Rebuttal Marathon UpdateTo Be and to Have (Etre et Avoir) Etre et Avoir, or To Be and to Have, Is a movie set in a school located in the countryside of France, and focuses on about one year in a primary school. It mostly focuses on the teaching methods of the sole teacher, George Lopez. There's a wonderful sense of place, and you spend nearly all of the time in the school, with some interludes watching some of the kids doing their homework. Lopez is someone who may be the most patient and caring man in the world, and watching his interaction with the kids is wonderful. Plus, little kids doing cute things also gets points! these are punctuated with one or two scenes of Lopez describing his life, and it's not some life of trouble or something, it's just normal. but spending time with the kids and Lopez is so wonderful, that you get caught up in it, and the time flies by. Plus, it's wonderfully crafted too.
After the recent transformation of the documentary into an instrument of political/social change, it's a bit refreshing to watch a film where the cameras are only there to observe action, not to dictate events. That being said, much like Matty's problem with American Teen, the mere presence of the camera brings to mind questions as to the honesty of the interactions at play. The bulk of the film consists of a teacher and his students. The teacher is a saint here, but I do believe it's genuine and not just playing nice for the cameras. I say that because his kindness comes across as the greatest teaching tool.
On the other hand, being all observation, this felt like a youtube spycam more than a movie with scene after scene of the teacher teaching. Sometimes we got life lessons, parental interactions and personal interventions (like my favorite moment when he talks to two boys who recently got into a fight), but there are way, way, way too many scenes of students slowly learning the basics. (No, little kids doing cute things does not always get points.) An hour in, the teacher answers some questions for the camera, which I found even less enlightening than watching him interact with the students. It felt like padding. I constantly felt the filmmaker was trying to break up the monotony of the classrooom, and rarely succeeding.
This would make a better short film. It could easily say all that it wanted to in 30-45 minutes. I was mostly bored.