Les parapluies des Cherbourg

I picked up this film accidentally and almost put it back on the racks after I read that it was a musical. For all my love of Nouvelle Vague, the director Jacques Demy unfortunately did not ring a bell. Fortunately, I decided to borrow the movie from my local library and watched it.

The film started with a beautiful shot of the seaside town of Cherbourg (now known as Cherbourg-Octeville), colorful umbrellas accompanied by the pensive music of Michel Legrand. Premiére Partie: Le Départ begins with an explosion of happy music. It's November 1957 and we are introduced to 20-year-old Guy Foucher while he's working… and singing. He's a mechanic and he's not whistling a tune or singing some popular song while he's checking engines. The dialogue of the whole film is sung. Everybody is singing!

Hmmm… I'm curious and admittedly a little skeptical about the constant singing. The work day has ended. Guy and the other mechanics are washing up and talking, I mean singing- about their plans for the evening. It seems a little silly but actually they do pull it off because the acting and singing isn't overdone. A few minutes later, Guy is outside an umbrella shop where 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, played by Catherine Deneuve, runs out to throw her arms around him and sing sweetly "Mon amour, oh mon amour…". It takes less than six minutes into the movie and I'm hooked.

This movie has a lot of what I have come to love about French Cinema: lush and elegant cinematography, inventiveness, joie de vivre, elegant and stylish costumes, and interesting twists in the plot.

This film looks and sounds like a fairytale but it's a real story dealing with the difficult issues of love and overcoming difficulties. The music and the singing pulls at my heartstrings, underscoring the tenderness of the scenes of joys as well as profound disappointment and longing in the sad scenes. This film deepens my appreciation and knowledge of Nouvelle Vague as well as cute umbrellas. For language learners- the singing is an added bonus because the sung dialogue is more enunciated and slower.

You can watch the entire film in French with English subtitles here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l25gYXilNzk

(via/Thanks: www.openculture.com)

You can get your very own made to measure umbrella from Parisian designer Michel Heurtault: www.parasolerieheurtault.com

(via/Thanks: www.parisbao.com)

La photo: Un Parapluie à Jakarta, Indonesie. Septembre 2006.

Movie Poster from amazon.com, where the movie is available

Eric et été: Le rayon vert

As I make my way through my "recommencer" alphabet - I'm lingering on "E": In this case Eric Rohmer of cinematic Nouvelle Vague fame and été of sun & fun fame.

The prizewinning film Le rayon vert, or Summer as it's known in the United States was released in 1986 as part of the series "Comedies et Proverbs" directed by Rohmer.

If you aren't a fan of either Eric Rohmer or Nouvelle Vague then I would suggest carefully choosing the first Rohmer film to watch. I watched this film without expectations but with the patience of a cinephile. So I hung on till the end. I can't really say more than that because I feel any sort of description is in fact a spoiler about what the whole film is about. If you are familiar with Eric Rohmer then you know what I'm talking about and why you are going to or not going to see this movie. If you aren't familiar- proceed with caution and a lot of patience.

Or maybe the French trailer is enough:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp7a2jYftp0

Foto: Lampadaire en Allemagne, avril 2011.

E is for Equipier

Another French film and hâllo again to Sandra Bonnaire. I'm not obsessed with Sandra Bonnaire but I think someone at my local library might be. In fact, I'd seen this DVD with Sandra Bonnaire on a bicycle with a warm smile many times before. I would consider watching the movie but in the end, I had always passed it up because of the lighthouse pictured in the background. It seemed to me that it meant the movie would be desolate.

The last movie I'd seen starring Bonnaire was Chabrol's La ceremonie and I remembered only cold cunning smiles. I decided to see what was behind this warm smile.

L'équipier I thought meant team. L'équipe (f) means team, l'équipier means team member or friend or a shipmate. In English the movie title is just simply translated as "The Light" while in German it's "Die Frau des Leuchtturmwärters" (The Wife of the Lighthouse Keeper).

Yes, Sandrine Bonnaire does play the wife of the lighthouse keeper. The story is also set on the very small island of Ouessant in the Celtic Sea close to the English Channel. The lighthouse though is offshore- which I did not expect.

The story does deal with a lighthouse keeper, his wife, the isolation of working in an offshore lighthouse and of the small town. Why is the lighthouse keeper's wife smiling? It has to do with a young lighthouse keeper. It's 1963 and Mabé's (Sandrine Bonnaire) father, a lighthouse keeper, has just died. Antoine Cassendi (Grégori Derangère) is his eager and enthusiastic young replacement.

