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French film screenings with English subtitles to catch this autumn

Paris-based cinema club Lost in Frenchlation is back with more screenings of French films with English subtitles this month. Here's what's coming up.

Published: 2 September 2021 14:58 CEST
French film screenings with English subtitles to catch this autumn
Photo: Martin BUREAU / AFP.

The club offers English speakers who may not be fluent in French the chance to enjoy French cinema, by screening new releases with English subtitles to help viewers follow along.

Four recent French films are set to be shown in September alone, and there will be drinks beforehand so it’s a great opportunity to celebrate the return of cultural life in France while also meeting new people.

The health passport will be required for all events.

Friday, September 3rd

Passion Simple – Lost in Frenchlation is kicking off its autumn season with a drama about an obsessive love affair between a divorced professor and a mysterious, married Russian man. The film, from Franco-Lebanese director Danielle Arbid, is adapted from the novel of the same name by French author Annie Ernaux, and is a compelling portrait of female desire.

The screening will take place at L’Entrepôt cinema in the 14th arrondissement, with drinks at the cinema’s bar from 7pm, followed by the film from 8pm, and a Q&A with the director at 9:30pm.

Tickets are available online, and cost €8.50, or €7 for students and other concessions.

Friday, September 10th

Benedetta – Virginie Efira stars as a nun in 17th-century Italy who joins a convent and begins a love affair with another nun. The film, directed by Basic Instinct’s Paul Verhoeven, is loosely based on the story of real-life nun Benedetta Carlini.

The evening will begin at the Club de L’Étoile cinema at 7pm, with drinks and snacks – the event promises popcorn, cocktails, other drinks, and “movie-themed finger food” from Les Popcorn. The screening will follow at 8pm. Tickets cost €10, or €8 for students and concessions.

Saturday, September 18th

We – As part of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival, Lost in Frenchlation is screening Alice Diop’s We (Nous), a new documentary which traces the lives of people living in Paris and its suburbs, following the RER B train line.

The event will begin with cocktails, champagne and music on the rooftop of the Publicis Cinémas at 7:30pm, offering a view of the Arc de Triomphe, followed by the screening and a Q&A from 8:30pm. Tickets cost €30, or €25 if you book early, and that includes two alcoholic drinks and unlimited soft drinks.

Thursday, September 23rd

OSS 117: From Africa with Love – The latest installment of the OSS 117 spy spoof franchise premiered at Cannes earlier this year – its original French title is OSS 117: Alerte Rouge en Afrique Noire. Lost in Frenchlation describes the films as “a Gallic twist on James Bond by way of Pink Panther”, and they are hugely popular in France.

Drinks at the Luminor Hôtel de Ville cinema bar from 7pm; the film starts at 8pm. Tickets cost €10, and €8 for students and concessions, and are available online.

Full details of Lost in Frenchlation’s events can be found on their website or Facebook page. In France, a health pass is required in order to go to the cinema.

Member comments

  1. I’ve just had a quick look at the Lost in Frenchlation website linked-to in the article. It looks like in-cinema screenings are only done in Paris, is that correct?

    There is a (limited, when in France) on-line selection, with “the first one is free”, but I don’t see any information about costs, etc., after that first one. Apologies if that information is “obvious” (“easily” found), but the website seems to go for distracting presentation of pretty stuff rather than solid or easily-found information.

    Thanks for any help and corrections!

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LEARNING FRENCH

Is the English language really just ‘badly pronounced French’?

A French linguist has been making waves with his boldly-titled book 'The English language does not exist - it's just badly pronounced French', but does the professor actually have a point?

Published: 23 April 2024 14:35 CEST
Is the English language really just 'badly pronounced French'?

The French linguist Bernard Cerquiglini is clear that the title of his book should be taken with humour and a pinch of salt, beginning his work by explaining that it is a ‘bad faith proposition’.

Clearly, the English language does exist and equally clearly the French are a little uneasy about it – with numerous laws, national bodies and local initiatives attempting to fight back against the anglicisms that now litter everyday speech, from ‘c’est cool’ to ‘un job’. 

But Cerquiglini argues that the supposed ‘influx’ of English words that are now used in France, especially tech-related terms, is nothing compared to what happened when French literally invaded English in the Middle Ages.

And the close similarity that the two languages enjoy today – around 30 percent of English words are of French origin – speaks to this entwined history.

“You can also see my book as an homage to the English language, which has been able to adopt so many words… Viking, Danish, French, it’s astonishing,” he told AFP.

