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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

To Be and to Have
New Yorker Films


10.0

based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Georges Lopez (teacher), Alizé, Axel, Guillaume, Jessie, Johann, Nathalie, and Olivier

Inspired by the French phenomenon of 'single-class' schools, this film charts the life of a small one-class village school over the course of one academic year, and takes a warm and serene look at primary education in the French heartlands. (New Yorker Films)

GENRE(S):	Documentary \| Foreign
DIRECTED BY:	Nicolas Philibert
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 19, 2004 Video: October 19, 2004 Theatrical: September 19, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	105 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France
LANGUAGE(S):	French (with English subtitles)

Best Documentary, 2002 European Film Awards; 2002 Prix Louis Delluc (Best French Film); Best Editing, 2003 Cesar Awards; Critics Award for Best Documentary, 2003 French Syndicate of Cinema Critics; Best Documentary, 2002 Valladolid International Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Nothing momentous happens here, but Philibert has a magical sense of how to find the simple poetry lurking in the universal routine of being a kid. A lot of the film's lyricism is extracurricular.

100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

So superb, so graceful, so strong -- another beauty in this year of good documentaries -- that I do believe it will influence career choices, sending inspired viewers to study pedagogy, or cinematography.

100

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Hypnotically absorbing film.

100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Little miracles spring up throughout this picture.

Portland Oregonian Karen Karbo

Watching a group of kindergartners learning to crack an egg into a bowl is hardly the stuff of drama, and yet watching it, you suspect that something important is happening. And it is.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

It is, simply and stirringly, a kind of beau ideal of education, a vision of how the process can work at its best.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

This heart-wrenching documentary about a French village schoolteacher at work offers the comedy and pathos of great drama and the visual magnificence of painting.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

To Be and To Have works in the grandest tradition of documentary filmmaking -- it keeps company with a small, specific place going about its business, and from it parses the whole world.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Amounts to a rare gift and an opportunity to appreciate the end of an era and celebrate one of the screen's most subtly etched heroes: the soft-spoken Monsieur Georges Lopez.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Amounts to a rare gift and an opportunity to appreciate the end of an era and celebrate one of the screen's most subtly etched heroes: the soft-spoken Monsieur Georges Lopez.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

"You'll have to be patient." Philibert said, "That's the point." This is the film's success: its patience, which in a way mirrors the teacher's.

Variety Lisa Nesselson

Any negative stereotypes viewers might harbor about education in rural communities are sent packing by this magnificently lensed and cumulatively touching account from documaker Nicolas Philibert.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

One of the year's most engaging films.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Exhibiting the same sort of patience as his sensible hero, Philibert has created an extraordinarily humane portrait of a partnership between one adult and his very fortunate charges.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A deceptively simple French film about teaching that keeps enlarging as you watch it, becoming beautiful and inspiring in a way most films never touch.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Gradually and inexorably, the small crises of the children assume a poignant dramatic profluence, and the soothing patience of the teacher begins to have an almost hypnotically balming effect on the viewer.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

For better and for worse, this is seductive storytelling as well as investigative journalism, and I wasn't always sure which mode I was in.

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

Part of what makes a great documentary great is the subject, and though the film never scrapes below the surface of the schoolteacher -- we never find out if he lives alone or has children of his own -- Lopez pulls as hard on the imagination as a fictional character.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

An early shot of two turtles crawling through the classroom establishes the film's deliberate pace, and To Be And To Have benefits from the care.

The New Yorker David Denby

A deeply satisfying aesthetic and pedagogic experience--though Americans may find themselves wondering how such terrific children can grow into such irritating adults.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Full of observed life, the movie is also a bit of a vacuum, and once we register our admiration for Lopez, we can hardly help contemplating the cold equations of the students' futures, their uneducated families, and the rapturously desolate farmland around them.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The interest of To Be and to Have, though, is not sociological: it is not really about the French educational system, rural life or even the way children learn. It is, rather, the portrait of an artist, a man whose work combines discipline and inspiration and unfolds mysteriously and imperceptibly.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

The emotional honesty of this movie rescues it from sentimentality. To Be and to Have is about more than a dedicated teacher and his pupils; it’s about how difficult and exhilarating it is to grow into an adult.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

100 minutes spent watching children struggle and delight in learning is, at least in my book, 100 minutes happily spent.

San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel

Gets its punch from simple scenes and conversations.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Simple but deeply touching documentary.

The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Steve F. gave it a10:
A feast for the eyes, mind, and heart. It is hard to imagine a better teacher, or a film better at catching the mystery of teaching.

Francine H. gave it a10:
Warm and wonderful! It is the kind of movie that inspires and entertains. Georges Lopez is a gentle, kind, wise man with a heart for his students' successes. Lovely man and lovely film.

Ann P. gave it a10:
I a long-time teacher, and I fell in love with the entire class - students and teacher.

Leigh gave it a10:
Be patient. It starts slow, but you bond with the film to the point where you have small tears at true empathy, patients, and love . It is also a remainder how hard growing up was!

Tom B. gave it a10:
I felt a sense of longing for my childhood and the hope that one day my own children can have the same experience these children have in this film.

[Anonymous] gave it a 10:
This film touched my heart. This heart-warming teacher brought back many fond memories of when I was 6 and I had a similar teacher who was like him. I have now left school but I look back at that time in my life as something really special. I am now training to be a teacher. This film inspired me a lot. Thank you Jesus Christ for the teachers who touch students lives.

Joshua D. gave it a 10:
This is pretty much a perfect film.

To Be and to Have New Yorker Films

To Be and to Have
New Yorker Films