BERLINALE 2021 - Mr. Bachmann and His Class
BERLINALEOver the course of her career Maria Speth has always put her focus on new generations, young people and how they are influenced. Mr Bachmann and His Class is the fifth feature (and second documentary) from the German author. The documentary follows a class of teenagers throughout a semester and the extravagant figure of Mr. Bachmann, a teacher who takes his job to heart and does his best to help and shape the young minds of his students.
What’s interesting about Maria Speth is that she doesn’t implement a unique style to her works but rather finds different approaches for its subject matter. In her debut feature, The Days Between, a terrific movie that follows the life of 22-year-old Lynn (Sabine Timoteo), the director implemented many long sequences and a slow approach overall resulting in a peculiar mix between Christian Petzold and Tsai Ming-liang. Meanwhile, in Madonnas and Daughters (both movies about motherhood), Speth abandons this method and employs mostly hand-held camera sequences, adding a more intimate touch in order to connect the audience with her characters.
For her second documentary feature though, Speth expertly uses long steady shots where one can fully immerse in the several discussions about love, race and integration between Mr. Bachmann and his students. In these sequences the director also knows exactly which point of view she wants to examine. In that, even if Mr. Bachmann is talking, Speth’s focus might shift on the more interested student, or the more bored one. She wants to capture the right reaction and for doing so the director takes her time.
Clocking in over three and a half hours, it would be easy to make a comparison with acclaimed documentarist Frederick Wiseman just for its length. There are some similarities in structure and editing, but their subjects and the way the directors analyse them is completely different. Wiseman is more interested in studying a given institution, exploring each aspect meticulously, while Speth doesn’t want to focus on the educational system in Germany or the one of that specific school but instead highlights the human aspects and the poignant relationship between teacher and students. What makes this documentary and Wiseman’s works similar though is that both are mostly dialogue driven, both directors know how to handle the runtime of their movies as they implement interlude sequences with no dialogue and composed only of outdoor shots. These let the audience “take a pause” and get ready for the next dialogue sequence, and consequently, let the movie have a smoother rhythm.
Mr. Bachmann is a fascinating subject for this documentary; at first sight he doesn’t seem to be a teacher since he isn’t clothed in a “conventional” way. He’s always wearing colourful hats and rock ‘n’ roll t-shirts, but once the teacher starts speaking one can feel the warmth and the passion behind his job. He is able to handle and understand the situation of each of his students. Graduated in sociology, being a teacher was not his first choice, but a necessary one as Mr. Bachmann had to provide food and money for his young family. With his extravagant way of schooling and his beloved guitar, Mr. Bachmann tries his best to create this sense of community within the class, teaching them valuable lessons about respect and empathy to each other. The students in fact come from different countries and religious backgrounds and Mr. Bachmann tries to merge these different customs and enrich culturally his students. Speth shows the various teaching approaches adopted by Mr. Bachmann, from the more serious discussions to the many enjoyable singing sequences. Two scenes in particular are worth mentioning, the first one where Mr. Bachmann wants his students to say the worlds “I Love You” in their native language. The other is a confrontation between two students about the role of wife/husband in their respective families.
All in all, Maria Speth does a wonderful job with this documentary and create an affecting portrayal of Mr. Bachmann. At the end of the movie, one will feel a bit part of this little community/class and could only hope for every student out there to have a beloved and caring figure such as Mr. Bachmann.