This week, with a week off work and not much planned except a long-awaited trip to “Carrefour” supermarket, a friend and I decided to venture to the cinema and actually watch a film in French! Shock horror, I know!
I’ve been living in France for 5 months now and studying the language for 8 years (!) and I was still yet to see a film, in French, at the cinema.
So on a dreary and miserable Thursday afternoon last week, we made our way to the UGC cinema at Part-Dieu shopping centre in Lyon and prepared ourselves for two hours of gibberish.
We chose to watch La Belle et La Bette which is modern-day remake of Disney’s much celebrated Beauty and the Beast. Seeing as we are both huge fans of the Disney version and know the storyline by heart we figured that it would make the film that little bit more bearable. Cheating, I know but the thought was there, right?
Anyways, whilst the film was pretty good (a humble 3.5 stars in my opinion,) my highlight was understanding a good ¾ of the French! For some bizarre reason, despite living, speaking and breathing French everyday for the last five months, all the A’s in my exams meant nothing compared to understanding a film, in French, at the cinema. None of other French films I’ve seen and understood (not at the cinema) have given me the sense of pride and accomplishment I felt when leaving that cinema room. I suppose it’s a psychological thing, or maybe my longing to truly fit in with the French (she says speaking full volume in English in a cinema full of French people).
Whilst I admit that the film probably wasn’t the most challenging film we could have chosen, it’s still an achievement to actually have understood most of it!
I know that you’d have to be crazy to travel to another country just to go the cinema, but if you ever have a spare minute on your trips, and you speak the language, I’d definitely recommend a trip to the cinema!
Have you ever seen a film in the language you’re learning? Was it comprehension heaven or hell?
Have you ever watched a film in another language? What was the first film you ever watched in English?
