Photo: Nicolas Philibert's To Be and to Have
Nicolas Philibert observes life inside a one-room schoolhouse in northern France in his documentary To Be and to Have, one of the best films of the year. This fly-on-the-wall experiment will especially appeal to those with fond memories of elementary school or anyone who finds the innocence of small children endearing. A man leaving the film's New York Film Festival press screening observed that he didn't realize he was watching a documentary until the mid-way point; indeed, only once does Philibert directly address one of his subjects, and his establishing shots (pet turtles running loose inside a classroom, snowy elm trees swaying in the wind) are so ethereal they evoke something out of great fiction. Georges Lopez is father figure to a group of small children and young teenagers who share his classroom, and via the film's rhetorical mood-breaker, he reveals the origins of his family, his undying affection for his work, and the children he helps shepherd into adulthood.
Nicolas Philibert observes life inside a one-room schoolhouse in northern France in his documentary To Be and to Have, one of the best films of the year. This fly-on-the-wall experiment will especially appeal to those with fond memories of elementary school or anyone who finds the innocence of small children endearing. A man leaving the film's New York Film Festival press screening observed that he didn't realize he was watching a documentary until the mid-way point; indeed, only once does Philibert directly address one of his subjects, and his establishing shots (pet turtles running loose inside a classroom, snowy elm trees swaying in the wind) are so ethereal they evoke something out of great fiction. Georges Lopez is father figure to a group of small children and young teenagers who share his classroom, and via the film's rhetorical mood-breaker, he reveals the origins of his family, his undying affection for his work, and the children he helps shepherd into adulthood.
