French movies
 

Hey guys!

So when I first came to the US, I didn't speak a lick of English. And yes, I did the basics, such as learn the alphabet, which was taught to me by my grandfather who served as a translator between South Korean and US forces in Vietnam. But I think that biggest thing that really helped me learn the language was watching movies. For me, that movie was The Lion King. As well as a whopping ton of Power Rangers. :p

I figured if at the age of 5 watching movies in English can help, watching French movies at the age of 20 should have some positive impact. :D

SO!! If you know any good French movies please let me know! I don't mean like awesome French action movies or anything, but something that's just.. well.. rich in French culture. I'm always trying to find new French movies to watch, but so far have been limited(not in a bad way!) to Audrey Tautou movies (I friggen LOVE Amelie). I've also been obessed with Anthony Bourdain's No Reservation on the Travel Channel ever since I saw the France episode, but I would like to expand. :D

French movies
 

Great idea. I too would like to know if anybody knows any. I've been learning Spanish watching tv, but they speak soo fast, it hard.

Lord of the Rings in FRENCH!!!

With about 4 hours of French Talking how can you go wrong!

Hahaa, I'm sure it would be amazing, but I meant something with more culture-y depth to it.

I mean, if someone wanted to learn English or just something with more "Americaness" to it, I wouldn't suggest movies like The Transporter or Man on Fire. I'd suggest movies like Pretty Woman, Catch Me if You Can, Saving Private Ryan, or Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Not saying that The Transporter or Man On Fire are bad movies, just not what I'm looking for.

oh my lawdy!

whatever you do, don't watch English movies with French subtitles, as teachers like to do. It doesn't do dick.

French cinema is very interesting and different from the summer action flicks we're used to. They're artsy. What I've noticed, in French movies it seems more preferable to have a somewhat slow story but strong characters rather than explosions and flying cars, you can easily go 45 minutes without any dialogue, the endings aren't really the "good guy saves the day" type of predictable endings- they're more realistic (according to the story), nudity isn't treated as a way to intrigue male viewers- it's art, and finally and more importantly it seems like most French movies were made for the pure purpose of creating the film as a work of art rather than trying to be the next box-office hit
Here are all the French movies I've seen, and I've generally enjoyed all of them
(I do not have an affinity for Audrey Tautou. It's just really easy to look her up on netflix, and just go down the list of instant play movies she's been in)
- Hors de Prix (I think my favorite French movie)
- Happenstance
- Un long dimanche des fiançailles
- Amélie
- L'iceberg (I think there's only like 14 lines in the whole movie... you can afford to skip this one)
- Baby Blues
- L'auberge Espagnole
- Les Poupées Russes (also ^ one of my favorite movies)
- Coco Avant Chanel
- He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
- Molière
- La Vie Promise
- Delicatessen (another one of those 'weird' movies that smart people like to pretend to completely understand)
- La Vie en Rose
- Le placard (not necessarily my favorite, but I'd snuggle up to watch it with a bottle of Martinelli's any day)
- Au Revoir, Les Enfants

those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head

- NO SUBTITLES
- WATCH OVER AND OVER
- PUT ON IN THE BACKGROUND AND LISTEN TO IT WHILE MULTITASKING
- repeat until fluency

I've been meaning to watch La Femme Nikita. It's a film by Luc Besson that's supposedly pretty good. I watched one scene of it because Jean Reno was in it, playing a hitman similar to his character in Léon.

Bande à part is another one I've been meaning to see. I don't even know what it's about. Some kind of crime drama, I think.

That's pretty much how I feel as well. I actually had a bit of a hard time trying to think up of any American movie equivalents of what I was looking for. The best I could come up with were the older movies. Before the current trend of summer hits came around. The first French movie I saw was Amelie, and that was the most artsy movie I've ever seen. It's a very stark contrast with the usual artistically bland blockbuster hits I'm used to.

Another thing is that movies nowadays have gotten way too predictable. All movies follow the exact same recipe. I'm hoping for some French movies that go a least a little beyond that.

One French movie that I've been meaning to watch, and that I've heard people raving about, is Irréversible. I haven't watched it, so I can't give you my take on it, and from what I understand, is not for everyone.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290673/

I've actually heard of this one as well. It was on BBC about a week ago. They had some program on showing sexual violence/sex in movies and about how the French are particularly comfortable with it. I think they were talking about how the actors were actually have sex on screen at times, and whether or not the crosses the line into pornography.

May I say that Irreversible is a very violent and sexual explicit movie.
As French I don't feel particulary comfortable with it.
This movie is a reflexion about violence and create a lot of uneasiness for the audience...

"Priceless"
Great movie, with a great actress. ;)
And, you can find it with English subtitles so you can get reinforcement as to whether you are translating correctly or not.

Suggest you buy it. :)

The closest one I can think of right now is Napoleon Dynamite

Not necessarily an engaging or even interesting plot, but still people like it

District b13 and b13 ultimatum are some good french movies, you have to look online to find them though.

My Suggestions:

Le dîner de cons (1998) - hilarious, just couldn't stop laughing
Danton (1983)
Napoléon-2002 miniseries in French

That is very true Wasabi I have been doing the same to improve my french. Here are some of my favorite french films that you might find interesting. :D:cool:

Lila dit ca (Lila says) Its kind of a chick flick but it also has a lot of raunchy and sexual stuff in the film, and as well its quite artsy. Suffice it to say its a film girls and guys can enjoy LOL!

