To Be and to Have (Être et Avoir) (2002)

Simple and moving from the first minute to the last. Untarnished gold in action captured with all its shining. Wonderful.

Excellent documentary. What a good teacher!

Perhaps there is a point to this film, but it's not obvious what it is. Maybe to illustrate the extreme dedication required to be a teacher. This teacher is calm, caring and an all-round professional. Nonetheless, the film comes across as a home movie where nothing actually happens.

This documentary provides a fly-on-the-wall view of a teacher at work with his children in a very tiny school in winter-wonderland Northern France. The film is features some kids (lovable or otherwise according to taste), a distinctly talented teacher, lots of lovely landscapes, and a total absence of explanations or storyline. A ripping good yarn it ain't, but surely educational for those interested in the raising of small children.

An enriched viewing experience showing children learning with their teacher in the beautiful countryside of France. The many facets of family and school life are shown always with attention to the marvels of childhood.

5 stars +. Film doesn't get any better than this. A powerful insight into the ordinary. School as it should be.

I have just seen this film for the third time, and enjoyed it more than ever. A masterpiece of simple, unvarnished kindness, dedication. The teacher and the children are totally natural and unaffected, there is no one here who is deliberately "cute." A wonderful film.

What a shocker. Foreign movie with sub-titles and no story. A film about the actual school lessons. Extremely boring.

This is a beautiful, slow doco that totally sucks you in - although the antiquated teaching will have most primary teachers cringing, the teacher's care and concern for his pupils is never in doubt.

A little slow in the beginning, setting the mood, this film expands into a truly touching exploration of a primary school in the French Auvergne. The interactions between teacher and students are fascinating, beautifully photographed - and leaving you wanting to know more... The interview with the director (in the Features) is insightful.

Beautiful documentary, you begin to love the little individual characters of each of the students. It's sad that this form of teaching is dying out. Magic.

What a beautiful movie. Amazing that a documentary set in the same classroom can be so entertaining. The viewer is allowed a real insight into the children and their development throughout the seasons and also gains a good feel of the surrounds of the village as the cinematography of the village scenes, season by season, is spectacular. What an amazing teacher.

Show me the boy at seven and I'll show you the man...A wonderful film which captured the different personalities of the children and allowed us to cry when they cried, laugh when they laughed and feel so, so much more!