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Finally, an excuse to watch more movies!
Foreign films are a great way to practice a new language. You can learn by watching them with or without subtitles, and pausing and rewinding to hear a sentence or two over again if you need to. Not to mention the very helpful fact of having audio with clear visual aides, language set in real life situations, and plenty of cultural information. The ease at which you can rent foreign films online or in stores these days makes them an ideal and, importantly, fun way to learn more about a language and the culture of places where it is spoken. For example, here are some great French staples that you can watch as a student of French. The French country tale Jean de Florette (with omnipresent French actor Gerard Dépardieu, and his only slightly less ubiquitous counterpart, Daniel Auteuil) and its somewhat more R-rated and disturbing sequel, Manon des sources (with future Mission: Impossible actress Emmanuelle Béart), are good choices, although perhaps more for their important cultural impact than for language learning. The strong southern accents on display can be difficult for language beginners. Both films are based on a novel by Marcel Pagnol, a famous French writer and filmmaker whose autobiographical works La gloire de mon père (My father's glory) and Le château de ma mère (My mother's castle) about life in the south of France were also made into excellent films frequently used in French classrooms. And then, of course, there is Au revoir, les enfants (Goodbye, children). If you haven't seen this and you took French in school, then you are probably one of the very few. This film about children at school during the Holocaust is essential viewing for any French beginner. Naturally, there are many other great (and usually tragic) French films. Some of my other favorites include Les parapluies de Cherbourg (The umbrellas of Cherbourg), a 1964 musical classic that, with its clear diction and visual cues, is great for beginners and stars a very young Catherine Deneuve in her breakthrough role, the "Three Colors Trilogy" (three separate films entitled Blue, White and Red - the colors of the French flag), which looks at three different stories of European life through the excellent acting of stars like Juliette Binoche and Julie Delpy, and the pop culture favorite Le fabuleux déstin d'Amélie Poulain (Amélie). If a viewing of this eccentric comedy doesn't make you want to jump on a plane to Paris right away and speak French with everyone you meet, then, well, I think you should watch it again. Plus: Le dernier métro (The last metro), Un coeur en hiver (A heart in winter), Est-Ouest (East/West) Tags: French, language, movies, newsletter
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