To Be and to Have
“An observation of the humanity of young people.”
Synopsis
The documentary's title translates as "to be and to have," the two auxiliary verbs in the French language. It focuses on a primary school in the commune of Saint-Étienne-sur-Usson, in the Puy-de-Dôme department of France, a town with a population just over 200. The school consists of one small mixed-age class, ranging from four to twelve years, taught by Georges Lopez, who demonstrates patience and respect for the children as the film follows their experiences throughout a single school year.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 16
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Nicolas PhilibertShot by Laurent DidierScored by Philippe Hersant
Box Office
2002 · Box office
💰 Box-office hit — grossed 16× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$16.1M
US & Canada: $777K — 5% of worldwide · International: $15.3M (95%)
Also known as
- Sein und Habende
- To Be and to Haveen
- Ser y teneres
- Essere e avereit
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Cast & Crew
16 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Georges Lopez
as L'institueur
Alize
as Les enfants de la classe
Axel Thouvenin
as Les enfants de la classe
Guillaume
as Les enfants de la classe
Jessie
as Les enfants de la classe
Johan
as Les enfants de la classe - Jojo
Johann
as Les enfants de la classe
Jonathan
as Les enfants de la classe
Julien
as Les enfants de la classe
Laura
as Les enfants de la classe
Directors
1Producers
1Other crew
5Parents Guide
AI Personalities
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