French In Action

French In Action - PBS
a kate west favorite

Professor Pierre Capretz (Yale University) developed a method of French language immersion in his series "French In Action". In this course, you speak no English whatsoever, only listening intently to the Professor in French. You might feel lost at first, but after a few episodes, you realize this is a brilliant way to learn a new language, second only to actually moving to a French-speaking country.

Charles Mayer and Valérie Allain play Robert, an American, and Mireille, a French girl, who meet and date, in French, of course. Mireille has an entire family you'll get to know, including a rambunctious younger sister Marie-Laure (Virginie Contesse) and an eccentric Aunt Georgette (Colette Ripert). Each scene is repeated for conjugation and memorization with appropriate pauses for you to repeat it back to the screen. It is real French life, the way real people interact, rather than rote textbook exercises. It is charmingly effective and you'll find yourself wondering what will happen next, waiting eagerly for Professor Capretz to welcome you with "Bonjour! Nous allons apprendre le francais!"* And before you know it, you'll actually pick up some real French.

www.learner.org

*"Good Morning! We are all going to learn French!"


Cast:
Charles Mayer ... Robert
Valérie Allain ... Mireille

Julie Arnold ... Cécile
Antonio Cauchois ... Tonton Guillaume
Virginie Contesse ... Marie-Laure
Franck de la Personne ... Hubert (as Franck Lapersonne)
Marguerite Foulon ... Madame Courtois
André Haber ... Monsieur Courtois
Jean-François Kopf ... Jean-Denis
Chrystelle Labaude ... Concierge
Riton Liebman ... Jean-Pierre Bourdon
Amélie Pick ... Annick
Rosine Proust ... Madame Belleau
Colette Ripert ... Tante Georgette (as Colette Ripert-Clément)
Fabienne Tricottet ... Colette
Serge Vincent ... Monsieur Belleau
Michael Wiseman ... Obnoxious French student


Get the book to study along:
French in Action : A Beginning Course in Language and Culture : The Capretz Method: Textbook Read more!

Day For Night

Day For Night (Nuit Américaine)
a kate west favorite







The Award winning "Day for Night"* is the renowned director François Truffaut's love homage to film making. It is filmed as if it is a documentary, demonstrating everything that goes into creating a professional movie. In painstaking detail, Truffaut cajoles and soothes his leading actors, stroking egos and culling true performances.

Jacqueline Bisset is the ingenue, delicate as any fragile movie star and in need of as much attention. Of special note is Truffaut's sympathetic work with older film diva Valentina Cortese. She can't remember her lines among other troubles and the gentle way he helps her along is rather poignant. The film they are all supposedly working on is "Je Vous Presente, Pamela (Meet Pamela)" a melodrama chronicling a young man (Jean-Pierre Léaud) in love. He introduces his current love (Bisset) to his parents only to lose her to his father (Jean-Pierre Aumont).

Off-screen, reality is as dramatic as on-screen. Real life wives lament actor morality, as everyone inevitably sleeps around. Stars get hysterical, the crew is overworked, the director (played by Truffaut himself) wears an earpiece which isolates him from the chaos, enabling him to stay profoundly creative, as evidenced by the many cinematic books he devours on great film directors. We also witness flashbacks to him as a child stealing photos from a movie theater, his first true love.

It is a wonderful and true depiction of the work that goes into the crazy business called show. Warmly touching, sans cynicism, we are treated to a very private look into the volatile lives of passionate actors and while the characters are fictional, they represent actual cinematic beings. And who doesn't want to know more about them? Well worth seeing, especially for film fanatics and for those of you not so familiar, this may inspire you to learn more about it. And don't mind the subtitles - they're good for you.

Cast:
Jacqueline Bisset (Julie)
Valentina Cortese (Severine)
Dani (Liliane)
Alexandra Stewart (Stacey)
Jean-Pierre Aumont (Alexandre)
Jean Champion (Bertrand)
Jean-Pierre Léaud (Alphonse)
François Truffaut (Ferrand)
Nike Arrighi (Odile)
Nathalie Baye (Joelle)
David Markham (Dr. Nelson)
Bernard Menez (Bernard)
Gaston Joly (Lajoie)
Zenaide Rossi (Madame Lajoie)


Director:
François Truffaut
Writers:
Jean-Louis Richard
Suzanne Schiffman
Release Date: September 7, 1973


*Day for night, also known as nuit américaine ("American night"), is the name of a cinematographic technique to simulate a night scene.

The DVD:
Day for Night Read more!