{"id":14790,"date":"2012-03-28T22:18:20","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T21:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=14790"},"modified":"2012-03-29T22:48:09","modified_gmt":"2012-03-29T21:48:09","slug":"film-notes-7-etre-et-avoir-2002","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2012\/03\/28\/film-notes-7-etre-et-avoir-2002\/","title":{"rendered":"Film Notes #7: Etre et Avoir (2002)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Etre-et-Avoir.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14791\" title=\"Etre et Avoir\" src=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Etre-et-Avoir.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"280\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>* SPOILER WARNING: Details about the film will be revealed *<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Nicolas Philibert\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nicolas_Philibert\">Nicolas Philibert<\/a>&#8216;s\u00a0documentary about a small rural school in France is Number 7 in my 30 day Film Notes series.<\/p>\n<p>For newcomers, the deal is that I must watch a film every day and make notes about it, with the following rules:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>It must be a film I have <em>already<\/em> seen.<\/li>\n<li>I must make notes <em>whilst<\/em> I\u2019m watching it.<\/li>\n<li>Pauses are allowed but the viewing must all be one session.<\/li>\n<li>It can\u2019t be a cinema release.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The point is to capture my instant thoughts about a movie and my overall film diet for 30 days, as well as post interesting links to the film in question.<\/p>\n<p>Here are my notes on <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0318202\/\">Etre et Avoir<\/a><\/strong> (2002) (English translation: &#8220;To Be and to Have&#8221;) I watched on watched on a DVD on Wednesday 28th March.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Acclaimed French documentary about a primary school in the Auvergne region.<\/li>\n<li>Very sparse and simple opening titles reflect the style of what is to come.<\/li>\n<li>Shot of the turtles waddling about the classroom unexpectedly funny because it is real.<\/li>\n<li>Opens in winter &#8211; was this shot over a six month period?<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;d forgotten that French van headlights are yellow<\/li>\n<li>The school is in Saint-\u00c9tienne-sur-Usson in the Auvergne region of France<\/li>\n<li>Camera movements very still and editing very considered, presumably not to freak out the kids<\/li>\n<li>Mr Lopez looks remarkably like Steve Jobs<\/li>\n<li>Opening lesson of drawing and discussion is quite soothing to watch<\/li>\n<li>Bit where kid says he&#8217;s seen a ghost and scares the girl opposite him is charming<\/li>\n<li>One can&#8217;t watch this without thinking of Antoine in THE 400 BLOWS (1959) even though the teacher in Truffaut&#8217;s film is a dictator<\/li>\n<li>Philibert captures a lot of the human drama of a primary school classroom<\/li>\n<li>Natural lighting had to be used to keep the pupils reactions real, but one wonders how the film differed from the unfilmed lessons<\/li>\n<li>The way Lopez talks to Jojo about the fish and the purpose of school is remarkable &#8211; patient, considered and wise<\/li>\n<li>English schools can learn a lot from the cooking scenes &#8211; notice how Lopez doesn&#8217;t mind mistakes and injects genuine fun into them.<\/li>\n<li>Lopez mediating the fight between Julien and Olivier is visually interesting &#8211; notice how the camera stays on the two boys and we only hear the teacher.<\/li>\n<li>The shot is held for an unusually long time &#8211; was this out of necessity (e.g. conditions of filming in a school) or a stylistic choice?<\/li>\n<li>Hard to watch the kid on the verge of tears &#8211; shows what a tough time childhood can be<\/li>\n<li>Do five year olds drive tractors in France?!<\/li>\n<li>Kid at kitchen table learning pointless maths exercises brings back flashbacks!<\/li>\n<li>Maybe every generation of parent has to cope with hopeless arithmetic set for their children?<\/li>\n<li>Mr Lopez seems genuinely interested in the fact that one of his pupils wants to be a vet &#8211; why can&#8217;t all careers advice be like this?!<\/li>\n<li>Getting pupils to draw and think about numbers is a very good idea<\/li>\n<li>This was presumably shot in the winter of 2001-02 as it premiered at Cannes in May 2002<\/li>\n<li>The problems the parent discusses of her child being distant are handled by Lopez with a tactful wisdom (also highlight the long term dilemma of teaching maths!)<\/li>\n<li>Lopez says he&#8217;s been teaching dictations for 35 years and at this particular school for 20.