The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMovie reviews

Monsieur Lazhar

Monsieur Lazhar | Movie review
23 April 2012
Annalisa Ratti
Avatar
Annalisa Ratti
23 April 2012

In Montreal, an elementary school is shaken after the abrupt death of a teacher. Simon (Émilien Néron), a year-six pupil, catches a glimpse of his teacher Martine’s body, hanging from a pipe inside a classroom.

The camera stays on the classroom door until other teachers prompt the pupils back outside. Too late, Alice, Simon’s friend, has already stolen a peek through the door seeing Martine’s body.

The pupils are distraught by the suicide and the principal (Danielle Proulx) is desperate to find a substitute. Bachir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag) is a 55-year-old Algerian immigrant in need of a job. After reading about the suicide on the newspaper, he presents himself to the principal as a substitute teacher.

Bachir confirms having taught in elementary schools in Algiers for 19 years. He is polite, formal and soft-spoken. He takes over a class whose students are traumatised and easily wins their confidence and affection, proving himself a caring, dedicated teacher.

He teaches the fables of La Fontaine, and invites students to invent their own. His own invented story, which he reads aloud to his pupils, is about a chrysalis and a tree and addresses both Martine’s suicide and his own recent personal calamity, which he is barely able to talk about.

But the teacher, “Monsieur Lazhar,” isn’t exactly what he claims. In Algeria he was first a civil servant who later owned a restaurant but has never taught.

The film, which belongs to a tradition of movies about students and teachers, shows an incredible balance between adult and a child’s-eye view of education, teacher-student relations and peer-group interactions. Monsieur Lazhar stands out in this subject genre, portraying the intensity and the fragility of these classroom bonds.

It calls specifically into question modern rules, which forbid any physical contact between teachers and students, who in moment of crisis might need a simple hug to feel comforted and reassured.

Monsieur Lazhar, written and directed by Philippe Falardeau, is a French-Canadian film that was a nominee for this year’s foreign-language Oscar.

It is a sharply intelligent and deeply sad film about both teaching and collective grief. Its surface may be still and quiet, with cool colors, wintry landscapes, and a delicate piano score, but the emotions beneath run tumultuous and deep.

Sophie Nélisse (Alice) and Émilien Néron (Simon) are exceptional when they’re alone together. Few words and intense mutual looks show how these two are bound by the shared sight of their teacher’s suspended corpse.

Monsieur Lazhar – the character as well as the movie – offers no simple answers to the hard questions Martine’s death prompts: Why did a beloved young teacher kill herself where she knew her students would find her?

As in real life, the reasons why people commit suicide often remain unknown. This film is about the people left behind and how they cope with their feelings of grief, shock and loss.

★★★★★

Annalisa Ratti

Monsieur Lazhar is released in select cinemas on 4th May 2012.

Watch the trailer for Monsieur Lazhar here:

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

Minions: The Rise of Gru

★★★★★
Sarah Bradbury
Read More

Nitram

★★★★★
Umar Ali
Read More

The Princess

★★★★★
Umar Ali
Read More

We (Nous)

★★★★★
Jake Cudsi
Read More

Tigers

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Theo and the Metamorphosis

★★★★★
Oliver Johnston
Read More

The Big Hit

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Moon, 66 Questions

★★★★★
Joseph Owen
Read More

The Lost Girls

★★★★★
Mae Trumata
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Ed Sheeran at Wembley Stadium
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Eagles bring a nostalgia-laden evening to the BST Festival in Hyde Park
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • “He used to spit at the audience, roll on the ground, he did, in fact, hump that plastic dog – he was the original punk rocker”: Baz Luhrman, Tom Hanks, Austin Butler, Olivia DeJonge and Alton Mason on Elvis
    Cinema & Tv
  • Tigers
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Baymax!
    ★★★★★
    disney
  • Parisian bar Little Red Door to take over Adam Handling’s Eve Bar on 7 July
    Food & Drinks
  • Netflix Walking Tour
    ★★★★★
    Cinema & Tv
  • Chelsea Flower Show 2022: Greenery and wellbeing
    Fashion & Lifestyle
  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Netflix Walking Tour
    ★★★★★
    Cinema & Tv
  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Minions: The Rise of Gru
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Rollings Stones give Glasto a run for its money at BST Festival in Hyde Park
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • “He used to spit at the audience, roll on the ground, he did, in fact, hump that plastic dog – he was the original punk rocker”: Baz Luhrman, Tom Hanks, Austin Butler, Olivia DeJonge and Alton Mason on Elvis
    Cinema & Tv
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Safe | Movie review
Summerlin rock the Barfly and tell us about their new album | Live review