Filmed School examines the place that teaching holds in the public imaginary through its portrayal in cinema. From early films such as "M"a"dchen in Uniform" and "La Maternelle" to contemporary images of teaching in "Notes on a Scandal" and The "History Boys," teachers roles in film have been consistently contradictory, portraying teachers as both seducers and selfless heroes, social outcasts and moral models, contributing to a similarly divided popular understanding of teachers as both salvific and sinister.

In this book, Stillwaggon and Jelinek present these contradictory images of...