songs and movies to help me learn french better?

[giddy]

Bonjour,

I'm learning French at Allianz Francase here, I've been searching songs and movies lately but i've found nothing, I watched MR73 so far and then I got some sylvie vartan songs but I can't find any lyrics. Could someone point me to some good pop rock artist/album, whose lyrics I can find!

Also a few good movie names would be nice?

Merci Boucoup

[Maricopa]

Hi giddy and welcome to the forum

Do a google search for Renan Luce, great music and you will get results returned for the lyrics as well.

La Lettre is my favourite[:D]

[YCCMB]

Try here: they are in the middle of doing something to the website, but this link (below) gives you access to video clips and lyrics to a number of French songs with the lyrics below.

[url]http://www.espacefrancophone.org/en/audiovisuel/fiche.htm[/url]

[Pads]

Try amazon , they have loads of french books, dvds, and games   

[odile]

I hate dubbed films where the mouth doesn't move correctly with the words! BUT it is a good idea to watch films in French (and read books too) that you have liked in English and know well, at first. That way you don't have to 'worry' about the storyline - and perhaps even will pick up some colloquial expressions - as you remember them from the original. Later, or at the same time, you can watch some of the French classics, like Amelie, Jean de Florette, Manon des sources,  une hirondelle fait le printemps, etc. Initially aim for films with fairly standard French (eg not medieval or modern slang- although I love 'La Haine' for instance. Low budget, black and white film made in 90s about the life of young 2nd generation immigrants in city suburbs), if you can.

[Mme poivre]

Hi

I have been listening to TV5monde, where a lot of the films like Amelie and jean de florette have been on over the last few months ,on sky and listening to Nostalgie chanson francaise on the internet at every given oportunity.  I think it is helping at least i can sing along to some of the songs now [:D]

Judith 

[odile]

yes TV5 is great - but even I, as a native French speaker,  find it really difficult (sometimes imposs!) to understand Quebec films, interviews, etc!

[giddy]

hi,

Thanks so much for your help. I managed to get Repenti by Renan Luce, its cool. Does anyone know songs more upbeat like rock/pop, this was more slow and acoustic.

About the movies, Oh i did'nt think of getting french versions of english movies! Good idea.

I can manage to get french movies from a number of places with english subtitles, I just saw MR73 so far(which was extremely explicit and violent!!) but ok. I'm looking for something modern so I can understand french culture too, and something easy to comprehend. I'm looking up the movies you put odile, thanks!

Oh books sound good, but I dont know that much french so would t do any good reading comics like Tin Tin first in english then in french?

Thanks so much

[Maricopa]

[quote user="giddy"] I managed to get Repenti by Renan Luce, its cool. Does anyone know songs more upbeat like rock/pop, this was more slow and acoustic.[/quote]

Try Christophe Willem (c'est comme ça qu'est que je veux) or Zazie (je suis un homme) for something more upbeat.

Glad you liked Renan Luce.[8-|]

[odile]

Tintin and cartoons may be OK but confusing as personal names are changed (the dog is called Milou in French not Snowie) - also many cartoons contain slang.

Perhaps try with short childrens' stories, tales - not too modern to avoid city slang, and not fables, etc, to avoid old french and the dreaded passe simple!

A nice one to start with could be The little Prince = le petit Prince , by StExupery. Other poster might suggest other authors (I have lived in UK too long and kids grown up!)

Bonne chance

[mint]

But, Odile, the language in le Petit Prince is nothing if not flowery in passages.  The story is enchanting and the illustrations even more so but I don't think the grammar and language are particularly "easy" or "modern".

I'm sure you know better than I do but all this is IMHO.

BTW, I think you can only dodge the passé simple for so long (as I know to my cost!) 

[odile]

sweet16 - I am sure you are right about le petit Prince. I haven't read it for some time, and I remember it as a native speaker (reader) - so I'll stand corrected. Can you suggest childrens' books with simple language but without too much slang? Been in the UK too long sorry.

Sometimes it's better to keep quiet and let people think you may be stupid than ... blablabla

[Cendrillon]

"Can you suggest childrens' books with simple language but without too much slang?"