<\/li>\n<li>The discussion of Tahiti and Brittany is classic<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Middle school&#8221; seems such a long way off &#8211; funny how life divides up into different periods<\/li>\n<li>Child washing paint off his hands and a wasp provided the poster<\/li>\n<li>Lopez handles the Jojo pushing incident like King Solomon<\/li>\n<li>Kid of five preparing pasta! No wonder the French have the best chefs in the world<\/li>\n<li>Lopez talking to camera about 60 mins in is almost a monologue scene, breaking with the verite style<\/li>\n<li>He clearly is a natural born teacher &#8211; loves the job and finds it genuinely rewarding.<\/li>\n<li>Lopez&#8217;s father was a Spanish immigrant from Andalucia &#8211; maybe he left because of the Civil War?<\/li>\n<li>This part of the film should actually be used in teacher recruitment.<\/li>\n<li>Kids using photocopier unexpectedly hilarious &#8211; even adults still get things upside down.<\/li>\n<li>Despite Lopez&#8217;s explanation I still don&#8217;t understand the whole masculine\/feminine thing in the French language.<\/li>\n<li>I realise language evolved this way but does it really make sense to apply gender differences to objects like windows or pens?<\/li>\n<li>Nice cut to the photocopier repair man, hinting that the two pupils broke it earlier.<\/li>\n<li>College sequence brings memories of making the leap from primary to secondary school.<\/li>\n<li>Film accurately reflects how massive that seems at the time.<\/li>\n<li>Discussion of counting billions between Lopez and Jojo is actually philosophically interesting.<\/li>\n<li>Love the way Lopez handles Julien in the garden &#8211; his father presumably has throat cancer? &#8211; but he handles the situation with his customary wisdom and sensitivity<\/li>\n<li>Natalie&#8217;s birthday is a nice small snapshot (one of many)<\/li>\n<li>The shot of rainbow suggests the filmmakers were either a) unbearably patient b) lucky or c) it was a stolen shot<\/li>\n<li>Jojo on the train: &#8220;What does derail mean?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Idyllic picnic in the French countryside.<\/li>\n<li>New pupils arriving (so small!) show the cycle<\/li>\n<li>Two Valentins reflects the fact that classrooms often contain more than one name<\/li>\n<li>The way Lopez handles the infant boy crying for his mum is very cool indeed<\/li>\n<li>Scene where Lopez deals with Natalie&#8217;s shyness contains more drama than many features.<\/li>\n<li>The leaving scene makes French kissing on the cheeks seem normal (even to an Englishman).<\/li>\n<li>Shot on film rather than digital<\/li>\n<li>Used natural light because spot lights would have freaked out the kids<\/li>\n<li>There are brief moments when you can catch the kids glancing into the camera<\/li>\n<li>Philibert wanted to make a film out of the drama of &#8220;life&#8217;s little nothings&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Childhood is a very big deal whilst you are actually living through it &#8211; the film reflects this<\/li>\n<li>He never does films &#8220;about&#8221; but rather &#8220;with&#8221; &#8211; desires to tell a story without heavy handed narration or didactic voiceover<\/li>\n<li>This makes it very different from the instructional form of documentary that we often see on TV<\/li>\n<li>The film is a experiential reconstruction of events rather than<\/li>\n<li>Filmmaking choices were often made on the hoof<\/li>\n<li>Sensitive film stock used along with wide angle lenses (and\u00a0presumably\u00a0quiet Arriflex cameras)<\/li>\n<li>It was never intended to be an inspiration to teachers, but it may have that effect on viewers<\/li>\n<li>Patience, ability to listen and sense of calm are key to Lopez&#8217;s success as a teacher<\/li>\n<li>His words<\/li>\n<li>Note how pupils are encouraged to help one another &#8211; helps build confidence and solidarity<\/li>\n<li>Philibert thinks the documentary form can have a poetic and metaphoric quality rather than just showing facts<\/li>\n<li>The film is a wonderful counterblast to the notion of teachers as lazy or useless (the standard right wing line about the profession)<\/li>\n<li>Ultimately it is about how the transmission of knowledge and experience can be a wonderful thing.<\/li>\n<li>The real life postscript to the film is incredibly sad.<\/li>\n<li>I prefer to remember his words as he trims his hedge:\u00a0\u201cEverything that you put in, the children always return it.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><script src=\"http:\/\/storify.com\/filmdetail\/film-notes-7-etre-et-avoir-2002.js\"><\/script><noscript>[<a href=\"http:\/\/storify.com\/filmdetail\/film-notes-7-etre-et-avoir-2002\" target=\"_blank\">View the story &#8220;Film Notes #7: Etre et Avoir (2002)&#8221; on Storify<\/a>]<\/noscript><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nicolas Philibert&#8217;s documentary about a small rural school in France is Number 7 in my 30 day Film Notes series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2487],"tags":[2504],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}