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EVER HEARD of a person in a documentary film suing the maker for a share in the profits? Georges Lopez, the village schoolmaster in Nicolas Philibert's "To Be and To Have" (2002), has done just that, demanding 250,000 Euros for the "violation of his ownership rights to the film's images." This case has grabbed media attention in France for its unique claim. It shocked the general public to see Lopez in colours drastically opposed to the gentle, noble and unworldly schoolmaster in the documentary.
Lopez refused payment for promoting the film. "He wants to be paid like Catherine Deneuve or Gerard Depardieu," Philibert exclaims. "Documentaries are based on the principle of freedom. When you pay, the subject becomes your employee and is treated accordingly. This question came up earlier in France — does the landscape photographer have to pay the man who owns the land that he photographs?"
Acclaimed by two million viewers in France, and more in European countries, "To Be and To Have" is getting a different sort of publicity with the court wrangle that has raised new legal questions.
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