Discoveries in Language
-
Showing posts tagged movie
-
Summer Class
I’ve returned to Long Island again this summer to take my second class at the Alliance Française (French Institute) in New York City. Last year I took the Translation and Listening Comprehension course and I’m following up on that this year with the Translation and Conversation class. Registration is quite expensive, especially with the added train fare for the commute, but students automatically receive one year of membership for free with access to library materials and free entry to some events.
I’m enjoying this year’s class a lot more than the last. The atmosphere is very laid back and our small group allows more intimate discussion. Even so, I have to say the Haskell Library is my favorite part of taking classes with FIAF. I take three movies out each week and I have a few books that I’ve been reading in between watching films. You can expect to see some movie reviews in the future!
-
Movie Reviews
Over the next few days I’m going to start putting up some reviews of the French movies I’ve watched so far this summer so I thought I’d just make a quick post to explain the format I’ll be using:
Overview: Here is where I will give basic information on the film, plot details, my opinion of it, etc.
English title: Here I will write the English title of the movie as foreign film titles aren’t always directly translated when they are brought to another country.
Language notes: Here I will give my opinion on the difficulty of the language in the film based roughly for those at the B1/B2 or intermediate level of French comprehension.
Netflix: Here I will list the movie’s availability on Netflix for those who wish to watch it without having to purchase it.
-
L’Armée du Crime
Overview: This is the first film from the FIAF library that I watched this summer. It wasn’t exactly what I expected. The story is about a group of immigrants fighting against Nazi occupation of France during World War II. From the description I found on IMDB it almost sounded like an action movie but in reality the film focuses more on the human aspect of things and the individuals involved with the resistance. I should have known this however as I saw another film by that same director, La Ville est Tranquille, and it seems to be his style.
English title: The Army of Crime
Language notes: I found the French audio track to be quite difficult to understand. The speech was often too quiet to hear and the background noise far too loud.
Netflix: Both films mentioned in this post can be viewed through Netflix. L’Armée du Crime is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and Streaming while La Ville est Tranquille is DVD only.
-
Elle est des nôtres
Overview: I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this film based on the plot summary I found on IMDB. I found a much better one on Netflix just now:
Patricia (Catherine Mouchet), an office worker, is found murdered, and all at once, her much-too-efficient workplace falls into disarray. The perpetrator is Christine (Sasha Andres), who, unbeknownst to those around her, has become victim to the nullifying alienation of her everyday life, an existence that has led her to kill … or be bored to death. Carlo Brandt and Eric Caravaca co-star in director Siegrid Alnoy’s stylized film.
I’ll admit that I didn’t really like this movie. It’s a bizarre film that seems awkward and even made me feel a bit uncomfortable at certain points. There was a scratch on the library’s copy that I think may have caused the player to skip over an important chapter which rendered the rest of the movie rather confusing and honestly quite boring.
English Title: She’s One of Us
Language Notes: The French audio track was easy enough to understand with little background noise/music to interrupt the dialogue.
Netflix: Available on DVD. -
Son frère
Overview: Based on it’s IMDB description, I knew this would be an emotional film. The story is about two brothers. When Thomas discovers he has a dangerous blood disease, he reaches out to the brother Luc, whom he hasn’t spoken to in years, asking Luc to accompany him to the hospital. During the course of the movie, we learn a great deal about both characters, including Luc’s preference for male partners. Though this film is not rated, I would give it no less than an R for nudity and blatant gay sex scenes. This should not deter adult audiences however as the movie is both beautiful and thought provoking.
English title: His Brother
Language notes: I found the French audio quite easy to understand. As Thomas spends much of his time in the hospital, it’s a good introduction to some medical vocabulary as well.
Netflix: Available on DVD.
-
Le Pacte des Loups
Overview: Here’s another French fantasy film that I picked up for it’s rare genre. The plot involves a mysterious beast that has been terrorizing the countryside. Two men are sent to fight the evil—a chevalier and his Native American assistant; however a mystery much deeper than they could have imagined is taking place beneath the surface. The actual story is by far more complicated unfortunately. The film leads us along many unexpected twists and turns that leave you guessing what will happen next, but also leave the viewer feeling jaded from the convoluted complexity, and length. On a positive note, the acting was very good and the fight scenes and action sequences were thrilling. The film is just over two hours long and rated R for “Strong violence and gore, and sexual nudity”. In French culture, films are more likely to get a higher rating based on blood and violence than sex and nudity.
English title: Brotherhood of the Wolf
Language notes: I found the French audio to be about medium difficulty. The dialogue was often fast-spoken with some syllables clipped.
Netflix: Available on DVD.
-
Dante 01
Overview: I grabbed this film off the library shelf right away as French fantasy and science fiction films seem to be quite rare. Netflix lists the following plot summery:
Set in a maximum-security penitentiary and psychiatric research facility in space, this dark futuristic tale begins with the arrival of prisoner Saint Georges (Lambert Wilson), who has just survived a horrific alien attack that has left him with unusual powers. Saint Georges battles the forces within him and struggles to control his powers in this experimental sci-fi thriller from writer-director Marc Caro.
This movie sort of recalls The Matrix for it’s set design and the sort of bizarre feeling you get from watching it. Overall the film was interesting enough with the focus being on the relationships built between the prisoners, their overseers, and each group’s view of the other. The ending however was fuzzy and left me feeling a bit lost.
English title: Dante 01
Language Notes: The French audio wasn’t very difficult to hear or understand.
Netflix: Available on DVD.
-
Innocence
Overview: IMDB has little to offer by way of a plot description:
A look inside an offbeat boarding school for young girls.
This description offers both nothing and everything there is to need about this film.
The story is about a boarding school for young girls that are separated into numbered houses with each house having a precise number of girls. The rolls of each girl rotates at the end of each year when the eldest leaves the house to venture out into the real world while a new youth is simultaneously added to the group to replace the one lost. Though as spectators we know little about how the girls have come to live at the school or why they are there, we can sense that it is a film about growing up. There’s a sort of dream-like quality about the film, a sense that something isn’t quite right, a latent menage that may be attributed as the girl’s fears of growing up and seeing the outside world for the first time.
Though bizarre, I found the film quite intriguing. I think it’s worth watching at least once for the beautiful music and imagery even if the surreal world it proposes is difficult to latch onto.
English title: Innocence
Language notes: The film focuses heavily upon music and imagery so the script contains less dialgue than most movies. Also, because most of the characters are young girls, the dialogue that is spoken is very simple and easy to understand.
Netflix: Available on DVD.
