To Be and to Have (2002)

A documentary portrait of a one-room school in rural France, where the students (ranging in age from 4 to 11) are educated by a single dedicated teacher.

Director:

Nicolas Philibert

Stars:

Georges Lopez, Alizé, Axel Thouvenin

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 8 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Georges Lopez	...	L'institueur
Alizé	...	Les enfants de la classe
Axel Thouvenin	...	Les enfants de la classe (as Axel)
Guillaume	...	Les enfants de la classe
Jessie	...	Les enfants de la classe
Johan	...	Les enfants de la classe - Jojo
Johann	...	Les enfants de la classe
Jonathan	...	Les enfants de la classe
Julien	...	Les enfants de la classe
Laura	...	Les enfants de la classe
Létitia	...	Les enfants de la classe
Marie-Elizabeth	...	Les enfants de la classe
Nathalie	...	Les enfants de la classe
Olivier	...	Les enfants de la classe
Franck	...	Les frères et soeurs, les nouveaux...

Storyline

How do we learn to live with others and their wishes? Director Nicolas Philibert poses this question in a village schoolhouse in Auvergne, where Georges Lopez teaches 13 children, ages ranging from about four to 12. Against a landscape of mountains and farmland, from driving snow to rain to sun, the children gather in Lopez's warm and colorful classroom, to read, write dictation, cook, and sort things out. At home, the older ones do homework with parents after their chores. At year's end, they look ahead to the next, visiting the middle school and meeting the little ones coming in the fall. As they learn sums and adjectives, with Lopez's help, they also learn to live side by side.

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Plot Keywords:

school | auvergne | schoolhouse | dedicated teacher | snow | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Family

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

28 August 2002 (France)

Also Known As:

To Be and to Have

Filming Locations:

Saint-Etienne-sur-Usson, Puy-de-Dôme, France

Box Office

Budget:

€1,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$823,788 (France), 30 August 2002

Opening Weekend USA:

$20,528, 21 September 2003, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$775,607, 13 June 2004

Company Credits

Production Co:

Maïa Films, Arte France Cinéma, Les Films d'Ici

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min 105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Chosen by "Telerama" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 2002 (#05)

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Connections

Featured in The Story of Film: An Odyssey: Cinema Today and the Future (2011)

User Reviews

Documentary as impressionism

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.