7 March 2011											❿
Arte		 Monday 7^th/3-VM-14.45-16.45: ‘CHARADE’ (same word in English & in French) USA-1963-COMEDY Director: STANLEY DONEN (“Chantons sous la pluie”-‘Singin’ in the rain’ 1952). With Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn & Walter Matthau (they’re very easy to understand, speak very clearly). S.Donen pays tribute here to the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, borrowing his favourite actor, Cary Grant, and his visual style, and adding  a lot of  humour to it all. 
 Monday 7^th/3-VM- 20h45-22h25: ‘PSYCHOSE’ ( ‘PSYCHO’) 1960. Director: ALFRED HITCHCOCK. With Anthony Perkins & Janet Leigh. A reference in horror films, shot by Hitchcock in black and white. In it there is the most famous murder scene in the history of the cinema: the one in which the unfortunate Janet Leigh is stabbed to death in the shower, to the sound of screeching violins in 45 seconds of pure terror!
To be (get = informal) stabbed to death : se faire tuer à coups de couteau

There are a lot of American series:
TF1		 ‘GREY’S ANATOMY’:  there is a lot of rivalry in this hospital between the different doctors.
M6	Sunday afternoon: ‘DOCTOR HOUSE’ - Wednesday: ‘BONES’
	Friday evening-11/3: 23h15-0h50-‘NIP/TUCK’: plastic surgeons / plastic surgery. 
	‘EARL’: it seems quite amusing, very unusual.

’MARIE-ANTOINETTE’ : a  BIOPIC (BIOGRAPHICAL FILM) (2h.), USA.FRANCE.JAP., 2006, written and directed by SOFIA COPPOLA  released by Columbia Pictures, it won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design..
With: Kirsten Dunst, Rip Torn, Judy Davis, Asia Argento, Jason Schwartzman, and Rose Byrne. 
THE PLOT is very loosely based on the life of the Queen consort in the years leading up to the French Revolution.
		Marie Antoinette left Austria for France at the age of 14. Her marriage to the dauphin, Louis-Auguste, sealed the alliance between the two countries. Abandoned by her young husband, who prefers to go hunting with the hounds, and bored by the  rigid royal etiquette, she takes refuge in frivolities and moves into The Petit Trianon where she entertains her friends. The Court of Versailles is humiliated; the French people are hungry, revolution rumbles and begins to penetrate the Castle of Versailles. The royal family decide to leave the castle…
Sofia Coppola imagines a unique historical epic thanks in particular to her pronounced and sometimes annoying taste for sophistication. Through her camera, life at Court is transformed into a colourful video clip with pop accents. And she prefers a thorough exploration of her character’s soul, to the weight of history. Marie-Antoinette’s universe is made up of boredom, loneliness, and permanent doubt where everyone tries to find his place.The manner may seem artificial, but the matter is striking in its sincerity.
In several interviews in 2006, S.Coppola suggests that her highly stylized interpretation is very modern, in order to humanize the historical figures involved. She has taken great artistic liberties with the source material and the film does not focus simply on historical facts – "It is not a lesson of history. It is an interpretation documented, but carried by my desire for covering the subject differently." Perhaps because of this unusual approach, the film was booed at early screenings at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
the plot : l’intrigue, l’action.
loosely : approximativement.
an historical epic: une épopée historique
Manner and  matter : le fond et la forme
to involve : impliquer( entail), concerner(concern), nécessiter(require)
to involve sb in : impliquer qqn dans; faire participer qqn à (activity, meeting)
To be involved in: participer à (take part), être plongé dans
involved, adj: complexe (complicated)

To boo : huer

‘CABARET’:	is a MUSICAL FILM,  made in 1972 and directed by Bob Fosse , starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey.
The film is set in Berlin during the Weimar Republic in 1931, under the ominous presence of the growing National Socialist Party, and is loosely based on the 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret. It’s partly a musical; many people like this kind of show very much. Some people think that the threat of Nazism is underplayed in the film. Liza Minnelli overacts.

Ominous : menaçant, inquiétant ; de mauvais augure (event).

‘THE SOCIAL NETWORK’: is a DRAMA FILM, made in 2010, about the founding of the social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits. USA, 120 mn.
Director: DAVID FINCHER. With: Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, and Andrew Garfield.
In 2003, Erica Albright breaks up with Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg. Back at his dorm, Mark writes a scathing and drunken blog entry about her, and is inspired to create a website that rates the attractiveness of female students when compared to each other. He hacks into the databases of various residence halls, downloads pictures and names of female students and, in a few hours, using an algorithm for ranking chess players supplied by his best friend, he creates a website called ‘FaceMash’, where students can choose which of two girls shown together is the more attractive. Mark receives six months  academic probation after  traffic to the site brings down parts of Harvard's network, and becomes vilified among most of Harvard's female community.
However, FaceMash's popularity and its one-night creation, while drunk, brings him to the attention of identical twins who are members of Harvard's rowing team, and their business partner. As a result, he gets a job working for the twins as the programmer of their website, Harvard Connection.
A very interesting portrait of Facebook’s creator, Mark Zuckerberg, a brilliant, provocative loner. It finishes in a law suit because he was accused of copying and he paid out to keep his attackers quiet but in reality it was his own idea. He keeps putting his foot in it. 
The film won three Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Film Editing. It also won the Best Motion Picture – Drama Golden Globe at the 68th Golden Globe Awards on January 16, 2011 , and the awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Original Score, making it the film with the most wins of the night. Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director at the BAFTA, February 13, 2011.
a law suit : 	un procès
Dormitory : (Brit) dortoir, (US : hall of residence) résidence universitaire.
scathing : cinglant, acerbe.
To be scathing about smth: être très critique vis-à-vis de qqch

to vilify : calomnier, vilipender.

rowing team: équipe d’aviron.