Barbar![8-|]

[Âme]

Hi Giddy - You might like listening to Serge Gainsbourg.

Re: movies, some of your existing dvds might have the French dub... anything I buy here has the English sound track as well as French dub & subtitles. I switch on the subtitles so I can read the French while I'm listening to it.

The danger with reading English subtitles with the French soundtrack is that the translations are not literal, so you're hearing and reading two completely different things. e.g. "That's the icing on the cake" = "That's the salt on the spinach"  I'm sure there are better examples, but I hope you see what I mean. 

There are lots of dubbed movies & series on television (terrestrial channels) too. Personally, I find VO French programmes, much harder to follow than dubbed programmes; US forensic/medical dramas easier to follow than 'Plus Belle La Vie.' The subtitles are on Teletext page 888.

Odile, good movie suggestions and a couple that I haven't seen. Merci beaucoup.

[odile]

You made me laugh (no offence - LOL) with your salt on the spinach! You mean 'le beurre sur les epinards'. It drives me crazy when sub-titles do not respect the register, eg. whether formal, slang, etc. Like 'fous le camp' or 'casses-toi' translated as 'go away', etc.

It can be very difficult to read sub-titles and truly hear/concentrate on what is being said, I feel. I you can, watch a film you know well without sub-titles. What do you think?

[mint]

I agree about subtitles.  They can be really distracting.  But, they have their place in factual programmes or documentaries.  I suppose it's because, with a voice-over, you are just hearing and reading and not also looking at the person's expression.

Saw a super programme with a pianist called David Fray on Arte last night.  Although French, he was speaking in English to the orchestra.  The subtitles were in French and also some of the commentary.

For me, it was heaven........all my favourite things in one programme!  Orchestral players, handsome David Fray, Bach (which was what they were playing), spoken English, French subtitles.  If I'd died there and then, I'd have thought quite well of heaven.

[Âme]

He, he. I have been saying 'c'est le sel sur mes epinards' for years, albeit not very often. [:$]  Merci, Odile.  I must learn to use butter!

I do agree with you re: subtitles; watching & reading is trying to do two things at once. But before I could distinguish separate words, I was lost without reading the STs... even the weather forecast! It's a question of making it hard enough for yourself so that you're learning something & enjoyable enough so that you persevere. A balance for each individual to find, depending on their level, I guess.  

It is a great idea to watch something already familiar.  I ususally watch TV... so was astounded, on a recent trip to the UK, to find that Hugh Laurie has an American accent in House. [blink]

[AnOther]

If you have Sky World Movies on 331 show a lot of French films with English subtitles.

[giddy]

hey thanks so much I like this Christophe Willem guy, sound more like a girl to me though! lol, I got the album inventaire i think, I'm even going to put these songs on my cellphone!!=)

[Scottish Bill]

Do you know the French-Canadian singer Roch Voisine? He sings both ballads and rock songs.

You can find the lyrics to some of his songs at http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/roch_voisine/

Bill

[chessfou]

A few ideas:

1. I know it's not pop/rock but Brassens songs (and lyrics) are widely admired, very useful for saucy vocab (so too movies like Les Valseuses but there the argot is almost unintelligible) and his fine enunciation helps make them more intelligible.

2. I agree that watching movies and trying to read subtitles at the same time is at least a bit awkward but I find that listening to audio books while reading the text is very useful (it certainly speeds up my reading) even if sometimes, as currently with La Gloire de mon père (Pagnol), there are big discrepancies between the audio text and the edition I am reading.

3. For "literary" works I am a great fan of René Goscinny. Before he got together with Albert Uderzo and the wonderful Astérix series, he wrote the almost equally magnificent series of books about Le Petit Nicolas which have a comparatively small vocabulary and ensure that you will add, at least, the words "sage" and "chouette" to yours. The stories really are very funny.

[Frenchie]

[quote user="giddy"]hey thanks so much I like this Christophe Willem guy, sound more like a girl to me though! lol, [/quote]

Ahhh at last someone who likes him too !!

He has such energy , and the rythm is great..

Yeah his voice is really surprising but hey, he's unique !

