June 2011
And we start June sulphurously. I picked up two minutes of women politicians commenting on the disgraceful behaviour of their colleagues in the French Parliament, and then the next day, there was an ex-Minister, Luc Ferry, alleging the paedophile behaviour of a (male) member of the French government a few years ago. So I pasted them together. No comment...
However, the French are getting a taste for political scandal, and that is very welcome. Also good for the vocabulary. Partouze, parties fines, déballage, se faire poisser, racontar, grivoiserie, gauloiserie 'troussage des domestiques', privautés have all been heard recently
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20HFemmesPolitiques.avi 20HFemmesPolitiques.srt 20HFemmesPolitiques.txt 20HFemmesPolitiques.mp3 |
This was a gentle level-2 up to the moment where
the lady says 'Il faut s'habituer à répondre aux hommes sur le moment
et puis aussi, à ... vis-à-vis de l'extérieure ' Can you fill in the dots ? Please ! (In fact, Jean-Louis came to my aid, and I am grateful to him for that. But he's French, so I'm going to leave the question open - for the anglophone students who use this site.) |
Les Spécialistes turns out to be an American-type series of the R.I.S type - but made by Italian television. Difficult to tell, apart from perhaps a certain Mediterranean excitability. But it works, it's modern, it's slick.
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Spécialistes.avi Spécialistes.srt Spécialistes.txt Spécialistes.mp3 |
I was surprised that the dialogue wasn't faster, and therefore more difficult - one has the impression that the Italians speak quickly. It doesn't seem to be the case. |
Here's a clip from the well-known film Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks. Good film, but linguistically it turned out be quite a tussle !
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Apollo13.avi Apollo13.srt Apollo13.txt Apollo13.mp3 |
The sound quality in the second half of the clip is very space-fiction, with plenty of engine noise in the background, and the vocabulary very specialised. A level-3 |
A contrast with the previous clip is offered by Dombais et fils, an adaptation of the book by Dickens. Dickens is a natural for the French of course, because he writes about social injustice and the nasty bosses. However, this is not a dubbed version, and it has the wonderful Christopher Malavoy as the master.
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Dombais.avi Dombais.srt Dombais.txt Dombais.mp3 |
Very unusual to have a French film at level-1. There are a few difficult moments, but mostly it's fairly clear. |
There is quite a little story to this clip which does not come from French television. A French friend sent me a few lines from Act I Scene I of Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, which had amused a friend of his because of its relevance to the sad story of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. I searched the Internet for the play, and finally found a clip on Youtube, where the same idea had occurred to the uploader. So that is one reason for putting five minutes of the scene here. The other is that I am a great fan of the plays of Victor Hugo. They are of a remarkable intensity, and the fact that the diction tends to be clear and studied helps us enormously.
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RuyBlas.avi RuyBlas.srt RuyBlas.txt RuyBlas.mp3 |
Historical fiction, clear enunciation. It's a joy to have this as a Level-1. |
Last night, about thirty million Frenchwomen were glued to the telly for two hours watching the film Sex and the City. It's a film which gives the lie to the language snobs I meet regularly who a) insist that only French films have artistic value and that all American films are rubbish, and b) that they would rather sit through Ma nuit chez Maude. No, it's not great art, and it's not precisely my cup of tea either, but it is well-written, beautifully filmed, and funny. And it works in French.
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SexCity.avi SexCity.srt SexCity.txt SexCity.mp3 |
It's not as easy as you might think. The dubbing studios take more trouble over cult films, and the fast cutting at the beginning poses quite a problem of comprehension. It's a good level-2 |
"Danielle Darrieux, Michèle Morgan et Micheline Presle... trois célèbres actrices qui, pendant plusieurs décennies, ont traversé les plus glorieuses années du cinéma français sans jamais cesser de se croiser sur les écrans et les plateaux, dans les salles et dans les souvenirs" is how France 5 described this nice little documentary
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TroisGlorieuses.avi TroisGlorieuses.srt TroisGlorieuses.txt TroisGlorieuses.mp3 |
It's a level-1, but the voices of these great old ladies are not always very easy to follow... |
Astonishing what American genius can make a police series out of. Numb3rs is about trendy mathematicians who help crack crime. THis leads inevitably to dialogue like "Essayons le data-ming" and "mes analyses de mesure de Blancherelle". Admirable.
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Numb3rs.avi Numb3rs.srt Numb3rs.txt Numb3rs.mp3 |
It's a straight-forward level-1, apart from the irritating moment at the start that I couldn't pick up. See if you can do better. |
The Sunday evening popular science show E=M6 celebrated its 20th birthday with this nice piece on the genetic background of human-kind
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E=M6_20ans.avi E=M6_20ans.srt E=M6_20ans.txt E=M6_20ans.mp3 |
As always, a good mixture of voice-over and live interviews, in setting which often offer background noise. |
Il ne faut jurer de rien, was a splendid historical romp starring Jean Dujardin, one of my favourite actors. Normally historical dramas are easy to follow - formal language and moderately paced. Although the language is formal, here the diction is very modern and just as difficult to follow as a modern film
This is also the first video that I am uploading to YouTube, rather than to this site. The text and the mp3 file are available for download as before
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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...