To keep putting one’s foot in it: 	mettre les pieds dans le plat sans arrêt.

THE KING'S SPEECH (LE DISCOURS D’UN ROI): is a BRITISH HISTORICAL DRAMA FILM , made in 2010, directed by TOM HOOPER and written by David Seidler (118 mn.)
Colin Firth plays King George VI, who, to overcome his stutter, (or stammer) is introduced to Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an unorthodox Australian speech therapist. The two men become friends as they work together, and after his brother abdicates, the new king relies on Logue to help him make a radio broadcast at the beginning of World War II.
The film opens with Prince Albert, Duke of York, known to his wife and family as "Bertie" the second son of King George V, speaking at the close of the 1925 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium, with his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) by his side. His stammering speech visibly unsettles the thousands of listeners in the audience.
The prince tries several unsuccessful treatments and gives up, until the Duchess persuades him to see an Australian speech therapist in London. In their first session, Logue requests that they address each other by their Christian names, a breach of royal etiquette. He convinces Bertie to read Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy, while listening to the overture from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro on headphones.
The Prince reveals some of the pressures of his childhood: his strict father; the repression of his natural left-handedness; a painful treatment with metal splints for his knock-knees; a nanny who favoured his elder brother – David, the Prince of Wales, deliberately pinching Bertie at the daily presentations to their parents so he would cry and his parents would not want to see him; and the early death in 1919 of his little brother Prince John. As the treatment progresses, the two become friends and confidants.
On 20 January 1936 George V dies, and David, the Prince of Wales, accedes to the throne as King Edward VIII, but he wants to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcée socialite, which would provoke a constitutional crisis. When King Edward abdicates to marry, Bertie becomes King George VI.
Upon the September 1939 declaration of war with Germany, George VI summons Logue to Buckingham Palace to prepare for his radio speech to the country. As the King and Logue move through the palace to a tiny studio, Winston Churchill (Timothy Spall) reveals to the King that he, too, had once had a speech impediment but had found a way to use it to his advantage.
The King delivers his speech as if to Logue, who coaches him through every moment. As Logue watches, the King steps onto the balcony of the palace with his family, where thousands of people assembled below for the speech applaud him.
A final title card explains that, during the many speeches King George VI gave during World War II, Logue was always present. It is also explained that Logue and the King remained friends, and that, "King George VI made Lionel Logue a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1944."
The monarchy was at an all-time low. George VI  was an alcoholic(?).
The royal family was German from George 1^st, so they knew many Germans, they had German cousins and it was a complicated situation. Logue knew how to handle people  instinctively. The King’s Speech is a very interesting film.

Stutter (or stammer): bégayer, bégaiement.
To favour ( Brit) /favor (US) : favoriser
The film received many awards and nominations, mostly for Colin Firth, and was nominated for seven Golden Globes, winning Best Actor/Drama for Firth.

A low budget film
Affectionate words
During the whole of March
 ! I don’t think / believe / he’s here
I think/believe/ he’s not here → is not correct!

TRANSLATE (« pouvoir »)

26 Nous ferons tout ce que nous pourrons pour ne pas être en retard.
We’ll do all we can not to be late.
		everything possible/ our best
		whatever we can

27 Si je ne l’avais pas empoignée par le bras elle aurait pu se faire écraser.
If I hadn’t grabbed her arm, she might have been run over.
		gripped 	could have been
to grab : to hold very quickly
to grip: to hold very hard

28 Si seulement nous avions pu deviner ce qu’il voulait !
If only we could have guessed what he wanted!

29 Nous aurions pu ne jamais nous rencontrer.
We might never have met ('each other' not necessary)

30 Je me demande ce qu’il a bien pu leur dire.
I wonder what he can have said to them.
I wonder what on earth he  can have told them.
		possibly have

TO LEARN CHINESE A MUSICAL EAR CAN HELP
1 Summarize this article
American researchers have shown a link (/correlation) between tonal languages and musical training at the level of the brain areas concerned. They deduced from this that music training may help children with language problems, and also make learning languages easier , and at the same time that knowing a tonal language helps in learning to play a musical instrument.
2 Would you like to learn Chinese?
Grammar is very simple.
50 000 characters
TOEFL has an equivalent in Chinese
PINYIN is a Latinisation of this language from 1958 for foreigners

				Flat 
There are 4 tones  		like an acute accent
				The opposite (a grave accent)
				Upside down (an inverted circumflex)
Ex.	MAO = cat
MAO = mao tse tung
MAO = hat
It requires a visual memory  and so is not so difficult for everybody.
(Antibes - Institut Polytechnique: Chinese lessons/ 5 students for one teacher…)