Monsieur Lazhar

It could have beem a maudlin morality piece but this Canadian film by Philippe Falardeau ticks so many boxes.  Dealing with suicide and compassion in the wake of a teacher’s taking of her life in a Montreal primary school, Falardeau has no qualms about showing us raw honest emotions as the class adjust to life under Monsieur Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant who has his own hard history to tell as well.  Little by little he and the children get used to each other and though the school is working through the “trauma”, issues remain unresolved and the compassionate Lazhar (excellent Mohamed Fellag) helps in his own way.  This may bring him into strife with school authorities or parents but who is right?  The film very quietly shows us that we are all fragile fragmented creatures and we also have gifts to share and help overcome the difficult moments.  Two child actors in particular: Sophie Nélisse and Emilien Néron are absolutely sublime, especially in a crucial scene near the end.

  Music by Martin Leon accompanies beautifully with Ronald Plante’s photography well-thought out.

In short, this film is a gift of humanity to our world, one that does not stoop down to low blows or clichés and instead inspires us to just be that little bit more wherever we are.

★★★★★

What’s in a name (Le prénom)

A French chamber-piece cum farce that started life as a successful play.  It hasn’t changed much here and the big criticism against it could be that it is merely theatre on film.

However, that is to deny the existence of a very sharp script with tight repartee and a great balance of wit and wisdom and … some very competent French actors in the main roles.  Valerie Benguigui and Guillaume de Tonquedec won Césars as support acts here though the former is really a lead.  Patrick Bruel shows just what a good actor he is and Charles Béring and Judith El Zein match up well too.  The pacing is good and the film keeps you wondering what home truth will spill out next or what joke will fall flat.  Of it’s type, it is a very polished example.

★★★★

Tabú

Portugal’s Miguel Gomes returns with another stylish creative effort that breathes fresh air into European film-making in a way that only Romania is doing.  Not France, nor Spain and certainly not Germany, Britain or Italy are producing works that are both respect and advance the art of film but are also doing new things.  Gomes divides this film into two long halves with a short prologue.  One half takes place in a Soviet bloc bleak Lisbon of today, as we see the final days of an eccentric old lady who is befriended by a kindly neighbour.  Apart from setting the scene for the other half it is a piece with loads of references to life today, to our duties and to our desires.  We could have seen a lot more about Pilar’s life (the neighbour) but this was not the director’s intention.  It is through her that we find the old lady’s former love from a time they were in Mozambique.  Almost abruptly, the action shifts back 50 years to a colonial Africa of the 60’s and the languid lifestyle of the occupiers making money from the tea plantations and what else.  This part revolves around the affair Aurora has with a neighbour Gian Luca, all the while being pregnant with her first child..

 The whole point is that this section is done with a voice over.  The background sounds remain but we don’t hear any dialogue.  Shot in black and white, the whole film has a mysterious fable like quality and it works!  It may not be film of the year but Tabú has a rare beauty and air that raises it well above most of the competition.

★★★★+

The Company You Keep

Robert Redford’s latest film and a definite hark back to the old style political thrillers that apart from Argo we don’t see so much these days.  It is a competent enough film about a former bank robber, underground for many years who is forced to run again when one of his colleagues gives herself in.  The case is being investigated not only by the FBI but by a small town young journalist (Shia la   Beouf), who manages to be one step ahead of the police.  As Sloan (played by Redford) lies low and visits old colleagues we get to piece together the story of how an old group of rebels have reinserted themselves into society, of the strength and weakness of their current ties and the viewpoint today’s world has on 70s and 80s terrorists.  Redford has assembled a top cast with Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, Richard Jenkins, Brendan Gleeson and some younger players with a special mention for Julie Christie.  Good photography and music but the main problem is that the rather dawdling pace does not go with the subject matter and is likely to put some people off.  Still, a pedestrian Redford movie is a lot better than many other films today.

★★★+

The English Teacher

Simple and sometimes corny comedy about a high school English teacher who gets to direct the play of one of her former pupil’s for the high school, despite it not being so suitable and ends up making love with him, unleashing subsequent scenes of jealousy and mistaken identity.  Very light, not very taxing but enjoyable for a slow Sunday afternoon.  Julianne Moore leads as efficiently as ever and is supported by a good cast.

★★ +

Quartet

The first film by Dustin Hoffmann at the ripe old age of 75, Quartet is your typical British comedy-drama set improbably in a home for retired musicians (your small mansion) when a group of former opera singers meet up again and try to sort out their lives at the same time as battling old age and preparing a concert to raise funds to save the house.  Technically the film is well-made and the acting features the great Maggie Smith (yet again superb and unique), Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins plus real-life former top opera and concert musicians.  Ronald Harwood’s script crackles along but in the end you are left with the feeling that it is all rather unreal and that much is made out of nothing.  Very much in the style of the exotic Marigold hotel, without quite the same richness of story

★★★

La Nana

Award winning Chilean film from four years back about Raquel a tired and embittered 41 year-old live-in maid.  She is getting overwhelmed by her job and more importantly by the lack of affection and joy she has in her life.  When she thinks the family is going to replace her, she turns into a near psychopath.  It is only when she becomes ill and Lucy (Mariana Loyola) comes to help out that she starts to melt and make her first friend.  This film by Sebastian Silva treats a topic that could have been filled with clichés in a sensitive, subtle and detailed way.  The film may be small but it is very well-directed and has a sterling central performance by Catalina Saavedra as Raquel – undoubtedly one of the finest of the year.

★★★★

Dead Europe

The second Christos Tsiolkas novel to make the big screen (The Slap was adapted to TV).  It chops large amounts out of the book and captures more the main message and the mood than the depth of psychological hell that the protagonist finds.  Characters are cut or amalgamated into others but for me the ending came rather too abruptly.  What is interesting is how the shadow side of life can daunt even the most confident and logical person and how one’s ancestral past remains to a degree present and dormant in one.  Isaac’s descent on his visit back to Europe to scatter his father’s ashes in the mountains of Greece turns into a trip full of decadent images and sinister forces and the extent to which these are real or imagined is also in doubt.  I would sum it up as fascinating on the one hand in its new look at Europe and an intelligent attempt to convey subconscious influences on our lives today but also ultimately somewhat unsatisfying  as a coherent work.  You need the book as well.  Ewen Leslie holds the centre pretty well, Danae Skiadi is a potential star as the Greek cousin and Kodi Smit McPhee confirms his young talent.

★★★