The one-room schoolhouse, where one teacher instructs several grades at once, is generally regarded a quaint thing of the past and a symbol of obsolete and ineffective teaching methods. However, the documentary To Be and to Have offers an in-depth look at a small school in rural France where one remarkable man has been doing the job of a small teaching staff for 20 years, and has taught several generations of bright and capable children along the way. Georges Lopez is an educator at a small school in France's Auvergne region, where between December 2000 and June 2001 he taught 12 students between the ages of four and ten. Employing a curriculum that embraces both academics and practical skills, Lopez and his school represent a surprising mix of the old and the new, where computer technology and old-fashioned memorization of the multiplication tables sit side by side. To Be and to Have captured Georges Lopez near the end of his career in education -- shortly after the film was completed, he retired after 35 years as a teacher. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
liked it.
To Be and to Have is a sweetly bucolic documentary about a one-room schoolhouse in the French countryside. Filmmaker Nicolas Philibert (In the Land of the Deaf) examines the interactions of a teacher and pupils from a reasonably detached point-of-view. Some of the children are more aware of the camera than others, and Philibert does depart briefly from his unobtrusive perspective for a brief interview with the teacher, Georges Lopez, who discusses his background and his impending retirement. The end result is a surprisingly moving study, not just of a single teacher and his charges, but also of the process of learning. The children are adorable, for the most part, but there's genuine trauma in their routine social interactions, as when two of the older boys -- quiet, easily embarrassed Olivier and his more self-assured peer, Julien -- are called in by Lopez to discuss their deteriorating friendship. The cute little boy who gets the most screen time, Jojo, is seen struggling with social interaction, with basic hygiene, and with the concept of infinity. While the issues of the film are largely universal, Philibert also captures the unique challenges faced by Lopez in simultaneously teaching kids of many different ages. This challenge is summed up nicely in a shot of Lopez in a rainstorm, with two umbrellas, trying to cover an energetic boy and a younger girl who's just toddling along. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide