Monsieur Lazhar (movie review)

Monsieur Lazhar (drama) (2011) (1 hr 34 mins)

The hardest thing for a film to do is to make the viewer care about its characters. This tender and moving Canadian French-language film directed and written by Philippe Falardeau makes you feel deeply for all of the characters.

At a Montreal school, Simon and his friend Alice go to collect the class supply of milk and find that their teacher, Martine, has hung herself from the classroom ceiling. The school is assigned a psychologist to help children and staff cope with their grief while the headteacher sets about the task of finding a new teacher. An Algerian immigrant, Bashir Lazhar, turns up the school and offers to do the job. Unable to find anyone else at short notice, the headteacher hires him.

What then unfolds is a fascinating story of how the new teacher gradually helps his class of 11 year-olds to work through their grief at the loss of a much-loved teacher. There is no magical transformation. At first, as Bashir struggles to get to know his class, to adjust to cultural differences and to the way things are done at the school, it seems he is doing very little at all. But slowly it becomes evident that he is allowing the children space – space to talk, to argue, to discuss. He takes what they say seriously and treats them as equals.

Alice uses an exercise about the pupils’ feelings about school to express her grief at Martine’s death. Bashir asks the headteacher if he can distribute her composition among the school to help people talk more freely about their feelings but he is refused. It is deemed too risky. He gets the caretaker to show him the possessions left in Martine’s desk, including a book of fables which he uses in class to encourage discussion.

As the process of healing in the school begins, we learn that there is a healing process going on for Bashir too. It transpires that he has applied for political asylum after escaping from Algeria. His wife and children were killed when their apartment building burnt down in an arson attack. In a moving scene, he collects a parcel of his family’s belongings – all he has left of his old life.

As Bashir and his class undertake this journey of healing together, a real warmth develops between teacher and pupils, and the broken friendship between Simon and Alice is restored. An interesting friendship also begins to develop between Bashir and Claire, one of the other teachers who knew Martine well. When she invites him round to dinner, they are both awkwardly trying to discern the other’s feelings. For Bashir it is too early to begin a new relationship but too painful to explain why.

The film is based on a play by Evelyne de la Cheneliere and has been beautifully adapted by Falardeau. It received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and won numerous film awards around the world. The acting is outstanding, particularly from the children and from Mohamed Fellag in the lead role. Above all, it is a film that will move you deeply.

Rating: 10/10

Gainsbourg (movie review)

Gainsbourg (2010) (drama) (2 hrs 10 mins)

 

Serge Gainsbourg was a successful French singer-songwriter, at the height of his popularity in the 1960s and 70s and best known for his hit single Je T’aime (with partner Jane Birkin). This unusual biopic from first-time director Joann Star focuses more on Gainsbourg’s personality than on his music and is highly engaging, particularly in the first half.

 
We first see Gainsbourg as a precocious boy in Nazi-occupied Paris. His father forces him to play the piano but he only enjoys playing when allowed the freedom to play in his own style. The pressures he faces in childhood (living in an occupied country, resisting his father’s ambitions for him to become a classical pianist, his Jewishness) appear to have a deep impact on the boy, leading him to rebel and seek artistic freedom.

He shows an early gift for art and after the war finds work as a music and art teacher in a school outside Paris. Then he finds he can make a living playing piano in bars. It is at this point that he makes a big decision: to give up art in order to concentrate on his music. He starts writing songs, performing them at a music hall and developing a following, particularly among young women. He becomes a womaniser and heavy drinker and has affairs with Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin.

Laetitia Casta gives a stunning performance as Bardot, cavorting around his apartment wrapped in a sheet. It’s his time with Bardot that seems the happiest of his life and it’s for Bardot that he writes Je T’aime, though it’s with Birkin that he later records the song. It becomes a hit single around the world. Success appears to go to his head, he starts drinking too much and getting into scrapes.

The most interesting scenes in the film are the many appearances of The Face, a grotesque alter ego who represents Gainsbourg’s darker side. The Face constantly tempts him to drink, hang out in bars, have affairs with young women and neglect his family. Director Joann Star draws upon his background as an artist (he first drew the story in comic book form) to create several surreal scenes, such as when the Face flies at night above the Paris rooftops like a giant bird, carrying Gainsbourg off into the night.

Eric Elmosino gives an outstanding performance in the central role, portraying Gainsbourg as mysterious, restless, witty, outspoken. We don’t learn that much about his musical career, just seeing glimpses of his various musical styles: playing jazz in nightclubs, disco in concerts and reggae in a Jamaican recording studio. It’s hard to tell how he built such a following in France and whether his musical legacy will endure.

The film won 3 Cesar Awards in France in 2011 but received mixed reviews world-wide. It was praised for its imaginative approach but also criticised for lacking drama and emotional depth. I recommend it as a genuine curio that may leave you wanting to find out more about a fascinating man.

 Rating: 7/10