Thursday, March 30, 2017

Les problems avec "French in Action"

Oh yeah, and Robert is also a stalker
Or "Le français en action" as Google translate would have it.

I'm getting excited because my French course at FI:AF begins on Monday. 

I'm doing extra French studying this week. I'm on like the fourth time through French in Action and I'm picking up more and more of the dialog. 

Robert's father is supposed to be rich - he's the Vice President at a bank (newsflash - in the 21st century, at least, almost everybody who works for a bank is a Vice President, commee moi) but Robert does not take his father's money.

I finally realized all this as well as the reason Robert can afford to travel around France without his parents' money - since he was born his grandparents gave him a hundred bucks every Christmas and birthday and so he now has $4200, which means that Robert is 21.

Anyway, now that I know most of what is happening, I'm not very impressed by the story used to impart lessons in French. In my opinion the story is ruined by the whole "Man in Black" aspect. Spoiler alert, le mec en noir is a talent scout and the reason he's been stalking Mirielle in alarmingly bizarre ways (including coming to chez Mirielle disguised as a nun, but wearing a mustache) is because he wants her to star in a movie.

And another problem with the story is that although it is presented as having two protagonists, Mirielle and Robert, the story favor's Robert's point of view. After they meet we hear all about how Robert feels about Mirielle, but we never hear about how she feels about him, her feelings are a complete mystery. No doubt the male writers of the show didn't even realize they were doing it, they probably take the male gaze so much for granted.

It makes me want to write my own French-language course with a better story. And as it happens, I'm toying with the idea of attempting to translate my NORMA JEANE play into French.