Movie Gazette

The problem with describing a film about a teacher's relationship with a group of pupils as 'inspirational' is that this will inevitably conjure up Hollywood films like 'Dead Poets' Society', 'Stand and Deliver' or 'Dangerous Minds', in which a young, maverick educator stirs up the establishment and breaks all the rules in order to perform the extraordinary miracle of transforming hopeless wards into prize-winning romantic geniuses. Yet Nicolas Philibert's 'Être et Avoir' offers an antidote to this cliche – it is a documentary set in rural France, the teacher is something of a traditionalist, near retirement age, and he teaches his pupils only enough to get them into middle school.

In a single classroom at Saint-Etienne sur Usson, Georges Lopes teaches thirteen local children whose ages range between 4 and 10. Softly spoken, patient, considerate, reasonable, and preferring to ask questions than to state answers, Lopes inculcates not only the rudiments of formal education and home economics, but also more abstract notions of honour, justice, obligation, and death. It becomes clear very quickly in the documentary that the children do not just respect Lopes, but also love him, and their love is obviously reciprocated, so that there is profoundly moving pathos in the closing scene, in which Lopes says his final farewells to the children at the end of the school year and is then left behind, alone in an empty classroom.

Apart from an interview with Lopes regarding his own childhood and his move into teaching, 'Être et Avoir' has no commentary, instead relying on carefully selected sequences of contrast for its messages and dramas to emerge. Thus the whole film is structured around the shift from a harsh snowy winter to a gloriously sunny summer; and a scene in which Lopes skilfully defuses a violent fight between two older boys, Julien and Olivier, is offset by a scene at Julien's home, where the uncle and father argue confusedly about how to solve Julien's maths homework, while the mother slaps Julien for making mistakes. Such scenes provide insight both into the children's background and behaviour, and into the challenges which Lopes faces, and overcomes, as their teacher.

Despite the old edict that you should never work with children or animals, Philibert proves a master at capturing with his camera cows, terrapins, dogs and remarkably unselfconscious young pupils. He also has an eye for the poetic, and in one particular scene a search for a missing girl through tall fields of wheat is transformed into a spectacular and striking image of the world as an all-engulfing place of mystery and menace.

As a powerful meditation on time and education, 'Être et Avoir' is truly inspirational, but not on the unattainably idealised scale of Hollywood. No genius, no rebellion, no victory – just the quiet, everyday miracle of very young children developing under the tutelage of an expert teacher. It will contribute more to a rise in teaching applications than any government initiative.