This movie is not desolate at all- it's full of emotions and people being happy, too despite their struggles and periods of isolation. All the titles apply to the story: it's about shedding light on the past, being the light in someone's life, being a friend and part of the team. It's not exactly a "feel-good" movie but it had me smiling warmly more than once.

L'équipier, 2004

Directed by Philippe Lioret

For a very thorough review of this movie in English

http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Reviews/Reviews.asp?ID=8533

French trailer with English subtitles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRl9Odkssbg

La photo: Uniforms for the self-proclaimed team of "Oyster Mercenaries" at Hog Island Oyster Farm in Marshall, California. Juillet, 2010.

C est pour Claude Chabrol, cérémonie et chocolat

C est pour (partie une): Claude Chabrol, cérémonie et chocolat

What a mouthful. Where to start?

If it's about the nouvelle vague then Chabrol. If you're hard-core about your devotion to French New Wave cinema, then you know that Paris-born director Claude Chabrol's film Le beau Serge (1958) is credited with starting the movement. I was totally unaware of that before today. My introduction to Chabrol came earlier this year with a "must-see" recommendation of his 2006 film Merci pour la chocolat. A few weeks ago I saw a film he directed more than 10 years ago: La Ceremonie.

I would describe both films as well as the main characters as enigmatic and distant. For both films it took me a moment to begin understanding who's who and to start unraveling the story and the relationships. Both stories take place within the setting of a family. Yet, I couldn't warm up to the stories, get into them emotionally. I really felt like an observer all the time- held back by an invisible hand. This might have been Chabrol's intention, to hold me back, keep me as a witness or an onlooker.

la cérémonie noun, feminine

a) ceremony; tenue de cérémonie formal dress; (military) dress uniform

b) ceremony, formality; (informal) faire des cérémonies to make a fuss;

sans cérémonie informal reception; to do unceremoniously;

avec cérémonie to do ceremoniously

le chocolat

a) chocolate

b) chocolat chaud hot chocolate, drinking chocolate

looking it up in English yields more results for chocolate:

some chocolate du chocolat / des chocolats (plural)

chocolate cake/sauce gâteau/sauce au chocolat

a chocolate Easter egg un oeuf de Pâques en chocolat

white/dark chocolate chocolat blanc/noir

milk chocolate chocolat au lait

chocolate powder chocolat en poudre

chocolate brown, chocolate-coloured chocolat

-from the online French dictionary compiled by Neil Coffey

french-linguistics.co.uk/dictionary/

Claude Chabrol 24 Juin 1930 - 12 Septembre 2010

http://movies.nytimes.com/person/84594/Claude-Chabrol/biography

La Cérémonie, 1995

The movie is based on the English book A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell

Merci pour la chocolat, 2006

The movie is an adaptation of the American novel The Chocolate Cobweb by Charlotte Armstrong

La photo: On the grounds of the Di Rosa Art Preserve in Napa Valley, California. Juillet 2010.

Continuons: B - partie deux

B est pour Boudu sauvé des eaux

At first I was going to just write about the film Boudu starring Gerard Depardieu that was released in 2005. Until I found out that it was actually a remake. And not even the first. In fact, in 1986, Nick Nolte starred in American director Paul Mazursky's version: Down and Out in Beverly Hills. I tracked down the original and the director is no less than the son of French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Boudu sauvé des eaux is my first encounter with Jean Renoir's work. I was, until now, ignorant of his fame and critical acclaim. When Renoir died in 1979, Orson Welles wrote a tribute in the Los Angeles times calling him "The Greatest of all Directors".

Michel Simon stars as a tramp named Boudu who is saved from drowning. His bourgeouis savior, Lestingois, invites him into his house to recover. The film is about the the rescue and the ensuing complications and consequences.

So how does the original Boudu of Renoir and Simon in Paris fare against Nick Nolte in Beverly Hills and Gerard Depardieu in Aix-en-Provence?

Obviously I "understood" the American version a lot more than both French versions not only because of the language but also the culture- though not specifically Beverly Hills. When I saw Boudu with Gerard Depardieu I was already familiar with his work (imdb.com lists over 150 movies he's been in since 1967) and though I saw the movie in French it was subtitled. Linguistically I understood almost nothing of the original since my DVD version didn't have subtitles and my French is not that good, yet. Also I hadn't heard of the director nor the actors. Still, armed with having already seen the the remakes I had enough information about the plot and I was able to pay more attention to the direction, the cinematography and the acting.

