It is virtually impossible to talk about To Be And To Have and not sound like a candy-ass. Without recourse to words like “charming” and “delightful,” the film would defy description. The routine flogging of such terms on the “Today” show or in Reader’s Digest has rendered them almost meaningless, so it is a real pleasure when a movie like To Be And To Have can allow one to appreciate just how cute French-speaking seven-year-olds can be.

In much of rural France, children of primary-school age are still educated together in one-room schoolhouses. To Be And To Have is a French documentary about one such school. Located in the Auvergne region, it is run by one Monsieur Georges Lopez, who lives upstairs and seemingly exists only to teach these kids. Throughout the film, the teacher demonstrates an infinite patience with the children when they struggle to understand what he wants, and a preternatural gift for knowing what these often inarticulate youngsters are trying so hard to tell him. Lopez’s talents have already made him a minor celebrity in Europe, where To Be And To Have was a surprise hit. (In a move that definitely will tarnish his image a bit, he has sued the filmmakers for a percentage of the film’s profits.)

The care that Monsieur Lopez manifests for his students is both moving and inspiring, but this film belongs to the children themselves. Nathalie is smart but painfully shy, Olivier and Julien cannot stop fighting, and Jojo doesn’t seem to understand how to wash his hands. A typical school day finds each student, in his or her own way, dealing as much with the process of growing up as with grammar or math.  The movie takes an unobtrusive style that affords an intimate look at the joys and difficulties that characterize the lives of these children.

As documentaries go, To Be And To Have is old-school. In the decade since 1994’s Hoop Dreams challenged much of the prevailing wisdom regarding the genre, documentarians have primarily been interested in challenging the notion of the camera’s objectivity.  Many, like Michael Moore, have taken advantage of this move in using juxtapositions of footage in order to make a specific point. Others have used this development to challenge the notion of truth itself, a trend which may have gone as far as it can go in last year’s think Capturing The Friedmans. Director Nicolas Philibert, however, will have none of that; his ambition here is no more (and no less) than to show the viewer what this classroom is really like. There is only one interview in the film (with Lopez himself) and only a couple of scenes that do not take place at the school. The film thus lacks a vantage point, and does little to convey that what happens at this school is somehow important or meaningful beyond the ways in which it affects the participants. Those who do not find the children inherently interesting may find the film interminable. To those people perhaps the only appropriate rejoinder is, “What the hell is your problem? Can’t you see how adorable these kids are?  And they’re French!”  For everyone other than these misanthropes, To Be And To Have is definitely worth seeing.

—Mike O’Connor