Ch 28 · Lesson 24French · Chapter 28 · Lesson 24 · Themed review
La chanson et le cinéma
French songs by law on the radio, the cinema born in , and the singers, films and series to start with.
Practise this lesson
20-word session
A quick mix of exercises - recognise, recall, type and build each word. Miss one and it comes back round until it sticks.
Worth knowing
Songs with words, and films with a tax behind them
France treats songs and films as something closer to a public service than a business, and it backs that with law and money.
The radio quota
Since 1996, French music stations have had to make at least 40 per cent of the songs they play at peak listening hours songs in French, half of them by new artists or new releases (a few kinds of station have adjusted quotas). It is one reason a tube in France is so often a French song, while much of Europe dances to English.
itself is a tradition where the words count as much as the tune. Many of its greats were not French at all.
| Singer | From | Start with |
|---|---|---|
| Édith Piaf | France | rose |
| Jacques Brel | Belgium | me |
| Charles Aznavour | France | Bohème |
| Céline Dion | Québec | Pour |
| Stromae | Belgium | on |
| Angèle | Belgium | Balance ton |
Every 21 June is the : anyone can play in the street, free, and millions go out to listen.
The cinema
The Lumière brothers showed films to a paying public in Paris in December 1895, which is why the French feel the is partly theirs. Every May the Cannes festival puts actors, stars and directors on the red carpet.
The industry is protected too. Part of the price of every cinema ticket goes into a fund for new French films, which is one reason France still makes around three hundred a year.
What to watch first
| Film or series | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| Amélie Poulain | slow, clear, and at its prettiest |
| Intouchables | everyday spoken French, very funny |
| Ch'tis | a comedy about a northern accent, which teaches you to hear one |
| Choristes | a school, a choir, simple language |
| Lupin | a modern |
Watch with French subtitles, not English: you will read the words you hear, and that is the whole lesson.