s, Wiseman takes on the eductational system from a disjointed fly-on-the-wall perspective. We see a number of students dealing with a number of different issues, from unfairly being sent to detention to debating appropriate formal wear for the prom. One of the more entertaining sequences involves the preperation for a student fashion show. An older, plump woman heads the class, parading young girls onto the stage and bluntly criticising their clothes and their bodies. Even when a girl sports a dress she deems appropriately fashionable, she throws in a reference to the fact that the girl ‘knows she has a weight problem’. It’s moments like this that make High School remarkably interesting and entertaining. (See video below for this very scene) Another great moment is provided by an overzealous hall monitor who approaches every student he sees, aggressively asking if they have a pass. I can’t help but wonder if Wes Anderson was inspired by this very scene when Max Fischer, the main character in his film Rushmore, gives the hall monitor a ‘one second’ gesture as he gabs on a pay phone. A classic moment. I simply love seeing the way things worked in the late sixties and hearing the kind of advice teachers would give to students, which by today’s standards, seems completely old-fashioned and misguided. In one instance, a gynecologist gives a talk to a large group of males, fielding questions anonamously written on little pieces of paper. In one of the more uncomfortable moments in the film, he goes into detail as to the meaning behind the expression ‘pop her cherry’. Yikes.

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