Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20753 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-10-27
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

DVD Description
Charting the events within a small single-class village school over the course of one academic year, Etre et Avoir takes a warm and serene look at primary education in the French heartlands. A dozen youngsters, aged 4-10, are brought together in a rural classroom and taught every subject by a single teacher. A master of quiet authority, he patiently navigates the children towards adolescence, cooling down their arguments and listening to their problems with extraordinary dedication. Soon, however, he will have to say goodbye to those older students, who are now ready to go onto the state school in the local town.

Winner of a host of international awards, Etre et Avoir is a unique meeting of a director of remarkable talent and a man whose assured approach to teaching will have an impact, not only upon the lucky few children who could share his wisdom, but upon anyone he sees this extraordinary and heart-warming film.

Special Features

• Star and Director filmographies
  
• Scene selection
  
• Nicholas Philibert interview
  
• David Parkinson film notes
  
• World Cinema trailer reel

DVD Technical Information:

• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1 Anamorphic
  
• Running Time: 100 mins approx.
  
• Language: French
  
• Subtitles: English
  
• Disc Format: DVD-5
  
• PAL
  
• Colour
  
• Region Code: 0 (All)

Synopsis
At a rural school in the Auvergne region of France, teacher Georges Lopez presides over a class of thirteen children, ages 4 to 11. Lopez teaches the different age groups separate lessons, making rounds to ensure that each child understands the task at hand--whether it is coloring a picture, learning math, or making crepes. Problems do arise, though--one student is threatened with missing playtime if his work isn't finished, shoving matches must be mediated, and another student appears to have a significant problem communicating. Lopez, a 20-year teaching veteran on the verge of retirement, is a model of sensitivity and understanding in dealing with the children. Never raising his voice and never talking down to them, the trust and respect they have for him is as palpable as his affection for them. Director Nicholas Philibert's camera is a casual observer, choosing to capture, in an unfettered manner, Lopez's special way with the students--whether explaining to them that he will be retiring soon, or diffusing a long-running rivalry between two of the oldest boys. Inspiring, meditative, and delightful, TO BE AND TO HAVE is a bittersweet portrait of a man in the noblest of professions.

Customer Reviews

Simply bewitching
Slow yourself down, sit comfortably and quietly...and enjoy pure cinematic delight. No gimmicks or plot, no shocks or surprises. Just documentary film-making at its best.

It looks deceptively simple, and will touch you in the simplest and purest way. For a while you are truly in the heart of someone else's life - someone who cares about the small, deeply important things.

Once you have seen this film, you will always smile at the sight of Jo-Jo on the cover. The memory will enrich your life for a moment, which is as good as it gets in my opinion.

A room with a purpose
A documentary film which follows a year in the life of a French schoolteacher who runs, and lives above, a small rural school in the Auvergne. This is rugged, beautiful countryside - good farming country if you are prepared to work and recognise that the weather will rarely be your friend. Shot almost entirely within the confines of the school, we nevertheless understand that farming is a dawn till dusk, 365 day a year business and that the children will be working on the farm before they venture to school for the first time ... and every day after they return from it. Children grow up fast in the country.

This is fly-on-the-wall stuff, a chronicle of the lives of Georges Lopez and his dozen pupils. It is shot with such grace, it is shot so unobtrusively, it makes the vast, fashionable bulk of reality television look like reprehensible trash. The people in this film are not posing and preening themselves for the camera. What we get, instead, is honesty and humanity.

We watch the kids having fights, struggling to grasp concepts, sometimes bored, sometimes excited, playing and working, just being natural. George Lopez comes across as a man who is passionate about his work - he can be sternly assertive at times, but his approach is based around rational discourse, about explaining and listening to explanation, about encouraging the children to think and not simply to behave.

We learn little about Monsieur Lopez - the son of a Spanish immigrant labourer who rose in station by becoming a teacher, he has been in the profession for some thirty years, has occupied his present position for twenty ... and is about to retire. We watch the older children being introduced to the new, bigger school they will attend after the summer, we watch the arrival of the new intake of tiny ones, but we do not know where M.Lopez will go. Will he be allowed to stay on in his rooms above the school? Will he feel he has to move?

As much as anything, this is a film about the nature of rites de passage, about process. We all go through changes in our lives, all have to face those moments when we enter a new school for the first time. It's a process which continues from birth to death, it's a process which can be made so much easier if there is rational explanation and discussion to parallel the emotion and salve the fear.

In an era where it is so difficult, as a male, to be allowed to relate to children without eyebrows being raised, this is an evocative expression of caring and generosity of spirit. It is a plea for patience, for encouragement, for listening to others, for motivating others and helping them learn, for tolerance, for sharing. A beautiful, surprising film which will spin you deep into its web of charm and to which you can return again and again.

So heart warming and brilliant!
This is a film that covers the lives of the young students and a teacher in a small village school in the middle of rural France in over a year. It's so heartwarming and very funny to watch the efforts of the teacher as he teaches the students on every subject. One can't help but feel affection for the young students as they attempt to learn everything from him, including having to pronounce proper French instead of their local dialect their parents use. It's a film that should be watched by teachers if they need to reach out to their students or simply enjoyed.