AOB2 Narrative Structure

etre et avoir

There are a variety or shots used in the opening 20 minutes of "etre et avoir". During the classroom scenes when the children are going about their day, the film maker, Nicolas Philibert, uses close ups of the children learning to write to show how they are developing their learning skills. The dominating shot for the outside scenes, are long shots to establish the setting of where the school is. The content of the shots include the empty classroom, tortoises wandering freely and a fish tank. We are introduced to some of the children as if we were there watching. It shows a lot of close ups of what their doing, for example their hands on the paper as they write letters.

The shot lengths for "etre et avoir" are very slow cuts compared to most other documentarys. On average they are about 8 - 12 seconds but some are much longer, to create a peaceful and very quiet place wich is where the school is located. The shots are very long because the establishign shots outside the school, show the slow movement of the wind, and farm animals moving slowly ion the background, which goes well with the slow shots aswel.

The form of the film tells the audinece that is it set in a small village in the countryside, which is shown by both the mise en scene and the cuts in the documentary, as its all very slow, and not a lot of sound is used in the footage.