Anglo-American Films dubbed into French
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JAG has a military setting, but don't be misled - it's an American court-room series, except we find ouselves in a military court-martial rather than the standard court. It's good fun, though - and good listening practice.
Missing is (yet) another American series about people who bring offer their particular skills to the service of American justice. In this episode we are treated to a resolutely feminist and tough lady FBI agent, who wants none of that nonsense...
I rather liked Legend of the Seeker whose title the French television company decided not to translate - something we see more and more in adverts also. You can read all about it here. There's no shortage of American material on French telly, is there. When you think of the size of the French dubbing industry...
Ooops, here we go again. Another frightening lady professional. I joke about it, but I find it entirely admirable that America practises this form of 'feminist cultural positive discrimination'. Anyway, she's a top surgeon who has decided to work for the private sector, and is not willing to take no for an answer. What is also interesting is that France Télévisions has puffed this series as being a major acquisition, because its precursor, Grays Anatomy, was owned by TF1. Anyway, it's useful for us....
Peur Primal (American title, Primal Fear is a pretty good film starring Richard Gere as a Chicago lawyer who decides to defend a young drop-out accused of murdering a bishop... But it's absolutely the right level as a listening exercise at a reasonably modest level
30Rock refers to an address in New York, 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The series is about the people who work for a TV show, but that is less important than the humour, which is what Americans call off-the-wall. Whatever we may call it, it made me smile
Sadly, YouTube, in their wisdom, won't let me embed this one on this page - doubtless for copyright reason. I will avoid sinning in the future, but having done the work of transcription I will upload the video here for download in the traditional way
Here's a rather good fantasy series Nick Cutter et les portes du temps. British-made, and high budget. It's a time travel story - all good clean fun
I nearly didn't pursue this episode of Roswell, an American series which I take to be about ordinary American adolescents being extraordinary extra-terrestrials. But I was struck by the odd effect of informal American translated into French. The bit with the teacher works fine - that's formal English and formal French. But when the girl says in compact American English "He said it could be in the future he wouldn't be there", it ends up in French as "Il disait qu'il se pourrait très bien qu'à l'avenir il ne soit plus là". It made me laugh...
I can't pretend that I understood what Gossip Girl was all about when I watched an episode: it seemed to be a group of American adolescents who were mysteriously rich and famous despite being well... adolescent. So here is the Wiki article.
But artistic quality is not what this site is about, and the bright, excited dialogue makes for a good listening exercise
You have to download this one, I'm afraid
