When faced with the choice of watching a French film or a British/American film (ie English spoken) I will opt for the second eight times out of ten. When a British or American film is showing on the cinema I obviously refuse to watch it dubbed over in French and will only watch it in VO (Version originale – original version). The reason for my aversion to French films is that generally they are boring, I don't get the plot line, or more precisely I don't see the point in the plotline even if I DO understand it. When it comes to French comedies, the difficulty is that most of the comedy value will be in the use of words or the play on words, which even after all these years learning French, I have problems understanding. There have been a couple of French comedies which I have enjoyed but nonetheless I would still much rather see a British or American comedy. In spite of all this, from time to time I have fallen upon a French film, either by flicking through on television or when a French friend recommends a particular film when we go to the cinema, and I have to say I have been surprised and have found the film to be really enjoyable. The storylines were good, (I like happy films so when I say they were good, I mean they were heartwarming "feel-good" films), the acting was good, music, even a touch of comedy, everything!! Here are a few of my favourites:1) Monsieur Batignole – a film by Gérard Jugot, he also stars in the film,
2) Comme une image – by Agnès Jaoui, she also stars in the film, along with Marilou Barry who I also like as she starred in another of my favourite French films…
3) La première fois que j'ai eu 20 ans
4) Jeux d'enfants – with Marion Cotillard who has recently starred in "La Vie en Rose" and I think is set to become Hollywood's next French star,
5) Je vais bien, ne t'en fais pas – by Philippe Lioret, starring Mélanie Laurent, - LOVED THIS FILM!! Has a twist at the end à la The Sixth Sense, although it is not at all a scary film!
So last night, when deciding what to watch (note that television in France is decidedly crap! If there is something decent to watch like a film or a television series it will of course be dubbed) I had the choice of Men in Black I (dubbed of course – Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones just don't translate as well!), an American police series, a French film for television, or a documentary on Grace Kelly. I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that Men in Black was the best option and was just flicking through the channels during the adverts before the film started when I fell upon the channel Arte. Arte is part German part French and is generally watched by those with a slightly more artistic taste, it is considered to be for the intellectuals. The film last night was called 'L'esquive" by Abdellatif Kechiche starring young actors Osman Elkharraz, Sabrina Ouazani and Sara Forestier. Firstly when I happened upon it I almost couldn't understand the French at all. The film is set in "les banlieues" ie the suburbs of Paris which are in fact more like a ghetto. It was in les banlieues where the riots began in 2005 making the rest of the world think that France was burning whereas in fact there were just a few riots. These are the areas which are very deprived and where most of France's second generation immigrant families live. Think Toxeth or Brixton in the 1980s and you get the picture! Anyway, this film is about a group of teenagers who decide to act out a play which they are learning in their French class. The play is by an old French playwright (Marivaux) and written in old French. The students' language when they are rehearsing the play contrasts with the way they speak in real life. Generally it is a film about a young boy who falls in love with a girl at school and becomes interested in the play in order to impress her. The story is interesting, touching and well interpreted by the actors. The film is filmed simply, almost like a documentary, as if the cameraman was simply watching these teenagers talking to each other, there is no back ground music, no special effects. At first I decided to watch the film to try and see exactly how much of the street-French I actually understood. Imagine if you will a foreign person trying to understand a think Glaswegian, Scouse, Mancunien or Brummy accent and you'll understand why it is not easy to understand banlieusian French. I was actually quite impressed by exactly how much I did understand which is either proof of how well I'm integrated or simply proof that I've been hanging out with people who speak a lot of slang! I intended to change channels but found myself drawn in by the story and fascinated by this view into life in les banlieues. In the film, the teenagers from the banlieues acted all tough when in the streets but really enjoyed rehearsing for the play and taking on the roles of lords and ladies. It reminded me of the children I used to teach who were from deprived areas of Bordeaux and similarly acted tough when in the playground or in the street but when in the classroom it was clear how much they enjoyed the activities and were really happy when they accomplished something or received a good mark. The story in the film focuses on the preparation of the play but also illustrates themes like love, friendship, poverty, police brutality, hardship. I'm no film critic but personally I rather liked "l'esquive" and would recommend it to others or in the words of one of the actors "Ouais, je le kiffe quoi!"
(kiffe= to like, *"Do you like it?)
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