Monsieur Lazhar
Philippe Falardeau's latest film is quiet meditation on life, violence, and learning.
DIRECTED BY PHILLIPE FALARDEAU
In a style akin to the Dardenne brothers, Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar subtly manages to create a sense of impending doom. Opening with a bird’s eye view of a Montreal prep school at recess in the winter, his camera soon finds Alice (Sophie Nelisse) and Simon (Emilien Neron). As the camera lowers to the level of a small child, we follow Simon as he walks the empty halls, as it is his turn to distribute milk to his classmates’ desks before the bell rings. Though Midnight Madness fans might recall Confessions‘ use of milk (poisoned with AIDS-infected blood by a vengeful teacher) and be cued to expect a shock, Falardeau’s quiet filmmaking causes the discovery to be all the more off-putting: glimpsed through the classroom window, we see Simon’s homeroom teacher has hanged herself.
Winner of the Piazza Grande audience prize at Locarno this year, Monsieur Lazhar explores how, from acts of violence and tragedy, life continues, and through horror, new friendships and love can form. While playing on the cultural fear of the vulnerability of children (though never crossing the line of exploitation), the drama remains in the realm of the tragically common rather than operatic (unlike Incendies, which Falardeau produced). Mohamed Fellag’s performance as Bachir Lazhar (the replacement teacher whose investment in his pupils is palpable, though his qualifications are dubious) is moving, as well as an interesting mediation on what it means to be not only Canadian, but Quebecois. (Further, his role as an Algerian refugee imitates life—like his character, Fellag too fled Algeria following the uprisings in the 1990s). But it is the pre-teen cast that carries the film, especially Sophie Nelisse. Though at times perhaps slightly precious, overall it is a gentle film that conveys the complex emotions present in everyday existence.