French Director Cordier Exposes Class Conflict in New Satirical Comedy “Middle Class”
“Middle Class,” the fourth feature film from French director Antony Cordier, released September 24, 2025, dissects the tensions between social classes through a darkly comedic lens. The film, starring Laurent Lafitte, Laure Calamy, and Ramzy Bedia, follows Mehdi, a character Cordier describes as belonging “neither too the easy class nor to the popular class,” a man navigating the complexities of upward mobility after passing the bar exam and aspiring to a career as a high-earning business lawyer.
Cordier, himself from a working-class background, draws heavily from personal experience, stating that Mehdi’s “problems, all his class complexes, all his personal neuroses are familiar to me.” He emphasizes the inherent caricature within social observation, noting, “As soon as we make a little social observation…the real itself is a little caricatured, we are forced to go towards this caricature.”
Beyond class warfare, Cordier’s film also explores the dynamics of desire within couples, a recurring theme in his work. “I always wonder what their sensuality is, what is the sexuality of their couple,” he explained in a September 15 interview on the Vertigo show.
The film builds on Cordier’s previous work, including “UFO” (2020) and “Irresistible” (2023).
[Listen to Antony Cordier’s interview in Vertigo: Lʹ Inwards: Anthony Cordier “Medium class” / Vertigo / 20 min. / September 15, 2025]
Source: Interview by Anne Laure Gannac; Adaptation web: ld; rts.ch.
