I am currently living and teaching in Colmar, Alsace. Last week, Colmar hosted its 19th film festival. With a wide range of free screenings on offer, this seemed like the perfect chance to discover some new French films.
I am a little apprehensive about French films. Often, there are a lot of words I don’t understand and the characters speak too quickly. This problem is easily solved at home: subtitles. Clearly, that wasn’t an option here so I was a little nervous before the film. What if I didn’t understand it? What if it just wasn’t my sort of film?
Luckily, I had no need to worry! I went with a group of language assistants who were all in the same position as me. The film we saw was called La Famille Bélier. It was a fantastic film and so easy to follow compared to other French films that I have seen! It’s now my favourite French film. It had a great plot with likeable characters. I also loved the musical aspect of the film. The film featured several songs by Michel Sardou – a French singer I had never heard of before. After the film, several of us said we wanted to find the songs so we could learn them!
Coming out of the cinema having understood the majority of the film, minus a couple of puns, was a great feeling. After several years of watching French films in a state of confusion, I am happy to have found one that I enjoy!
Do you watch foreign language films? What do you find difficult?
