Monsieur Lazhar Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Monsieur Lazhar Blu-ray Movie Review

Who's teaching whom?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 26, 2012

Films about inspirational teachers bringing light, life and a love of learning to their students have been a mainstay of the art form virtually since celluloid passed in front of a lamp. Several of these films have achieved a certain degree of immortality, like Goodbye, Mr. Chips, while others, if not quite so well remembered, are certainly still very much appreciated, like Up the Down Staircase or Dead Poet’s Society. The problem with many of these films, however well done or well intentioned they are, is that they almost inevitably end up being at least slightly mawkish, with doe children staring in adoration at their mentor, and the teacher finding his or her life irrevocably changed due to the interaction with the kids. While it can’t be denied that some of these elements certainly seep into the 2011 Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, Monsieur Lazhar, it must also be stated that the film is almost resolutely unemotional, at least on the surface. The film is also anchored by a couple of central tragedies at its core, one of which opens the film and the other of which is slowly but surely revealed as the film goes on. The first shocking incident is the suicide of an elementary school teacher, who chooses to end her life by hanging herself in the classroom. While her actual death is not seen in the film, we are party to one child, Simon (Émilien Néron), finding her swaying from the ceiling and another, Alice (Sophie Nélisse), not heeding the other teachers’ importuning to vacate the school immediately, thereby catching a glimpse of the deceased teacher herself. Both of these students suffer from a certain degree of post traumatic stress disorder, a condition which certainly is appreciated by their new teacher, the titular Monsieur Lazhar (Fellag), a refugee from Algeria who has immigrated to Montreal.

One of the problems I frankly have had with outings like Dead Poet’s Society is how they attempt to sum everything up neatly into little rubrics like “Carpe diem” and the like, ignoring the subtleties and often troubling nuances that typically grace (or, if we’re being honest, afflict) most everyday lives. Monsieur Lazhar is a film that adopts a kind of low key, quasi-verité approach, as it examines the slowly blossoming rapport between the teacher and his students, two of whom at least are attempting to deal with the issues caused by the previous teacher’s suicide. Without giving too much away, Lazhar’s troubled past plays into his relationships with everyone, not just these two disturbed little ones, and it’s the dialectic between tragedy and the human spirit’s indomitable nature that provides most of the grist for Monsieur Lazhar’s mill.

The film is full of quietly effective little moments. Lazhar is upbraided for having given a misbehaving student a rather forceful rap to the skull, and he’s told in no uncertain terms that teachers must never, ever touch their students in any way, shape or form. This is almost an intentionally comic contrast to the school’s frantic efforts to make sure the students haven’t been overly traumatized by the suicide, efforts which include psychotherapists and some not very deep soul searching by the school’s principal, Ms. Vaillancourt (Danielle Proulx), an administrator whose best advice to a young teacher is basically to suck it up and breathe deeply.

This may in fact be a film that is not showy enough for some American audiences. There’s nothing like a Robin Williams jumping on top of a table and screaming quotes from the classics, or even the subtler charms of a Robert Donat thinking back on decades of a teaching career in a wistful little moment. Instead, Monsieur Lazhar is a measured, often rather introspective, drama that derives its interest simply on the basis of coming to know the main characters. In that regard, the film is helped by some immensely winning performances by the cast of kids, and perhaps to a slightly lesser degree by Fellag himself, who is forced to so seriously underplay Lazhar at times due to the teacher’s aggravated past and the post traumatic stress disorder that he is experiencing.

The film was culled from a one person play by Evelyne de la Chenelière, who had seen a news item about a teacher’s suicide and was moved to write a dramatic treatment of the event. Director and adapter Philippe Falardeau very impressively opens the film up, getting it outside of the classroom at least on occasion, but more importantly investing the film with several fascinating characters who are able to play off of Lazhar and who bring some rather stark differences in perspective on teaching, learning and life. It may be cliché ridden, but Monsieur Lazhar is as much about the teacher’s learning curve as is about the students’, but the film wisely never delineates exactly how that learning may affect everyone’s future.

Monsieur Lazhar Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Monsieur Lazhar is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Music Box Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. For such a relatively small scale film, this high definition presentation is really staggeringly beautiful at times, albeit within an overall limited environment. Fine object detail is superb in the film's many close-ups, and contrast and black levels remain strong throughout this presentation. Colors are very nicely saturated and accurate looking. The film is intentionally understated in its visual vocabulary, so there's not a lot of "wow" material here to work with, but in its own quiet way, Monsieur Lazhar is a real standout offering on Blu-ray, one that opens a virtual window on another world with often startling clarity and precision.

Monsieur Lazhar Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Monsieur Lazhar's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is, like the film itself, subtle but very effective. The surround channels nicely convey the slightly claustrophobic soundfield of the school (and notice the expert use of directionality when Simon scurries in a panic through various halls after he sees the teacher who has committed suicide early in the film). There are a glut of neatly placed discrete ambient environmental effects, and some of the nicest moments are in the playground scenes or even in Lazhar's classroom when the kids are all piping up over each other. Dialogue is cleanly presented and the mix is very well prioritized, including some delicate underscore cues. Fidelity is excellent, but dynamic range is rather narrow, understandable given the film's low key sonic ambitions. For the record, there's also a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix offered on this Blu-ray disc

Monsieur Lazhar Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• From Stage to Screen (HD; 3:34) features an interview with Evelyne de la Chenelière, the playwright who wrote the original one person play on which Monsieur Lazhar is based. She seems barely able to contain herself from laughing throughout much of this, perhaps due to the dry manner of her interviewer, the film's director, Philippe Falardeau. Interspersed with the interview are scenes from the play as well as the film.


• Big Talk with Philippe Falardeau (HD; 21:30) is a rather odd interview program hosted by Annemiek Schrijver, with both interviewer and interviewee speaking in sometimes labored English.


• Alice and Simon Audition Tapes (HD; 5:58) contain some sweet moments with Sophie Nélisse and Émilien Néron.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:08)


• Bachir's Story is a text based supplement with Bachir Lazhar's poem, "The Tree and the Chrysalis".


• Alice's Report is another text based extra with Alice's musings about her school.

Monsieur Lazhar Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Monsieur Lazhar manages to work up some considerable emotional heft in a rather remarkably understated way. This isn't a flashy or showy exhibition of hyperbolic rhetoric a la Dead Poet's Society and in fact it's even rather more reserved in its own way than the inimitable Mr. Chipping of Goodbye, Mr. Chips, but my hunch is by the film's final frame few are not going to have a major lump in their throats or a nascent tear in their eyes. The film isn't perfect— Lazhar's back story, as important as it is, is dealt with too discursively to ever deliver the impact it really should, and the denouement may strike some as a bit too pat. But this is a really beautifully heartfelt film that celebrates the tether between teacher and student, even in both sides of that relationship equation occasionally make missteps. With decent supplemental material, and outstanding video and audio, Monsieur Lazhar comes Highly recommended.