I took several years of French in high school but wasn't all that serious about it. Thinking back now though, it would be a damned shame if I just forgot everything. I've made up my mind to learn the language enough to speak/write fluently.
Please recommend me some good French films/books
Films can be of any genre, preferably either action or drama.
For books I'm thinking something easy, not adult level but maybe famous children's books at around The Hobbit/Tom Sawyer/Harry Potter level? IIRC written French has completely different verb conjugations than spoken, so that'll probably be quite challenging.
Brice de Nice, another comedy. Its pretty funny, though I think the sketches are funnier (You can YouTube them)
Bon Cop Bad Cop, it's a french Canadian movie, so the dialects/accent might take a little getting used. Though it's also in english, so you can put the english subtitles on, so if you miss something in french, you can read the subtitles to pick it up.
Polytechnique It's a movie for the 20th anniversary of the shooting in Montreal. Shot in black in white, it's very powerful.
On December 09 2011 00:09 TigerGosu1 wrote: les miserables cyrano de bergerac
While Victor Hugo, Edmond Rostand, or even Alexandre Dumas ( the tree musqueteer, 20 year later ... ) have written amazing piece of french litterature, these migth be a bit hard for someone who is not fluent in french ( as would read the original version of The Lord Of the Ring would be for a non native english speaker. I of course recommend reading these book, but if it is a bit too old fashioned, here re some other idea :
Crime Fiction
I recommend every single book written by Fred Vargas. Great stories, nice ending most of the time, not too hard to read, go ahead.
Fantasy
ONe of my favorite french fantasy author is Mathieu Gaborit, and i'd especially recommend "Les chroniques crépusculaire", amazing fantasy book.
Science Fiction
The way to go is to read "The warrior of silence ( Les guerriers du Silence)" by Pierre Bordage.
All these book should not be too difficult to read, and hopefully will entertain you Enjoy !
On December 09 2011 00:04 Newbistic wrote: IIRC written French has completely different verb conjugations than spoken, so that'll probably be quite challenging.
Conjugations are the same, but the "ne" for negative sentences are often omitted, and there are some weird elision. "Je ne sais pas" will just sound like "Chais pas".
On December 09 2011 00:31 HwangjaeTerran wrote: Les 120 journées de Sodome
I love it, but it's not for everyone!
It's an Italian movie.
I'd recommend "Contre-enquête" and "Ne le dis à personne". There are some great comedies like "Le dîner de cons" and "Le père Noël est une ordure" but it might not be easy to understand all the puns for a non-native speaker.
EDIT: realised that was a shit post - it's an action film about a retired gangster don/boss who gets shot 22 times in a parking lot and takes revenge on the underworld
I have a few movies for you :D These 3 are one of my favourites, in any language because they are interesting and quite different and there are a few really powerful or good scenes. I won't give sypnosises because I don't like it, feels like a milder version of spoilers to me...
Nos jours heureux - comedy/drama L'auberge espagnole - comedy/drama Un prophète (nothing to do with religion here) - mafia
IIRC written French has completely different verb conjugations than spoken,
I think it's the same... it's just that the simple past tense isn't used in speech.
Les Lascars movie too. This is just an episode of their series
(Could someone write down what are they saying? I didn't get everything.)
I read the translation of it for my English class my senior year in high school and it was one of the best books I have ever read, so I assume the original is pretty good too, haha (probably better).
From wikipedia: "...its content explores various philosophical schools of thought, including (most prominently and specifically) absurdism, as well as determinism, nihilism, naturalism, and stoicism."
However, since it's a novel, the reading level might be a little bit advanced since you are getting back into French (but I have no idea, you'll just have to see).
I second "Le Dîner de Cons" - a really funny comedy
Also, one of my personal favorites is "La Grande Illusion" - it's a older film set during WWI and brings up some really interesting themes of class, nationality, and war. I saw it a while ago, and as I recall it wasn't too difficult to understand
On December 09 2011 02:00 JieXian wrote: (Could someone write down what are they saying? I didn't get everything.)
In case someone else would be interested, I'll just put it in spoilers here : + Show Spoiler +
-Hé ho, mais vous faites quoi là bordel ? -Stationnement illicite monsieur, je verbalise. -Putain vous déconnez, j'étais juste en train de faire une course là. -Mais je fais mon métier -Mais merde je vous dit que ça fait à peine trois minutes que je suis garé là -Et le moteur est froid, monsieur -Bordel mais je viens voir un pote qui est malade vous allez pas faire la pute quand même ! -Pardon ?! -C'est pas possible ça, on se gare deux minutes et y'a toujours une connasse de contractuelle pour vous mettre une prune -Ah c'est comme ça hein! Eh bien on va voir si je suis une connasse! (c'est ça!) +300 francs pour insulte à agent (grosse truie) -De toute façon je la paierai pas ta putain d'amende -Qu'est-ce qui se passe ici monsieur ? -Il se passe que votre salope de collègue là, elle m'aligne des prunes pour me faire chier -Ah je vous en prie hein surveillez votre langage -Mais vas-y ferme ta gueule toi grande asperge je t'emmerde moi -Ah c'est comme ça, très bien monsieur, + 3000, +500 + 1... -Ah là ok c'est ça, amusez vous bien bande de salopes...
