Sein und haben

Simply wonderfull is the only way for me to describe this film. No film is perfect, but this film comes awfully close! A beautifully shot film about school kids and their teacher in a French school in the Auvergne. I had the privilege to watch the film during the International Film Festival Rotterdam and hear the directors comments afterwards.

All children (appr. 20) ranging from age 4 to 12 (my guess) in one room with a teacher who really found his vocation in life. The school was chosen after visiting numerous schools in France. One of the main reasons, according to the director, for choosing this particular school was the fact that is had all children in 1 room and that room had ample space, which meant that no addional lighting was needed.

In the course of the film you get the feeling that the camera (and therefore us, the viewers) really gets invisible, allthough that was absolutely not the case. "The children behaved completely different when the camera was there". I didn't notice that. You really feel for them afterwards. This includes the teacher who is finishing his last year and will retire. One of the most touching moments for me was the last shot at the end of the school year when all the children leave for the last time and the teacher has a few emotional moments alone, realizing that this is the end, both for the children and himself. The moment is even more poignant when you realize that it is not acted, it is real...

Do not expect a high pace film with lots of drama and action. In the beginning I had a little difficulty with the pace of the film, which seems slow. Especially the "in-between shots" seem long, but after a while I got totally gripped in it and these shots really felt right. They got me down from my real-life fast pace (such as it is) and settled me down.

I could go on and on about what is so wonderfull about this film, but my advise: If you see one film this year, see this one !!

A stunning document on the nature of education as captured in beautiful, impressionistic pulses. The sights, the sounds; a construction of utmost simplicity whose structure, diaphanous and fluid, ignores commentary in favor of the subtleties of humanity, maturation and interaction that emerge from the froth of randomness that tethers each day to the next.

"Être et Avoir," the title, is presumably a reference to the two most important verbs used (and the earliest learned) in both French and English, "To be and To have," echoing the film's theme of capturing the struggle to acquire knowledge and, eventually, the struggle to impart it.

Être et avoir, To Be and To Have, is, like Something's Gotta Give, a title I don't get. But unlike the latter, a poorly written romantic comedy and star vehicle deserving to be soon forgotten, the French documentary leaves a deep impression. It's an incredibly touching and absorbing portrait of a teacher named Georges Lopez in rural Issoire, in the center of France, who works alone in what is called a `one-room' school. His students, the blurb says, are 4 to 11. You don't really know their ages, and since they're all together you see them as individuals rather than representatives of particular age or class levels.

The focus of To Be and To Have is, with minutest detail, upon what happens in the classroom. It stops just short of a complete portrait of the man, assuming he has some `être,' some being, outside the classroom. At a moment where he speaks of himself to the camera, he reveals that he wanted to teach and loved the classroom even as a young child. Does he really have a life outside class? Has he married? It seems not. Is he gay? Asexual? Wonderful as he is as a teacher – and surely his patient firmness makes him superb with children in a peculiarly French way -- the insistence on manners and civility, on his being called `monsieur' (a bit old fashioned, one might think, even pre-1968, pre-Seventies) – and that apparent absence of a life outside the classroom, all suggest a certain human limitation in Georges Lopez. Or you can see him as a monk, teaching as his sacred calling, and the classroom as his chapel. This limitation comes through in his insistence on guidance, rather than listening, a gap that shows in two extended private sessions with students in need of counseling -- one with two boys who got in a fight, the other with a girl who is withdrawn amid her peers – where in each case the kids barely speak up at all. The teacher's manner seems to overwhelm them, even though it's gentle and caring.

But the documentary isn't just about the teacher or his firm, dominant, infinitely patient style, fascinating though those in themselves are. It's about the children too, of course, and they emerge with radiant clarity and life. Probably the one we'll best remember is JoJo (Johan, not to be confused with Johann of the beautiful eyes, sphinxlike calm, and occasional moments of cruelty). JoJo is so fascinating because he eludes classification; and yet in a way he's a childhood everyman. He's eager and gawky. Lopez is always focusing on him, but without great effect: he eludes molding too. He seems unfocused, unable to finish coloring, or photocopying a book illustration properly; or to wash his hands to remove the mess of ink he's gotten on them, or to finish the teacher's interrogation about how high numbers go.

