September2011
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A very nicely done documentary on young people from an ordinary background
preparing to enter the competition to qualify for a place at one of
France's Grandes Ecoles - traditionally reserved for the élite And what a teacher ! Linguistically this is tricky because of the voices of the young people - always difficult to follow |
I am addicted to French TV nostalgia shows like this one 50 ans de la télé. They are the cultural history of a whole society. In this clip, note particularly a programme called Ca se discute, and its presenter Jean-Luc Delarue. We will see him again in a couple of days... | |
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| There was a time when the BBC used to put on programmes 'to edify and educate'. Not any more, on the main channels anyway. France Télévision has made a commitment to quality, but still has to attract audiences with popular shows. This one went on fairly late at night. It is narrated by Gérard Miller, psychoanalyst and talk-show persoanlity, and is about the French follower of Sigmund Freud Jacques Lacan. Look, we can't have comic sketches all the time.. | The clip above, 50 ans de la télé introduced us to a young man called Jean-Luc Delarue. Many years on, and after conquering his drug habit, he has returned to France Télévisions with Réunion de famille, the sort of programme where people who have problems in relating to their nearest and dearest bare their souls before millions of viewers. Here are the last few minutes of the first programme. I love the moment when he quotes Winston Churchill.. | |
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| Thierry Le Luron was the impersonator who set the standard for all who followed him. We have examples of his sketches on this site, but this is an extract from a series called Un jour un destin, which narrates the lives of celebrities. In this clip we see how he appeared first on a TV talent show - as a singer of operetta - but quickly showed his great talent as an impersonator. A great, but tortured, personality | Here is the brilliant Laurent Baffie, theatre director, writer of sketches for Jean-Marie Bigard, and here, performer in his own one-man show. Where he makes his audience work for there money... He speaks very fast, and his diction is by no means perfectly clear, but the sound quality in the theatre is excellent | |
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| This clip is taken from Rire ensemble contre le racisme, a very enthusiastic and noisy charity show broadcast by FranceTélévisions. Here is Max Boublil, a young and very trendy comic, known for his song Ce soir tu vas prendre.. Not at all easy to follow, but some very good gags. | Recently France 4 has screened some 'two-hander' plays from the comedy duo Les Chevaliers du fiel. This one was Repas de famille, between two brothers-in-law, and their spouses, sisters. One couple are teachers, and unsurprisingly left-wingers. The other couple are in the coach-building business, and well to the right. Linguistically it's not easy; they use a fairly heavy accent (of Toulouse, I think), but the diction is pretty clear | |
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| September, la rentrée, and Laurence Piquet is back Thursday nights to give us our weekly dose of culture in Un soir...This time it was a 2 hour documentary on the publisher Gallimard. French documentaries are magnificent, because the directors all think they're Godard. But in this clip you have a reading from Joyce with this wonderful picture of Marilyn reading him, a letter from Céline, and all read beautifully by the voice-overs | Recently having celebrated the 20th anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty, LCP has done a series of programmes on the justice system. Here are the reminiscences of some well known French barristers. They have a distinctive manner of speech, with pauses between words, which comes, one supposes, from the habit of speaking impromptu in public | |
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| To finish September, here is Erik le Viking, version française. As always with cult films, the dubbing studios do a very good job, and the funny voices and intimate dialogue are well rendered. Which makes it harder to understand, of course. But worthwhile.. |