Despite my limited understanding of the dialogue, I liked Jean Renoir's version filmed in black and white the best. I prefer the Parisian location and Michel Simon is my favorite Boudu. While watching the film there were moments where Simon reminded me off Nolte and Depardieu's rendition– when I realized, oh it's actually the other way around if anything. Either Nolte and Depardieu based their Boudus on Simon's or they all have a good "tramp" in them.

I thought Renoir's version had the best ending of the three. Yet, I must say that the film isn't laugh-out-loud funny like some scenes in the later versions– it is hard to identify with the 1930s and we are a more sophisticated film audience. I'd have to say, almost as a warning, that this version is one for fans of Renoir, Simon, or hard-core cinemaphiles.

Orson Welles on Jean Renoir
http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=120

La photo: Strasbourg, août 2010.

Continouns: B - partie une --> Belle de Jour

B is for Belle de Jour

I'd heard of this movie many years before I watched it just a few days ago. I didn't know much about it except that it was French, starred Catherine Deneuve and was about a housewife turned prostitute.

On my previous visits to the local library I had decided against renting it out even though it was directed by famous and critically acclaimed Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel. However, on my last visit- well there wasn't much left in the B section that I hadn't seen so I consoled myself with the fact that though the "housewife-turned-prostitute" plot wasn't turning me on, seeing something by Buñuel did interest me.

I'd taken a film colloquium in college. Bien sûr, the silent surrealist short "Un Chien Andalou" written and directed by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, released in Paris in 1929 was a must-see on the syllabus. To say the least, it's a very memorable film. 38 years years later "Belle de jour" is released. 44 years later, I watch the movie.

The beginning is quite shocking, even though- certainly since Buñuel's time- films have become even more shocking and graphic. It looks so simple, somehow innocent until we get a glimpses of what Denueve's character, Séverine Serizy's daydreams are about. Catherine Deneuve plays both characters Séverine and her alter ego Belle with equal coolness and yet an emotional yearning comes through- for both characters. For me it became a double-story, more and more intertwined and in the end... well I don't want to spoil it. Suffice to say, I was glad I saw it. It's a cinematic milestone that francophiles and cinema buffs shouldn't miss.

Trailer in French with English subtitles

La photo: Street leading to the gothic Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg with traditional half-timbered houses on one side and flain façades on the other. On all sides, vendors of all types. Strasbourg, France. Août 2010.

Restarting at A

The theme of recommencer continues...

A is for ailleurs/elsewhere

"Mon père continue à conduire en regardant droit devant lui, ma mère est déjà ailleurs."

The mot of note from this week's French lesson is ailleurs and is from a children's book that I'm reading peu à peu with my French teacher. When I've finished the book, I'll divulge the the title, author and illustrator.

A is for Antonieta

Qui est-elle? Spanish director Carlos Saura (perhaps best known for his film Carmen, 1983) tells the story of Maria Antonieta Rivas Mercado through a French psychologist who is researching suicides of famous women. Antonieta is the story of a Mexican francophile, intellectual, writer, feminist and arts patron during the time of a bloody Mexican revolution.

Although I saw this film in French with German subtitles and indeed, Antonieta, is played by the French actress Isabelle Adjani and the other main character Anna is a French psychologist (played by German actress and chanson singer, Hanna Schygulla)– research for this post reveals that it is indeed a Spanish film (thanks for the info, IMDb). I cannot imagine Adjani or Schygulla speaking in Spanish, though. And it didn't seem to me that the film was dubbed. So, even though it's been verified by IMDb I wonder on.

For fans of Carlos Saura and this film: a link to an interview in 1982 by Valeria Ciompi

Antonieta, Carlos Saura Between the Past and the Present

(from a book of Interviews with Carlos Saura, edited by Linda M. Willem, 2003)

Le photo: Merci Monsieur Foufou. Rocamadour, France. Mai 2009.

I Do

I did take a break from French lessons, but as evidenced by the past posts- not from chocolat.

I'm back now and restarting my efforts to go beyond the level of debutante and reach intermédiare: j'ai recommencé à prendre des leçons de français et à regarder des films en français.