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=bl49hbnWV2I

 

Quand je serai grand, je serai Bee Gees
Ou bien pilote de formule 1
En attendant je me déguise
C’est vrai que tous les costumes me vont bien
Le rouge le noir
Le blues l’espoir
Et moi

De toutes les couleurs j’aime en voir

C’est comme ça qu’est ce que j’y peux
C’est comme ça qu’est ce que j’y peux
(Faudrait savoir ce que tu veux)
(Faudrait savoir ce que tu veux)
C’est comme ça qu’est ce que j’y peux
C’est comme ça qu’est ce que j’y peux
(Faudrait savoir ce que tu veux)
(Faudrait savoir ce que tu veux)

Oui
Quand je serai grand ce sera facile
Enfin je saurai qui je suis
Mais En attendant je me défile
C’est vrai
Je me dérobe et je me fuis

Je pleure,
je ris,
J’ai peur,
Envie,
Je sais De toutes les couleurs, je vais en voir

A qui la faute ?
Je suis l’un et l’autre
Double je
A qui la faute ?
Je suis l’un et l’autre

(Faudrait savoir ce que tu veux)
(Faudrait savoir ce que tu veux)
C’est comme ça qu’est ce que j’y peux
C’est comme ça qu’est ce que j’y peux
(Faudrait savoir ce que tu veux)
(Faudrait savoir ce que tu veux)
Après tout qu’est ce que j’y peux
Après tout qu’est ce que j’y peux
(Faudrait savoir ce que tu veux)
(Faudrait savoir ce que tu veux)
(Faudrait savoir ce que tu veux)
(Faudrait savoir ce que tu veux)

Quand je serai grand qu’on se le dise
Je serai vendeur dans les magasins
En attendant, je me déguise
En chantant dans ma salle de bain

(Faudrait savoir ce que tu veux)
Quand je serai grand je serai dans le show biz…
J'ai peur, je ris,
J'ai peur, envie,
Je sais, de toutes les couleurs j'aime en voir.

A qui la faute je suis l'un et l'autre
Double je
A qui la faute je suis l'un et l'autre

Faudrait savoir c'que tu veux (bis)
C'est comme ça qu'est ce que j'y peux (bis)
Faudrait savoir c'que tu veux (bis)
Après tout qu'est-ce que j'y peux (bis)
Faudrait savoir c'que tu veux (bis)

Hou hou hou
Faudrait savoir c'que tu veux. (bis)

Quand je serai grand qu'on se le dise
Je serai vendeur dans les magasins.
En attendant je me déguise
En chanteur dans ma salle de bain.

Faudrait savoir c'que tu veux (bis)
C'est comme ça qu'est ce que j'y peux (bis)
Faudrait savoir c'que tu veux (bis)
C'est comme ça qu'est-ce que j'y peux (bis)

Quand je serai grand je serai dans le show biz"

[uirwour]

Songs and movies do help in learning, there is another effective way, use speech synthesis softwares also called text-to-speech softwares. Most of the text-to-speech softwares can read text files in format of

.txt and other file formats with natural voices using various voice

engines. The text-to-speech voice engine on Vista is Microsoft Anna,

and Microsoft Sam on the Windows XP. Vista users can hear a very clear

voice of Anna, XP users would think the voice of Microsoft Sam is poor,

but they can get other company's vocie engines which are more clear.

If your computer OS is English OS, you can install a french text-to-speech voice engine. It is an easy-to-use tool which reads files and

converts files into wave and mp3 audio files, so you can listen to them with a MP3 player. It's very useful educational kit.

Post edited by the moderators.

[Callie]

Jean-Jacques Goldman writes superbe lyrics and good French ! He has been singing for years and also writes songs for people like Celine Dion.

[Daniel5791]

It's funny how much watching French films and listening to music has helped learn the language...The world movies channel here in Australia screens a lot of French film so there's plenty on offer. My first film was Amelie, and it still remains one of my favorites. Actually now I prefer watching French film over english speaking ones....much to my girlfriends dismay.

As for music I found listening to Jacques Brel and Edith Piaf quite helpful(even if it is soooo very much in the past) but anything contemporary is good too. I really like Zazie at the moment. I may have taken things too far though as I can now sing La Marseillaise quite well! :)