There is a description of the film on this site if your interested in seeing it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424237/


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Martyrs
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Jesus of Montreal
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Ugh, that movie was the most overrated piece of crap that I have ever had the misfortune of watching.

Sorry to get off topic and I'm sorry that this really dates me, but I was with a dustoff (medivac) unit in, Vietnam in late 72, early 73. My main job (mos) was as an avionics mechanic, but I also flew along on missions as what was called a patient protector. At that point in the war, our helicopteres weren't allowed to have any fixed weapons. We just brought along M16s, AR15s and M79 grenade launchers. There were ROK (Korean) troops in our area that we flew in support of in addition to our own, and we had Korean translators with our unit to translate when their troops called in for a dustoff mission. So maybe I met your grand father.

Scruffydog just gained another level in Coolness

Oh wow! That's awesome, maybe you did! I'm not too sure of the dates when he was there, but if you did.. that's just an awesome coincidence!

L'Auberge Espagnole is brilliant and hilarious

Le Scaphandre Et Le Papillon if you're looking for something different

Oh and lets not forget the ever underrated Giorgino ;)
(and not just because it has Mylène in it!! It's actually quite good :eek:)

I want the l'auberge espagnole experience so bad, though I could do without William.

I forgot I also saw
- Lila dit ça (the first third or so, after "chat" and my :eek: moment I lost interest)
- Le Papillon (excellent, excellent, excellent film)
- Joyeux Noël (French, English, and German. Not exactly academy award stuff but good nonetheless)
- some cartoon whose name escapes me..... metropolis or something?

I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting

For now watch L'auberge Espagnole and Les Poupées Russes about thirty-dozen times

Giorgino is in English.

Whoops yeah I forgot about the whole "learning French" thing.... Scrub that one then, but other two are good.

huh please elaborate?

One that I liked that no one's mentioned so far is Paris J'taime.

It's a bunch of shorter.. what are they called, vignettes? But at the end, it all ties together pretty well.

I think it works just to call them "shorts"

another one I forgot

I don't actually care too much for Paris, Je t'aime.

Even for French cinéma, it's a bit too deep and artsy-fartsy for me, times what... 17 shorts/arrondisments?

A crap ton. The only one that I didn't like was the mime one. Too creepy. Mime = French version of clown. Only creepier because they don't talk. :eek:

You could also try watching cartoons, I remember watching Tintin in my French class.

I watched Tais-toi! a while back, I thought it was pretty funny and even a little bit touching :p

I only liked the mime one and the willem defoe one.

I mean that Gerard Depardieu one... what the hell was the point of that? And Nick Nolte? what's the meaning of that story?

It's open to interpretation ain't it? If you got nothing from it, that's just it I guess. I'm not too good with the artsy stuff. I only know what I like. :p

What did you guys think of Russian Dolls? I haven't seen it yet, mainly because I'm having a hard time finding a subbed copy online, but is it as good as the first one?

My biggest issue with film is I can't say whether or not a film is "good" or "bad".

When I say "good" or "bad", I'm referring to how much I enjoyed/understood the movie.

If you're looking into Russian Dolls, I presume you've already seen L'auberge espagnole.

Did you enjoy that one? Did you like the clash of different personalities and culture? did you *insert some wordy crap making me sound like a credible film buff*?

I personally, I loved both films (I believe there's even a third in the process).

Take from that what you will.

If you liked the first one, you'll like the second. If you didn't like the first one, don't bother.

Well, actually I *insert verbose opinion that uses obscure terminology and film jargon*

Well okay then, that's what I wanted to know. I mean, I did see l'auberge, and I really enjoyed it, so I guess Russians Dolls should be pretty good too then. Is it the same cast?

Just to get in the mood of things, anyone know any good French horror movies?

Check out Martyrs!! :D

French horror? Try "M. Hulot's Holiday"!
 

Wasabeeeeeee! Hey, hi!

French horror movies? Wow that "Martyrs" sounds pretty scary, I never seen it though.

How bout "The City Of Lost Children!" ("La cité des enfants perdus") - oooh, it's creepy, but really cool. From Jeunet and Caro. Same two guys that did "Delicatessen", then one of 'em (Jean-Pierre Jeunet) also directed "Amélie", "A Very Long Engagement", and the soon-to-be-released-on-US-dvd "Micmacs".

Elsewise, yeah, as some have mentioned, check out the movies of Luc Besson - they're so entertaining that you'll forget that you're not listening to English. "The Professional", "Nikita", "District B-13", and of course "Wasabi" - how could you go wrong? (He also wrote the "Transporter" movies, "The Fifth Element", "From Paris With Love", and more... but those aren't in French.) (Okay, he did the "Arthur And The Invisibles" movies, too. So, yeah, he may not be infallible)

Okay, I gotta go! But thanks for the great story about learning English by watching "The Lion King". Wondermous!

Yep and yep.

You're backkkkkkkkkk!!! Nice to hear from ya! :D

With Halloween coming up, I shall most definitely be checking out all them movies. I'm hoping that they will be better than the crap the Hollywood produces.