The French Journal

France looks again at "La Résistance"

The question of France's role in World War II has been re-opened for discussion with the television broadcast in the country of "La Résistance," (The Guardian, U.K.). Consisting of two docu-dramas and four documentaries, the series aims to swing the pendulum back from an era when Collaborationist guilt impacted the view of France's history to a measured evaluation which also considers the heroism that many demonstrated during the war. The two dramatizations depict, in one episode, acts of defiance that characterized daily life, and, in the other, attempts to help Jews avoid persecution. The four documentaries elaborate on those themes, with segments on passive and armed resistance; stories about French Jews who fought against deportment; and an examination of the numbers of French Jews who survived the era, and why.

If you speak French, the site of France 2, one of the channels showing the films, has videos and background materials about the programs. (Nothing I can embed, alas.)

What France watched on television - 2007

I'm absolutely fascinated by pop culture recaps, so all of you are condemned to suffer due to my obsessions. Next up are the top rated, most watched television shows in France in 2007, courtesy of iMedias.

The World Rugby Cup games, played this year in France, captured seven places in the top ten; the U.K. - France semi-final was in the number one position for the year, with over 18-million viewers. Presidential politics -- the Royal/Sarkozy debate and a November interview with the omnipresident -- captured two other top ten spots. The only traditional entertainment program in the highest ranks was the Caravane des enfoirés, an all-star musical concert which raises money for charity.

The top-rated French series was Joséphine: ange gardien, featuring tiny actress Mimie Mathy. In the macro sense, overwhelming the top 100 were various iterations of the American police series, CSI (called Les Experts in France), which took up almost half of the slots on the list.

Other items of note include a broadcast of the 2003 French film, Tais-toi, with Gérard Depardieu and Jean Reno; at # 16, it was the highest ranking broadcast of a movie for the year. A special presentation about singer Grégory Lemarchal following his death attracted over 10-million viewers, and a two-part mini-series, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, starring popular actor Gérard Jugnot, was a big success with audiences (although less so with critics).

Finally, one item of interest...every program in the top 100 was on the network TF1, an unprecendented occurence.

Les Escapades de Petitrenaud

One of the odder Francophile addictions that I've developed lately is for a show on TV5 called Les Escapades de Petitrenaud. Jean-Luc Petitrenaud is an owlish food critic with the manner of an old-maid uncle who everybody loves. In the weekly episodes of his program, he or one of his lieutenants traipses to a Paris bistro or area of France to fuss over and eventually enjoy the preparation of regional cuisines. The attractions for me are multiple: snooping around the kitchens of unfamiliar (but evidently good) Paris restaurants, drooling over the preparations of regional cuisine, training myself to recognize the words for the various ingredients. (Side note: A bigger challenge for me than French cheese is the French words for various kinds of fish.) If you're interested, you can sample an episode on France5.fr; the link is above; click on "Voir la video." BTW, it's in French and without subtitles.

Sarkozy on 60 Minutes

Beaucoup d'American Francophile bloggers are highlighting the Leslie Stahl interview on 60 Minutes with Nicolas Sarkozy, and I am too weak to resist a post about it myself. You can watch it here. The feature is mostly a personality piece. Lots of press coverage was generated because Sarko supposedly stormed off the interview as a result of questions about his marriage; that's not quite the case, but you will see several flashes of temper (plus some joking around).

What's popular in France: September 2007

I skipped August's entry on what's at the top of the charts in France to avoid summer doldrums and reporting on too much of the "same old, same old." Let's see what changes can happen in French pop culture after a two month break.

• Music. Recent Anglo releases by James Blunt (All the Lost Souls) and Ben Harper (Lifeline in Stories) shared top spots with Vanessa Paradis and multicultural musician Manu Chao (La Radiolina). Chao is French born, but sings in many languages; a video of "Panik, Panik," one of his recordings, heads this post
• Books. First up, a few familiar titles. L'Aube, le soir, ou la nuit/Dawn, Evening, or Night, Yasmina Reza's portrait of Sarkozy; Ni d'Adam ni d'Eve/Neither Adam's nor Eve's, Amelie Nothomb's Prix Goncourt-nominated telling of her engagement to a Japanese man; and L'élégance du hérisson/The Elegance of the Hedgehog, a novel about a concierge in Paris, all sold well. The seventh Harry Potter book, both in English and in its upcoming French language version, moved lots of copies (or orders, as the case may be), as did a couple of graphic novels Le Petit Spirou T.13: Fais de beaux rêves/Little Spiro, Book 13: Made of Beautiful Dreams and Naruto, Book 31. Finally, I found it reassuring that La conjugaison pour tous/Conjugation for Everyone was popular; it's not just maladroit Americans like me who need help with French verbs!
• Television: Basically, except for some American retreads (CSI: Miami) and a speech by M. Le Président, it was all about the World Rugby Cup games in September.
• Movies. The big hits were American, notably Ratatouille and La Vengeance dans la peau (a.k.a. The Bourne Ultimatum). Popular French films over recent weeks have been the comic 3 Amis, L'invité (starring Daniel Auteuil in a sit-com about a dinner party), and the Claude Chabrol film La fille coupée en deux (The Girl Cut in Two).

The two most critically successful French films so far this year have been Ceux qui restent/Those Left Behind, about a man and a woman coping with mortally ill spouses, and the animated film Persepolis, which is based on a graphic novel about a young girl in Iran and which is France's submission for the Best Foreign Film Oscar.

