Today I have been working on a 6-8 page dissertation for my French cinema class. Most people would probably acknowledge that, along with French sophistication and bon goût, the French (generally speaking) have a snobby side (but let it be clear that I do not use the word 'snobby' in a derogatory way). Well, being half-French and also a French major at university, I like to pretend that I have a sense for what is bon goût. But, I will say that sitting in this coffee shop (where I am writing my paper) with a stack of books on cinéma française and a café latté, I have rarely felt more pretentious in my entire life. Is it just me, or is there something about French cinema, for example, la nouvelle vague, which just screams pretension?! Seriously, if you could only see the kind of stuff that is written in the books we read for this class; in just one paragraph of a source I was reading earlier today were all these words that I didn't know: dyadic, diegesis, rocentric, and heteroglossia. What?!
But, I do not mean to rail on film intellectuals. They are just on an entire different level of thinking than I am. That being said, I think French cinema is on a different (usually more elevated) level than its Hollywood counterpart. Here are some of my favorite films:
Amelie, 2001
Jean de Florette, 1986
La Vie en Rose (La Mome), 2007
Les Choristes, 2004
Completely agree with you on that! I started learning French when I was 13, and it always bugged me that French movies weren't aimed for teenagers. Or maybe they are... I do love Amelie though. If you haven't seen it already, watch Jeux d'enfants.
ReplyDeletei will have to watch that movie! thanks for the recommendation!
ReplyDelete