But while JoJo seems frail and a bit confused at times, quick to become distracted, dissolving into tears when knocked down by Johann (the teacher handles these conflicts with magnificent calm evenhandedness), during the second, later numbers drill (which comes up spontaneously on a class outing) JoJo is making a quantum leap. Where earlier in the year he could barely write the number `seven,' suddenly he is talking about thousands and billions. You realize he's just a boy – full of possibilities. And there's no telling where he'll go. Those are right who've called this film a meditation on the mysteries of childhood. It's a meditation all right. Its slow microscopic observation makes it that. It makes you ponder a lot of things: childhood, teaching, retirement; the nature of the documentary process. You realize there are no rules about how minute or how comprehensive a documentary must be; that the best ones – and this is one of the best – are certainly both.

Throughout Être et avoir there are moments that are tremendously moving, which pop up instantly without warning. Since the editing doesn't follow any logic other than the passage of time as the school year progresses from the onset of winter to the approach of summer, you may wonder how it's all going to pull together. There are even some segments showing parents helping their children with homework that are rather dull – till the poor rural parents' academic cluelessness becomes hilarious, -- and then you realize it's a bit sad. There are beautiful brief sequences of the snow, of cows, of one of the boys cooking and driving a tractor. But what is the film talking about? we may wonder. Where is it going?

Then we learn that the teacher is going to retire shortly. And since we know now that teaching is his life in a far greater sense than usual, the day this school year ends, when the students all come up and kiss the teacher goodbye on both cheeks (three kisses in a few special cases) becomes a hugely significant day. After the children leave you half expect the maître to burst into tears like JoJo when Johann knocked him down. He doesn't, but we weep a bit for him, for the children, and for our own lost childhoods. Philibert, the filmmaker, has done a magnificent job, just by being there but not getting in the way. He has shown us a world. Merci M. Philibert! Merci M. Lopez! Merci JoJo!

I can't say much about the film except that I love it. I don't want to come across like a 12 year old fan club president, but oh well. The main problem I have with many contemporary documentaries these days is that they tend to go for maximum entertainment, and little else. Overly slick, often gimmicky in nature, with flash editing and a cynical tone, they are instantly forgotten (i.e. Super Size Me, Inside Deep Throat, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, among many many others)

To be and To have, beyond entertaining is an INSIGHTFUL look into us as human beings, I know I know, a movie about the human condition, sounds corny or worse dull but it is far from either of those adjectives. The film follows a class of kinder gardeners in the French rural countryside for a year. It is both profound and simple to watch these children learn the everyday lessons of life. Even more amazing is that it does so without becoming overly sentimental or sugary. The film's point of view inevitably takes on that of a five year old, finding magic and greatness in the everyday mundane aspects of life. Highlights: When the teacher explains the concept of infinity to the children. Marie and Jojo in general are a delight. The handwriting lesson as insight into personality. I could go on and on. Just see it

I didnt want to go and see this film. seriously. I got dragged along to see it in London as part of my media studies course, and me and my friends were determiend to get out of seeing it, any way we possibly could, and go shopping instead.

needless to say, we didnt manage it, and I'm actually pretty glad.

this was one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. coming from a family where both my parents are teaching in the same age-range as mr Lopez, this film had a certain mirror-image quality for me, which made it hit even closer to home. Being British, some of tend to look a the French as an Alien species (sorry!) and seeing a French teacher in some of the same situations as my parents of faced was amazingly poignant.

the amount of time and Effort that Lopez put into his teaching was beautiful to behold. his compassion and cool manner makes me think that just about every school in the world can benefit from a teacher like him.

In criticism, however, I do beleive that the editing was used to make it appear that Lopez remained PERMANENTLY calm. I've been with teachers in a classroom situation, and even with a class that small, its impossiblwe to keep your cool all the time. I would have appreciated some scenes of Lopez having to deal with any anger he might have occasionally faced. it might have added even more humanity to his persoanlity, and although I empathises with him, the only pure emotion we see from him is at the end, when the tears in his eyes as his class leaves are painfully apparent.

9/10.