TO BE AND TO HAVE -----------------
From December 2000 through June 2001, French documentarian Nicholas Philibert spent ten weeks with his crew of three capturing the life of a one room school in the farming region of Auvergue. Schoolteacher George Lopez, a twenty year veteran of the school, conducts a class of about a dozen students ranging from four year olds to those about to enter middle school in "To Be and To Have."
Philibert and his crew remain invisible throughout most of the this film's running time letting a way of life that is surely short-lived speak for itself. The film is cyclically chaptered just as a school year is divided by seasonal change, although nature's pattern is two beats off with fall bringing a beginning and summer an end. In Auvergue, man's connection to nature also means his livelihood and Philibert makes the associations visually, starting his film with what at first seems an odd shot of cows being herded in gently swirling snowflakes. A transition to tortoises traversing the floor of the emptied classroom is the only shot in the film which appears to have been staged.
Lopez is an old-fashioned disciplinarian, with children lining up behind their chairs before he instructs them to sit. He uses the power of his soft voice to demand attention and exhibits incredible patience and ability. The man is not only a teacher, but a councilor, psychologist and arbitrator rolled into one. Most of all, Lopez is clearly loved by his students. They range from young JoJo, the class imp and 'star' of the show through the older boys whose schoolyard fight must be investigated. Philibert only shows the lessons of the younger children, who learn through repetition and
example, while the older students are shown receiving help with homework assignments in their homes. The whole class comes together for a cooking lesson in crepe making (vive la France!) and field trips of sledding and picnicking.
Philibert bridges seasons and sequences with establishing exterior shots of landscape and the windows, doorways and gates of the buildings we're about to enter. The absence of narration works on the film's audience as Lopez's voice works on his students. Philibert enters the scene at about the hour mark (in voice only) for a quick interview with Lopez outside of his home where we learn that he came from a farming background and is soon to retire.
"To Be and To Have" is a remarkable document of a time that's almost past. Nicholas Philibert's exploration of a teacher's connection to a community is done with beauty, grace, humor and a gentle sense of melancholy.
B+
For more Reeling reviews visit http://www.reelingreviews.com
========== X-RAMR-ID: 34802 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1134897 X-RT-TitleID: 10001601 X-RT-SourceID: 386 X-RT-AuthorID: 1487 X-RT-RatingText: B+
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews