Saturday, June 10, 2006

Television

One thing I’ve noticed about France is that the television isn’t bad at all. I think this is how a lot of people learn the language in a new country; they just sit around watching television. It certainly hasn’t hurt for me; I can now catch at least half of the words people are saying. Also, there are some pretty good things on French TV. Of course, the typical show is still four people sitting around arguing about some current affair- the French love this format, so at any time there is at least one show on with four people arguing about something. Yesterday, I sat and watched them discussing the film Marie Antoinette, which I saw last night. The group decided that it is a worthwhile film and that it might get French youth interested in l’histoire.

I’ve watched more television here than I usually do at home. A few days ago, I watched Les Simpson, which was just as funny in French. The voice actors here imitate the American voices, and do a pretty good job. I hate it when you see things dubbed into a foreign language and all of the voices are the same! The French fellow who does the Homer Simpson voice is quite good, although the French Marge Simpson is annoying. The French Moe is ridiculously annoying, but the French Bart and Lisa are actually a bit better than the American versions. We have a German professor who apparently learned English by watching the Simpsons when he first came to the states, so I’m not alone in this idea!

Last night, I saw a great movie about a Palestinian girl in love with a young Israeli soldier. It was your typical forbidden love story, and quite good. It’s strange to think that I’ve never seen any movies about Israel on American television, considering that we have a closer relationship to them than the French do. Anyway, I never did catch the name of the film, but it was enjoyable. Also, it was all subtitled in French, so I could keep up.

After that, there was a movie about a man who kidnaps a prostitute and keeps her in his basement. About half an hour in, the audience is made aware that the prostitute is a pre-op transsexual, which adds a whole other wrinkle to things. I can’t say that I remember seeing an erect penis on public television before, and I think I would remember! Anyway, it was sort of a depressing movie, so I went to sleep.

1 comment:

Rufus said...

It is! It sounds like a 70 year old smoker trying to imitate the original Marge! It's so funny. I actually like French Lisa though, and French Homer's not bad.

My favorite so far is French Scooby Doo though.