Friday, March 31, 2017

French Canadian Rendez-vous

A Canadian dude analyzes the Trudeau-Brazeau boxing match.
To mark the fifth anniversary of Trudeau’s third-round win by TKO, Postmedia enlisted the expertise of Armand Teodorescu, the head coach of Atlas Boxing Club in north Toronto. Teodorescu’s father, Adrian, coached Canadian boxers Lennox Lewis and Egerton Marcus to Olympic medals in 1988. More recently, Atlas veterans Mandy Bujold and Arthur Biyarslanov each won gold at the 2015 Pan American Games.
Teodorescu had never watched the Trudeau-Brazeau fight before last week, but he knows a favourite when he sees one. And in his eyes, the smart money would have been on Trudeau.
“Physically speaking, the advantages are more on Justin’s side,” he said. “Sometimes, you look at two fighters and you see one guy thick and built, and you have the common thought that he should win. (But) it just depends on skill.”

Sun News, the now-defunct network, Canada's answer to Fox News was the foremost provider of footage and commentary for the boxing match, but there is also a French version.



And speaking of French Canadian things I've been watching French-Canadian movies which are so far much more entertaining than French France movies. First is this funny and atmospheric movie about a love triangle Les Amores Imaginares, called Heartbeats in English. They use the song Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) first recorded in the 1960s to a stylish slo-mo effect. The dialog is all in French.




The first fully-staged production of a play of mine, NEW RULES was on the subject of a straight woman and a gay man competing for a bisexual man. Way back in the 20th Century. Although the object of desire in this movie is... well you'll have to see it.

The TV series Sensitive Skin uses a version of "I Put a Spell on You" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins under its slow-mo sequences. It is set in Toronto and in English, but a major plot line in Season 1 (much much better than Season 2) is the protagonist Davina (played by Kim Catrall who dated Justin Trudeau's father - small Canadian world!) getting involved with a French Canadian guy.



Last but not least is Les Grande Chaleurs which I just saw last night. The movie isn't especially great although I like the May/December plot line. The plot was fairly predictable though - in spite of the fact that it's in French and I could only get about 40% without the help of Google Translate even with French subtitles. But I am obsessed with its soundtrack which includes both a beautiful song which I cannot find the title for - I've narrowed it down to either Donne Donne or Ch'T'Attends  and a completely addictive song called Bon Swa written by the mysterious DAZMO of whom I can find no information except credits at IMDB, although it might have something to do with this web site. There may also be a Facebook Page.

I cannot find lyrics online for this song, and my translation apps won't touch it because it's a song and they can't understand sung French. All I can make out is:
Bon swa, doo doo bijoux (something) belle bebe - (something) bijoux (something something something something) and then some French talking.
Bijoux, if that's what he's singing, means jewel. Once I start taking my Frenchy-French classes on Monday - and on Wednesday since my Monday-only class was cancelled due to low enrollment so I had to take the more expensive and twice as long course on two nights - I will get somebody to tell me what is being sung here.