[...]
-Mais qu'est-ce que c'est ça ? Qu'est-ce que c'est... Oh les garces ! Oh les putes ma bagnole dit ! Salope !
Read the whole Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin serie The movie is not bad, the books are better tho. Easy to find (the books I mean) on freeware pdf books sites like http://www.ebooksgratuits.com/ebooks.php?auteur=Leblanc_Maurice . 813 is a good one to start L'Agence Barnett et Cie is one of my favorites (it's a book with multiples novels)
That's a great idea. I keep remembering then forgetting that I want to read the Arsene Lupin books in English, might as well read them in French instead.
This thread gives the impression that there is nothing but comedies in French film
If you like social film in Ken Loach style, you can try some of the movies by the Dardenne brothers (they are Belgian but French-speaking). A recent (2009) drama recommendation : Un prophète by Audiard. In termes of animated movies, I would recommend Kirikou. It's geared towards a younger audience, but probably good for that reason if you are (re-)learning the language, and it's not stupid either (nice art too).
Regarding books, and expanding on what was said earlier : Hugo is the best you can read in French, but it's definitely not something you want to start with. Djian is probably a better start, but that's still above Harry Potter level. Nothomb maybe, but I don't like her writing... All my female friends do though, so who knows. In addition, I would advise, like others have done, to read some bande dessinée, many series are really good (despite a similar media, the genre is very different from either manga or US comics).
You must watch OSS 117 with Jean Dujardin. It's a bit of a spy comedy where he plays OSS 117, the equivalent of one 007, but French, smooth with the ladies and dumb as dumb comes.. great films... there are older OSS films, but I still prefer the two the Jean Dujardin.
Drama : Jeux d'enfants (2003) Ne le dis à personne Je vais bien ne t'en fais pas Père et fils C.R.A.Z.Y (Film Canadien) Le scaphandre et le papillon Le premier jour du reste de ta vie
Comédie : On connait la chanson L'auberge espagnole La cité de la peur Le dîner de cons Les trois frères
Action/Policier : Léon Nikita Mesrine, l'instinct de mort (Part I) Mesrine, l'ennemi public n°1 (Part II) Les rivières pourpres Largo Winch
Regarding French books, I recommand those writers : Voltaire (classic) : Candide, Zadig... Bernard Werber : L'encyclopédie du savoir relatif et absolu (easy and quick to read), le cycle des fourmis, le cycle des dieux Michel Houellebecq : Les Particules élémentaires, La Possibilité d'une île Frédéric Beigbeder : 99 francs Jean-Christophe Grangé Anna Gavalda Katherine Pancol : Les Yeux jaunes des crocodiles, La Valse lente des tortues, Les écureuils de Central Park sont tristes le lundi
I guess it's much more difficult to recommand a book than a movie, you'll spend much more time reading it then watching the movie so the disappointment can be bigger. Hope you enjoy the most of it anyway
As long as movies as concerned i'd second people recommanding: Baise moi (but it's hard to watch, some pornographic stuff inside but really great) La haine Un prophète
Books it really depends on your level, but there are a lot of awesome stuff, especially in poetry but it's a bit hard to begin with.
On an easy and interesting level I'd recommand L'étranger de Camus, someone mentionned it earlier, one of the best french books of the 2nd half of the 20th century imo Germinal de Zola, somewhat of a "classic" and the famest Zola's book Notre Dames de Paris de Hugo, great, a total classic and just a really good book (and there is a shitty Disney movie, easier to understand the scenario)
If you're determined to read hard stuff if would recommand that:
Hernani from Hugo (his best play of theahter imo) Some poetry, just choose, but I think something from Alfred Musset and Guillaume Appolinnaire (19th and 20th century) could be really interesting. Anything from Rabelais, famest book is Gargantua but everything is good. Something from Celine (how a nazi can be one of the best french author ever), Mort à Crédit or Voyage au bout de la nuit (this one is... disturbing, it just modifies your vision of the world) And something from the Marquis de Sade, scandalous but excellent.
The main advantage about reading poetry is that you don't have to read thousands of pages to enjoy it, even if you spend 20minutes on a short poem, it just improves so much your vocabulary and culture ^^
Les triplettes de Belleville Micmacs à tire-larigot Le grand blue La cité des enfants perdus Les enfants de Timpelbach
Les rivières pourpres Les rivières pourpres II - Les anges de l'apocalypse Baise moi La Haine Un prophète Yamakasi - Les samouraïs des temps modernes Banlieue 13 Banlieue 13 - Ultimatum
The Chorus is a good French film, it's very easy to pick up if you're not fluent (it doesn't use any complicated language) and the music in it is fantastic.
EPT
