April 2010

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I avoid current affairs because news becomes stale so quickly. However, the 'Mexican flu' - what French Television  called 'La grippe H1N1' led to the government trying to vaccinate the entire population, and when a) a lot of people didn't bother, and b) not a lot of people died, the authorities were left with a lot of vaccine on their hands and a lot of egg on their faces. France 3 did a very full inquiry into this well-intentioned cock-up, and here is an interview with a general practitioner who is ready to rub salt into official wounds. I had to cut him off finally, because he does go on a bit doesn't he?

Toute l'histoire did an excellent programme on the place played in the French Resistance. I have a healthy respect for the Resistance. To fight the occupant in a country where the government - and therefore the police and all officialdom - collaborated enthusiastically with the enemy, was very dangerous. And then these incredible ladies, whose contribution, as the song at the beginning says, was largely forgotten after the war

Thanks to the person who sent this pair of sketchs by Florence Bunold from, I understand, the revue Sarkozix le Gaulois. As is my habit, I've put it on the humour page of sonsenfrancais.org, but linked here with the subtitle file.

To entertain the French viewing public on Sunday nights, France 3 have replaced Inspector Barnaby, which was rather good, with Inspector Frost which was bad in English and worse dubbed into French. However, the ponderously slow delivery makes it worthwhile including - once ! - as a listening exercise

Here's a nice piece of reportage on the real-estate business of Paris. Normally the French get very protective about le patrimoine, but as the man says, you can't pack up a big hotel and move it to Poland, can you ?

An excellent documentary from France 5 relating the great political events - here the Algerian war and the return of De Gaulle to power, with the culture of the time

One of the clips sent to me from a kind user of this site, the ongoing series of J'aime la France. This time we are in the Pyrénées - which I always have trouble spelling - and a couple of nice pieces, one on the fortress of the Cathars, the other on a race of little horses saved from extinction.

There is little I need to say about Comment c'est fait, which has become a most useful regular exercise on this site. The little pieces are interesting in themselves, and unusual in being rather easy to follow, but always with some new vocabulary which tests our ability to recognise how an unfamiliar word is likely to be spelled.

The channel Toute l'histoire supplies a series of documentaries useful to the student of French. The subjects are interesting, and the voices varied, often from archive film. This one is on the very early days of air combat

Here is another accessible comedy sketch. I did not know Alex Métayer at all so my thanks once more to the donator.

TF1's evening news reports often include  enquêtes which offer some of the best television journalism I've come across. This one - on violence in French schools - is extraordinary. The images of teachers practising to repel a possible invasion of young thugs armed with crowbars is appalling, as is the young teacher at the end who talks of colleagues breaking down and crying in the staff room - because of the behavious of 12 year old children.

Des Racines et des Ailes returns with a picturesque documentary on the region of Savoie. I enjoyed the guide at the end, who, in reeling off the titles of the great of this world who frequented the Casino at Aix-les-bains, manages to convey her Republican disapproval of such goings-on

As well as Faites entrer l'accusé, which deals with famous criminal cases, France Télévision offers us this Faits Divers, which, as the title indicates shows the simple, but nonetheless harrowing effects of 'everyday crime'. There's an element of voyeurism, of course but I find the insights into the French judicial system fascinating

I've wanted to include an extract from Arte's Sunday morning Philosophy programme, ever since learning that its presenter Raphael Enthoven, was the partner of Carla Bruni, and she left him for Nicolas Sarkozy. I also have a taste for the pompous and the absurd, and these two are that. It was the British comedian Ken Dodd who said that 'Freud says that humour is a buckled millwheel'. He added, '.. but Freud never played second house, Friday night, Glasgow Empire'.

Something rather different. In the series Un soir au musée Jean-François Zygel gave us a talk on Schubert's 'Unfinished' Symphony, with the Philharmonic of Radio France playing it. Not the sort of thing I would normally post, but Zygel speaks - as you might imagine - a very musical French, and I think it important simply to listen to sound of the language from time to time. In English we convey expression by  emphasising words. Much less so in French where the pitch of the voice is important. And then there is that quality which we wrongly call 'nasal'....

Here is a very good TF1 News piece on rampant corruption in hospital administration. Or more precisely, the miserable incompetence of petty bureaucrats whose only talent is to line the pockets of their friends in order to climb the ladder of promotion. Fact is, if you're running a hospital which employs 4 000 people, you'd better be a business man, and a good one.

France 5 transmits a popular medicine programme calle Allo Docteur, which I never watch, because i do not share the French obsession with health. My liver is fine, thanks. However, someone kindly sent me the following clip, and I have to admit that it is right for this site. Perhaps we should have a dedicated section for clips of people graphically describing their ailments ...

France 5 did a documentary on clairvoyance. Such pieces are very much like the articles from the news broadcasts (one recognises the voice-overs), but more extended. I am not even going to offer an opinion on all of this - if the clients feel they get their moneys-worth, well and good.

Here's our favourite science programme Comment c'est fait on making robotic arms. I thought the very technical nature of the subject would make for a difficult extract, but no ... the explanation is complicated, but the vocabulary rather straightforward. I was amused by the fact that robots are made by humans and not by other robots.

I found this clip particularly interesting. I recorded it as a straightforward voice-over documentary with a couple of songs. In fact I found the transcription far from straightforward, and it is worth considering why. First, the voice is that of an actor who adopts an intimate style - quite unlike the people who read the text of Des racines et des ailes. Second, the text is very literary, very complex -  interesting, but not easy

I've said it before, but my goodness, the quality of these little pieces for TF1 evening news is astonishing. Note the careful sound editing at the beginning. Pity the rest of the programmes on this channel are so terrible...

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