ANDTO BE AND TO HAVE
Type: didactic-emotional documentary
Director: Nicolas Philibert. With Georges Lopez and the pupils of the elementary school of Sait-Etienne sur Usson (Puy-De-Dôme)
Georges Lopez and the children of Saint-Etienne sur Usson.
Waiting for the blockbusters announced for the summer to arrive, among too many not exactly exciting releases, it is worth recovering some “old” films (today, more correctly, we would say “heritage films”) that some warned distributors bring back to the cinemas.
On Monday 12 the documentary that consecrated Nicolas’ popularity begins its second cinematic life. Filmed in a single-class primary school in the mountainous Auvergne regionthe film follows the last year of teaching of a teacher close to retirement, monsieur Lopez: at the center the boys and their families, big and small daily problems, misunderstandings, quarrels that turn into friendships and above all the great hard to learn (and to teach).
Scene after scene we learn about this microcosm, its rules, its protagonists: the applause is naturally won by the little ones we see as they begin to face the world, but it is somehow the whole mountain community that comes to life in a film capable of balancing impressionistic strength with emotional intensity, which “l ‘invisible’ directed by Philibert knows how to balance perfectly. For those who want to rediscover the cinematographic amazement.
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