The history

The key date in the blending of English and French is the Norman conquest of 1066, when Duke William of Normandy invaded England with a small group of Norman knights and made himself the English king William the Conqueror.

What happened next was a radical re-ordering of society in which English nobles were displaced and William’s knights were installed as a new French-speaking (or at least Norman-speaking) ruling class. 

The use of French by the ruling classes continued into the 13th and 14th centuries, by which time French was the official language of the royal courts, diplomacy, the law, administration and trade – meaning that ambitious English people had no choice but to learn French in order to take part in official or legal processes. 

Cerquiglini says that half of all English’s borrowings from French took place between 1260-1400, with a heavy slant towards words related to nobility, trade, administration or the law.

But a large group of non-native speakers meant that the French spoken in England was already starting to evolve, and the French words ended up with different pronunciations or even a different meaning. 

As early as 1175, the records show a Frenchman in England snootily remarking that: “My language is good, because I was born in France”. 

English and French started to part ways from the mid-1400s, by which time the two countries no longer shared royalty (the last English possession in France, the port of Calais, was lost to the French in 1558) and gradually systems such as the law courts and trade began to be conducted in English.

French remained widely spoken as a second language by the nobility and the elite right up until the early 20th century and French is still the most widely-taught language in UK schools.

The similarities

It’s not always easy to distinguish between English words that have a French root and those that have a Latin root, but linguists estimate that around 29 percent of English words come from French, another 29 percent from Latin, 26 percent from German and the rest from other languages.

But many of the English words that do have a clear French root are related to nobility, administration, politics and the law.

For example the French words gouvernement, parlement, autorité and peuple are clearly recognisable to English speakers. Likewise budget, revenus, enterprise and taxe, plus avocat, cour, juge, magistrat and evidence.

Amusingly, the French and the English obviously found time to share many insults, including bâtard [bastard], crétin, imbecile, brute and stupide.

Adaptation

But most of the people in England who were speaking French did not have it as their mother tongue, so the language began to adapt. For example the French à cause de literally translates into English as ‘by cause of’ which over time became the English word ‘because’.

There are also words that started out the same but changed their meaning over time – for example the English word ‘clock’ comes from the French ‘cloche’ (bell), because in the Middle Ages church bells were the most common method of keeping track of the time for most people.

When the mechanical clock began to appear from the 14th century onwards, the French used a new term – une horloge – but the English stuck with the original.

The differences

One of the big differences between English and French is that English simply has more words – there are roughly 170,000 words in the English language, compared to about 135,000 in French.

And at least part of this comes from English being a ‘blended’ language – that English people hung on to their original words and simply added the French ones, which is why you often get several different English words that have the same translation in French eg clever and intelligent both translate into French as ‘intelligent’.

Another difference represents the class divide that the Norman invasion imposed between the French nobles and the English labourers.

For example the words pig and cow both have Anglo-Saxon roots, while pork and beef come from French (porc and boeuf) – so when the animal is in the field being looked after by English peasants it has an Anglo-Saxon name, but by the time it is on the plate being eaten by posh people, it becomes French.

There’s also a tendency in English for the more everyday words to have Anglo-Saxon origins while the fancier words have French origins – eg to build (English) versus to construct (French). In French construire is used for both. Or to feed (English) versus to nourish (French) – in French both are nourrir.

Faux amis

One consequence of English and French being so closely linked in the bane of every language-learner’s life – les faux amis (false friends).

These are words that look and sound very similar, but have a completely different meaning. If you don’t know the French word for something you can have a stab at saying the English word with a French pronunciation – and often you will be right.

But sometimes you will be wrong, and sometimes it will be embarrassing.

READ ALSO The 18 most embarrassing French ‘false friends’

Often, faux amis are words that have changed their meaning in one language but not the other – for example the French word sensible means sensitive, not sensible – which is why you can buy products for peau sensible (sensitive skin).

But it once meant sensitive in English too – for example in the title of Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility – over time the meaning of the English word adapted but the French one stayed the same.

The title

And a word on that title – La langue anglaise n’existe pas, C’est du français mal prononcé (the English language does not exist, it’s just badly pronounced French) is actually a quote from former French prime minister Georges Clemenceau.

He did apparently speak English, but doesn’t appear to have been very fond of England itself – his other well-known quote on the topic is: “L’angleterre n’est qu’une colonie français qui a mal tourné” – England is just a French colony gone wrong.  

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