However, I offer a different response. While the sexually-driven passion of the characters appear to drive the script, to me, the hidden manipulative cunning of school politics the defiant voice of the experienced teacher and the utter hypocrisy of those who think they know best were the driving themes of this unavoidably hypnotizing drama.
Not one of us who are teachers can leave this film without a prick of conscience or a polite blush of identification when we are reminded of our own infallibility.
While there is no denying the cruelty and jaded malevolence of Barbara's role, I inwardly cheered when she stood up to authority and produced a report on one page instead of the hoped for 40-page manual. Although her acid comments were not the kind I hope I would have made, her action in the climate of excessive paperwork demanded of teachers was courageous.
I cheered when Barbara, instead of ignoring the riot in Sheba's classroom, stepped into the rescue. I supported her when she gave a clear informative explanation of Sheba's father's role in developing our understanding of inflation in response to her colleague's amateurish suggestion that he "invented" it. After all, teachers are supposed to be knowledgeable and be able to express themselves informatively are they not?
The undercurrents of calculating behaviours of the characters tightened the plot with credible tensions and suspense while helping to instigate fleeting moments of shocking identification. The more obvious manipulation by Barbara of younger staff was matched by the young pupil's unreserved intention of seducing Sheba.
Sheba's husband's neglect of Sheba and lack of appreciation of her wifely kindness, Sheba's feigned close friendship with Barbara in order to avoid exposure of her affair with a pupil, the Head's blackmail of Barbara in persuading her to retire all smack of the darkness that pervades much of current society, especially in the education world.
Finally, a major effect of this excellent script by Patrick Marber was to reveal the recurring theme of hypocrisy that permeated the plot. This was particularly well represented by the sarcasm of Barbara's wit. Her acid comments in her thinking and in her diary revealed her delusion that she was far superior to those who surrounded her.
Her abhorrence of the weakness of Sheba who was unable to resist a turbulent affair with a 15-year old pupil epitomised hypocrisy for Sheba's behaviour was no more than a mirror image of Barbara's own weakness in trying to seduce young beauties to satisfy her own self-driven desires. Such contrasting themes were reflected admirably in the superb classical dimensions of the musical score by Philip Glass.
Often, the soothing orchestration of strings revealed an inner core of restricted passion and malevolence that reflected perfectly Barbara's delusion that she knew it all.
This is not a film for the self-satisfied moralists of this world and sex has little to do with its real internal workings. No one can escape the embarrassment of self-recognition in this drama on power relations between people and the manipulative lengths we will go to to get what we desire.