This week on PBS: "The Anti-Americans"

It's with mixed emotions that I note on PBS this week is a news special called The Anti-Americans, an analysis of anti- and pro-US feelings abroad. The documentary spends time in France and England on the negative side; Poland is shown as being positive. I haven't seen the show yet, so I can't judge its content. Given that there's been a perceived thaw in Franco-American relations, PBS's timing isn't optimal, from a Francophile point of view, but I'll withhold any further comment until I see it.

The clip at the beginning of this post is from the show; The Guignols, the satiric puppets that are almost a French institution, are the subject of this bit. It's important to remember, as one of the commenters says, that the Guignols go after everybody, so the slant of their comedy should not be surprising.

Check your PBS schedules for further details.

What's Hot in France: July 2007

A little late, here's a recap of the tops in popular culture in France from the last several weeks:

• MUSIC: Summer doldrums? The month of high-voiced males? The same CDs from past months dominated the lists: Voix d'un ange, Grégory Lemarchal, the young singer who died earlier this year; Life in Cartoon Motion, Mika, a pop-styled British artist; Pop Life, David Guetta, a Paris DJ who produces and re-mixes house music; and Mon paradis, Christophe Maé, another light-voiced French male with a catchy pop sound. A video of Maé's single, On s'attache/We're attached, heads this post.
• TELEVISION: Surprisingly high ratings were scored by two broad military film comedies from the 1970's, Mais où est donc passée la septième compagnie?/What Happened to the Seventh Company? and On a retrouvé la 7e compagnie/The Seventh Company Has Been Found.
• MOVIES: American cinema dominated French screens, with films such as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Live Free or Die Hard, The Simpsons Movie, and Transformers all attracting crowds. The closest thing to a home-grown hit is the animated movie Persepolis, which was based on a graphic novel and has as its background the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1978. (P.S. Look for Ratatouille to claim the August crown.)
• BOOKS: A seasonal best seller, Cahier de vacances pour adultes/A Vacation Workbook for Adults, is a compilation of word games, quizzes, and discussion topics for grown-ups to have fun with while on vacation. On the fictional side, doing well is Parce-que je t'aime, by Guillaume Musso, which tells the story of a young girl who suddenly shows up at the spot where she had disappeared five years earlier and who is unable to explain her absence. Her parents, who had split up in the intervening time, try to discover what happened.

Paris (France) on the BBC

The lucky folks in the U.K. have access to a new show on BBC 2 called, simply, Paris. A three-parter, the program tells the story of the city, and is hosted by an art historian Sandrine Voillet, who -- according to the publicity --  "is as chic, charming and engaging as the city she loves." Paris is co-produced with Open U., an accessible education organization. Streaming videos have been blocked to those of us outside of BBC territory, but the site does have a usable interactive map which tells about interesting spots in the city. If you need video thrills, I'll refer you again to GeoBeats.

HT to Craig at This French Life for this and other kindnesses.

What's popular in France - June 2007: Mystère, gardeners, hedgehogs, and Johnny

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Here's this month's edition of what's hot in French pop culture:

• Television. Besides the usual high-rated line-up of politics (a Sarkozy speech), sports (a match between France and Georgia), and the dubbed CSI:New York, the most intriguing hit was a series called Mystère. A young woman returns to her home in central France, where she finds crop circles which mimic drawings from her childhood notebooks. From afar, it looks to be in the Lost genre. (The lead-in credits for the show head this post.)
• Movies. For the most part, French people went to see big American films this month like Shrek 3 and Ocean's 13. The chief home-grown exception was Dialogue avec mon jardinier, a gentle comedy starring Daniel Auteuil and Jean-Pierre Darroussin. It's about a successful Parisian painter who returns to the home of his youth in central France (big these days) and is transformed by the folksy outlook of his gardener, a friend from childhood. The French trailer is available on YouTube.
• Books. An interesting entry onto the best seller list is L'élégance du hérisson/The Elegance of the Hedgehog (sounds better in French, doesn't it?) by Muriel Barbery. A nondescript concierge in a Paris apartment building hides her cultured life from the residents, who barely register her and don't suspect that she is more cultivated than they are.
• Music. Gregory Marechal, the young vocalist who died several weeks ago, had the "Number One" spot at the end of month. Another big mover was a concert recording by French legend Johnny Hallyday. Below is a clip of Johnny teaming with Amerian singer Chris Isaak on the Fats Domino classic (and Johnny standard) "Blueberry Hill."

Dumas for the summer: The Four Musketeers, Georges, and The Last Cavalier

If you're looking to be both escapist and intellectually respectable this summer, you could do worse than embracing the works of Alexandre Dumas. The archetypal writer of swashbucklers is represented by three new works ("new" being, of course, a relative term).

First, on DVD, a French television mini-seriesThe Four Musketeers/D'Artagnan et les trois mousquetaires has been released. With a beautiful cast (Victor Elbaz, Emmanuelle Béart, and Grégori Derangère, among others) and a little bit of the devil, this version is apparently not for purists (I haven't seen it) but effective.

And then there are two new translations of "lost" works. Georges is on the short side for Dumas (336 pages); it's the story of conflicts on the island of Mauritius, and a stong element in the book is the hero's mixed racial heritage (reflecting Dumas's own background). It's not been available in the U.S. for a long time. Another action packed novel, The Last Cavalier: Being the Adventures of Count Sainte-hermine in the Age of Napoleon, is Dumas's last work, recently rediscovered. The count of the title, released from prison and attempting to restore his good name, "...wins glory-against brigands, bandits, the British; boa constrictors, sharks, crocodiles." And in his spare time, he kills Lord Nelson.

And you've read The Count of Monte Cristo, haven't you? It's the ultimate escape...in more than one way. The perfect summer novel.