Wonderful bad taste and a nice accent to go with it
Text here Listen to it here. François
Feydeau is known even in our culturally benighted country for his farces (vaudevilles). The title of this play refers to a game of cards, and it is the usual combination of the marital infidelity of unlikely characters, complicated by impossible situations. But very stylish, and even with a little sadness at the end.
Here is the (very inventive) opening. M. Chanal has a new toy, a recording phonograph. He adjusts the cylinder and prepares to speak into the bell to record. Of course, the phonograph is also going to operate - accidentally - as a spy microphone on the conversations of his wife...
Text here Listen to it here. Isabelle
Albert Camus, L'Étranger, Chapter 1, first part
This is a great pleasure. L'Étranger is one of the very great novels of the 20th century. The recording I am using was made from a broadcast made in the 1950s. The voice is of the period, as clear as one could wish. There is a bonus, the reader is Albert Camus himself. Enjoy.
You will reasonably ask 'why choose an American television series - even dubbed into French? Why not stick to material that demonstrates French culture?'
Well we will have no end of that as well. However, there is a certain reality here which needs to be faced. When Anglophone material is dubbed into French, an interesting thing happens. First, the French has to follow the lip movements of the original. Because the pace of American English is distinctly slower than French, the French has to slow down. That helps us.
The other effect is quite subtle. It is rare for dubbed dialogue to capture the intimate, rather muttered sound of the original. The dubbed dialogue tends to sound 'studio produced'. In other words it's clearer. And that is a very big help.
Text here Listen to it here. François