Être et avoir

does any one remember how you were once tiny...wanting the attention (and perhaps you still do!)... struggling with mathematics.....wondering who your friends are....being upset about people insulting you and not knowing how to stop it and ending up in a nasty fight?....or not really knowing why you did something awful at the time you did it....or wondering why there's no end to counting.....or how many words you may fit into a sentence......or why we have to go to school....?!? the list is endless...

French documentarist Nicolas Philibert documents all these and more through the daily class-room encounters of Monsieur Lopez, the teacher of a tiny village school in Auvergne, while he grooms the little ones (from toddlers to children ready to attend Middle school all in the same and only classroom) for the world beyond the village school, how he deals with their various problems (fights, difficulties in communication, worries, curriculum) with sensitivity and reason. and how he treats them as individuals with their own needs, interests, and personality. the film is a wonderful portrayal of the joys, challenges, and satisfaction one gets from teaching...and for getting to know the people you teach,....because many of the problems that children face while growing up are not going to be told directly....they surface in ways which affects the child, either in his or her work, attitude, or behaviour and these issues need to be addressed. Monsieur Lopez observantly notices and brings to the student's attention and invites the individual (and sometimes their parent) to try to talk about it, offering a form of 'cartharsis', and to show that he cares.

there are characters you will find yourself identifying with, and others you will simply adore....my favourite is a little boy of perhaps four years old, nicknamed Jojo....eager and absolutely fascinated by everything around him and hence easily distracted... that somewhat rings a bell....hee.

what is so beautiful, like most French films, is how such complex psyche of each being is being portrayed, and their hidden thoughts through their expressions are vividly captured.....here without the scripts that you would normally associate with large-screen movies.... is a real-life documentary of life in the country, of what it is like going to school, of what it is like being a teacher, of the fun one has learning to make pancakes (as a school!) and flip them in a pan, of going sledging on a winter's day with your classmates, of getting lost in the field of barley, of being angry with someone, of trying to see the consequences of what you have done, of learning that you can do things to hurt others...of realising that someone is in need of help.....of having crayon colours all over your hands and face, of trying to focus really hard at what you are doing, of trying very hard not to disturb the person next to you even when you really want to tell him something completely irrelevant....or of day-dreaming and falling asleep in class....

it is truly about what one is "to be and to have".....to be human and to gain/have the experiences that will enable one to cope with his/her life journey....and it makes one (hopefully) appreciate the lengths which some academics go to, in order to groom the young into mature (thinking and feeling) beings....and it echos what i firmly believe....that what you do best at is usually what you enjoy doing most...and Monsieur Lopez certainly has a passion to teach.

(i am quite aware that this review may be truly awful...so go here for a more in-depth review if you like and the official site of the movie is a click away!)

i can't express how chuff i am over the fact that Hannah, her colleague Niel and i managed to get the 'returned' tickets to the film which have been all sold out on all the evenings i had tried to watch it....and it has been showing for at least two weeks running now (including last week when it was shown in the Cameo instead)....the French Film Festival at the FilmHouse is indeed an annual event not to be missed because the selected films (not just in the festivals) are not only quite different from the usual Hollywood fanfare but are usually internationally acclaimed and give refreshing insights to other countries and their film-making 'philosophy'/style ....and i have learnt from my lesson as i have already purchased a ticket to watch 'Le Papillon' which will only be screened this Saturday.... i am really looking forward to another dose of heart-warming French film!

posted by ~overacuppa~ on Tuesday, 18 November, 2003 at 23:24 hrs