There is a one-room schoolhouse in rural Auvergne. Twelve children, ages four to eleven. One teacher, Monsieur Lopez, who is retiring at the end of the year. Nicolas Philibert spent a school year there with a camera and made one of the most quietly beautiful films about teaching that has ever been made. Être et Avoir (To Be and to Have) won every French documentary award in 2002, and for a French class, it is something even rarer: a film that shows French in the act of being acquired, by real children, in real time.
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Students watching Être et Avoir see what French learning looks like from the other end — children at the beginning of literacy, learning to read and write and speak with patience from a teacher who understands that the most important thing he can give them is time. For students who are themselves learning French, watching real children learn it is both humbling and encouraging.
Key Themes
- Teaching and patience — Monsieur Lopez's teaching style is the film's argument about what education is for. Ask: Comment Monsieur Lopez montre-t-il son respect pour les élèves? What specific things does he do?
- Rural France — The Auvergne setting gives students access to a France that is not Paris — the landscape, the pace, the community life of rural schools in France. Ask: En quoi cette école est-elle différente de la vôtre?
- The end of something — Lopez is retiring. The film is an elegy as well as a documentary. Ask: Qu'est-ce qui va disparaître avec la retraite de M. Lopez?
Scene to use: Lopez working with Jojo on a math problem — patient, specific, completely attentive. The French in this scene is the French of teaching: simplified, repeated, reframed until the child understands. Students who are learning French can follow the pedagogical French of this scene with ease and recognize in it the exact strategies their own teachers use. Ask: Quelles techniques utilise M. Lopez pour aider Jojo?
Low-prep classroom activity: Students write a brief letter in French from Monsieur Lopez to his students on his last day — not a farewell speech, but a private note. He must say something specific to each of two or three named children, using the tu form, and end with what he hopes for them. The task requires intimate French address, future tense for hopes, and the specific vocabulary of a teacher's care.
What to listen for: Monsieur Lopez speaks to different children in subtly different French — patient with the youngest, more demanding with the older students, warm throughout. His is the French of genuine teaching: clear, unhurried, attentive to each child's capacity. Ask students to identify one moment where he adjusts his French for a specific student and describe what he changes. The analysis teaches students about communicative accommodation — one of the most important practical skills in any language — and models what good teaching sounds like in French.
The full French lesson plan for Être et Avoir is ready at filmarobics.com/products/etre-et-avoir — $29.95.
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Students walk away from Être et Avoir having seen French being learned from the very beginning — and having understood something about patience, teaching, and the rural France that never appears in guidebooks.