I'm back to weekly lessons albeit sans devoirs. I'd love to view French movies in lieu of the weekly homework so I made a start, or more aptly recommencer with Prête-moi ta main. The English title is I Do - How to Get Married and Stay Single.

It stars acteur/réalisateur Alain Chabat and actrice/chanteuse Charlotte Gainsbourg and was directed by Eric Lartigau. I found it to be an entertaining romantic comedy with a cute twist. Few of the romantic comedies I've watched have been able to balance realism and imagination and be funny.

There are a lot of comedies that I've seen that were funny because they were also incredibly unrealistic or not funny because they were too realistic. I think this comedy does a great job with "real" characters in an imaginative situation where the pressures are real enough though one might not try out the solution posed in this movie. What am I referring to exactly? A trailer or the three-minute review by ecran total podcast can best explain the charm of this comédie romantique and help you to decide whether you say "I do" to seeing the fillm.

Ecran total podcasts - radio reviews of films in French but not necessarily French films.

Review of Prêt-moi ta main (numéro 166) released July 10, 2010 - free download on Apple Itunes.

For francocinemaphiles: Francofille

Follow Londoner Rachel Malcolm as she documents her mission to watch 52 French Films in 2010

francofille.com

recommencer to begin again

Attention: recommencer à + verbe à l'infinitif

Les photos: Having a snack of foie Gras at the Galeries Lafayette Berlin. The French Boucher can advise you in German, English and bien sûr en français! Mai 2010.

ANGEL-A

Rie Rasmussen stars in French director Luc Besson's film Angel-A. You might look at her and be impressed by her beauty (yes, she's modelled) or her height- especially in this film since it seems to be in a starring role itself. You might be impressed by her acting.

The movie is shot in black and white in Paris. It's very poetic and funny. It's also shot in French.

Rie Rasmussen was sent an English script and offered the part. She said yes instead of "oui" because she couldn't speak French then.

Rembobiner. Oui! So I go look take a look at that film again. Not only does she speak French in the film but in the features on the DVD, she's speaking partly in French, too. She looks relaxed. She definitely doesn't come off as someone who's struggling with the language.

Googler. 1 month to 3 and 1/2 months. Depending on which interview you read- that's how fast she learned French for her role. She did admit in an interview that learning French was the hardest part of the film project for her. How did she do it? She immersed herself: went to Paris, had a coach, made French friends. Not to mention that she had as motivation the paid opportunity to work with a famous director.

Not all of us are going to be as lucky as that- to find heavenly circumstances in which to learn French. Still we can watch the results of one woman's success and perhaps find inspiration in that.

rembobiner to rewind (tape, film)
googler found this on the online dictionary as the equivalent of the accepted American verb to google® but there is still debate as to how commonly it is used in France.
chercher sur google search on google

View the trailer to Angel A in French with English subtitles
www.apple.com/trailers

More on Rie Rasmussen and a little about her learning French on: www.movies.online
www.thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.com

More on "google" being declared a verb
www.arstechnica.com



La photo: Un macaque de Barbarie à Rocamadour dans la forêt des singes. Mai 2009; merci Mr_FF

Bibliothèque Municipale

Back to the library to rent out some French DVDs (though for the time being I've abandoned choosing alphabetically at my local library).

En moment, je suis à New York. In the past weeks that I've been in la grande pomme I've heard a lot of French. En fait, du moment je suis arrivée. In the airport, while waiting in line for a ride to my final destination in the city, a Swiss woman is in front of me. The dispatcher is calling for help; he needs a French translator. I wondered how long it would take to find someone and before I could finish my thoughts I heard the woman say "Bonjour..." and begin to explain her problème. Someone French speaking had been found- mais ce n'est pas moi.

I haven't been yet bold enough to engage in conversation with the various French speakers I've heard. I smiled at the nanny commanding her toddler charge to "viens ici" repeatedly though he didn't come nearer. I looked on as a threesome of French speakers ordered different varieties of croissants. My ears perked up with recognition everytime I heard French being spoken but my tongue went to the cat.

I decided the cat wouldn't nip my mind- specifically my aural comprehension. It seems that listening would be what I would be doing for the meantime (with the exception of my weekly French conversation class).

Off I went to the local library and checked out three dvds at random and watched (with sous-titres) and listened to them in this order:

Paris, je t'aime
Clara et moi
Les Temps qui changent

La photo: Un lion sur les grouns du parc national de Kruger en Afrique du Sud.Octobre 2007.