~Upstairs at the Savoy~
Academy Award Nominee ~
Best Foreign Language Film
Monsieur Lazhar
| 6:30 & 8:30 Wed & Thu |
|---|
| Starting Friday, May 18 6:00 & 8:00 each evening 1:30 matinees Sat & Sun |
Rated PG-13; 94 minutes;
In French w/subtitles
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer (excerpted)
In Monsieur Lazhar, the beautifully observed French Canadian Academy Award nominee for best foreign-language film, the learning goes both ways. The students, still grappling with grief and shock - their teacher was found hanging from a pipe in the classroom - aren't used to the tradition-bound, formal methods of Bachir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag). And Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant with his own tragedies to deal with, isn't accustomed to the casual, smart-alecky manner of these Montreal preteens.
Written and directed with economy and insight by Philippe Falardeau, Monsieur Lazhar isn't one of those inspirational teacher melodramas (see Dangerous Minds, Dead Poets Society), but rather a sad, reflective study of the possibilities, and the impossibilities, inherent in the teacher-student relationship. Falardeau lets his story unfold at an unhurried pace, and Fellag is wonderful as this solitary man who keeps his travails a secret - bearing a load of worry and loss.
And the two young actors who play his students, Alice and Simon, are terrific. It was Simon (Émilien Néron) who discovered the body of Madame Martine dangling in the classroom, and Alice (Sophie Nélisse) was the only other child to see the corpse. The shared trauma threatens their friendship, and Alice's oral report - the assignment was on the theme of violence - leaves the classroom hushed, haunted. Monsieur Lazhar, not to be missed.
~Downstairs at the Savoy~
Turn Me On, Dammit!
| 6:00 & 8:00 Wed & Thu |
|---|
Not Rated; 75 minutes;
In Norwegian w/subtitles
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer (excerpted)
Alma (Helene Bergsholm, a nonprofessional actress) is 15 and sprouting in the Norwegian town of Skoddeheimen, where there's one bus stop and many, many sheep. She lives with her single mother in a state of chronic frustration, social and sexual.
Awash in hormones, Alma has two outlets: sexual fantasy and pleasuring herself. Turn Me On, Dammit!, the disarming and droll first feature from documentary filmmaker Jannicke Systad Jacobsen, is that rare thing, a movie that says shame on sexual shame and double shame on the double standard.
The object of Alma's fantasies is Artur (Matias Myren), a shy, handsome schoolmate and guitarist for the church choir. In her daydreams, Artur climbs through her bedroom window, covers her with kisses, and deflowers her. In reality, he approaches her outside the Youth Center dance, and lewdly brushes against her thigh. When she asks her friends what this means, Artur denies it happened and Alma is stigmatized.
Throughout, Bergsholm's poker-faced performance creates the effect that we are watching the misadventures of an actual teenager. It may be a slight comedy but Turn Me On, Dammit! is enormously entertaining.