Film Review: Monsieur Lazhar

Monsieur Lazhar @ The Filmhouse

A young schoolboy arrives early for class one morning to find his teacher has hanged herself. As the pupils struggle to come to terms with the horror of what has taken place in their classroom, a new teacher arrives who seems determined to help them cope. As the plot slowly unravels, we discover Monsieur Lazhar is also trying to come to terms with similar events in his own life.

Often quiet and subdued, Monsieur Lazhar only shows fleeting moments of emotion and deep connection to his pupils. Refreshingly, the film refuses to dote on the tired teacher-meets-pupil-and-rediscovers-life scenario but rather finds more power in exploring the anger of tragedy and how those left behind must try to comprehend it. The two are often incongruous and that’s fine.

At times there is a coldness about the way Monsieur Lazhar behaves towards his class. In turn, the children display arrogance, immaturity and even callousness towards one another as well as their mysterious new teacher. The film understands character flaws and makes no attempt to hide them. Again, audience’s notions of the teacher and pupil are subverted and the result is a believable story.

In one scene, Sophie, a young pupil, reads aloud a poem of shocking honesty about the events to befall the school. While this is hushed up by teachers and feared by pupils, Monsieur Lazhar encourages her to make sense of what she is going through. There are a number of brief but tender exchanges between the two which go some way to helping them out of their loneliness and these moments envelop the audience.

This is a curious film and all the more watchable for it. Death is not merely tragic and sad but it can be selfish and devastating. As adults, we like to think we have the mechanisms to cope and accept but Monsieur Lazhar dares to suggest there’s far more to it than that.