Review LXXXIII
Monsieur Lazhar (2011)
On the way back from Japan, I managed to squeeze in some films on the plane ride. There is a joke in that statement because it was not squeezing but rather desperately attempting to waste as much time as I possibly could on the plane. Anyway, when I saw that Philippe Falardeau's Monsieur Lazhar was one of the options, I knew which film I was watching next. This film stars Mohamed Fellag, Sophie Nélisse, and Émilien Néron.
Simon (Néron), a young student, discovers that his teacher has hung herself in the classroom. With the class shaken completely, outside help is called. One of these helpers ends up being the class's new teacher, Monsieur Bashir Lazhar (Fellag). Monsieur Lazhar has recently immigrated to Canada from Algeria, so while the school attempts to overcome the grieving period of having lost one of their faculty members, Lazhar attempts to adapt into a new culture and overcome his horrible past.
The film is interesting, very human. The opening scene is seeing two children witness their teacher's hanging in their classroom. This delivers the initial shock of seeing someone's death. The rest of the film really deals with the grieving process. In fact, the whole film is a grieving process. First, with the students. Their teacher has committed suicide, and one of the students, the first to witness her, especially lashes out. We get one side of how people can react to a suicide. The second student, Alice (Nélisse), grieves, but we see she tries to keep her head about her. The interaction between the two of them is interesting, a clash of grieving processes. We see how, even though they are the only two who actually saw her, their approaches to dealing with their teacher's death brings them apart. It's a realistic view of how adults would deal with a suicide, at least in my opinion. At the same time we deal with the grieving process, we have a distant character come in, that is, Bashir Lazhar. He is an immigrant who is dealing with grief on his own part. I've never experienced being an immigrant and feeling alien to a new culture, but from what I've heard, it seems like a rather accurate portrayal. Not to mention the hardship Lazhar went through in his home country - but I shan't ruin that part for anyone. With the clash of this man and the suicide of a teacher, we get a really interesting mix. I thought it was grand, personally. Like I said, the film was human. It began with sadness, continued with trying to get over the melancholy, and, finally, with a sort of justice, a sort of letting go. The same thing was seen in Falardeau's other film, C'est pas moi, je le jure (It's Not Me, I Swear!)!, though I found Monsieur Lazhar a little better put together. It seemed cleaner, more focused. I... can't really say anything other than it was so human. It also had its little bits of comic relief, just as his other film.
The characters were great. Falardeau has a way of taking children and portraying them as adults, yet still as children. He puts them into these adult situations and sees how they play it out. He does a good job, I find. It makes it interesting instead of just having an adult dealing with an adult situation. And again, he tackles two ways of handling suicide in this film. Pretty legit. Plus adding in the bit of an immigrant seeking refuge status. Guys, I loved the film. I recommend it. I really liked C'est pas moi, je le jure, but I could see people not really getting what they were watching. Here, Falardeau does what he does in his previous film, but does it better. He takes it and really shows what he wants to show. Or, at least, I find.
The film is grand. It's sad, but still hopeful. I'm sure the play it is based on is just as great. Thank you!
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