Review of To Be and To Have
Comarts 135 31 March 2012 The wind blows strongly, whistling through the tall pines with countless snows whirling in the air. Under the pale hazy sky, wandering cows are driven by men and women in thick winter coats. Once inside, through the clear window, you see the cold, severe snowstorm. Different from the atrocious outside, inside the classroom, there is a safe, warm and peaceful world. Yellow chairs have been lifted up orderly on the tables; One turtle crawls along the floor and explores this little world, a moment later, another comes across and joins him.
As we hear the soft and sweet melody of a flute, branches covered with snow sway violently in the wind. On the narrow country road between those great trees, an old white van jogs along to pick up every child at each house. The destination is a school which only has one classroom and one teacher. Children jump off the van and walk into the school, leaving trails of little footprints. “Morning, sir!” every child greets the teacher standing at the door. And here the story starts. It is a French documentary movie about the life of one old teacher and children of different ages in an isolated town away from the noisy world. The movie doesn’t apply any fantastic special effects and the camera shots are simple and real. It is the plain and pure shots that make the movie To Be and To Have different and why catches audiences’ heart.
Just as the beautiful countryside landscape doesn’t need any further decoration, the teacher’s kindness and affability is sincere. He is an impressive person with a grizzled beard and rimless glasses, an old fatherly man looking like Jean Reno, kind and gentle. Even though he looks a little bit serious in his black sweater, he is never really angry with children. It seems that he has endless patience and enthusiasm. Even though there is one kid who always forgets the number after six, the teacher just sighs faintly, looks at the child’s eyes softly and asks again, without any complaint and intolerance. Even though there are some conflicts and fighting, he lets them put themselves in others’ shoes and make them conscious of their mistakes. He teaches them how to draw and how to read; he teaches them how to make pancakes; he celebrates their birthdays; he holds up umbrellas for them on a rainy day; he grades their homework in the quiet yellow light of the lamp at night; he talks with some children and encourages them; he says that they should help each other in the future. Indisputably, he is a good enlighted teacher, who treats his students with incredible care and patience. He enjoys being a teacher and spending time with children just as those children enjoy their time with him.
More than a teacher, he is also their close friend. In the winter, they go snowboarding on a slope covered with thick snow where the freezing air is filled with joyous laughter. In the early spring, with the crisp rhythmic music, cars drive through the fields in green and yellow stripes to visit a middle school where some big students will attend next year. After a hasty drenching rain, the summer comes and they take the train to have a picnic in the countryside. The cicadas start to sing in the fresh green trees. Branches wave in the breeze. Pieces of paper on the desks seem to fly in the air. Chugga, chugga, the train bawls and hurtles through the forests. Kids look at the nature outside, playing with the flickering light and a horse toy. They sit and eat in the shade of a big tree. They look for a girl who is lost in the green bristlegrass. The camera doesn’t move too much and the shots are quiet, as the same height as those kids, to capture their eyes as well as their beautiful spirits.
In the end, children leave the class happily for the summer vacation. They kiss the teacher and say goodbye. After every kid leaves, the teacher usually equipped give people a strong sense of reliance sighs and looks out somewhere deeply, depressed in the heartbroken silence. It is a classroom that has turtles, goldfishes and vibrant plants, a classroom that has pictures of numbers, letters and self-portraits of Van Gogh, a classroom that has a quiet bear sitting in the corner, a classroom that has three tables and some innocent cute children, a classroom that he has been with for 20 years, but not anymore in the future. The mows have already been rolled standing in the field. The time passes and the seasons change, leaving an endless memory and missing.
