France's 10 cultural favourites

Say "French culture" and you might think of the Louvre, Proust or Truffaut movies. So what are the top 10 "cultural goods" that the French bought last year? That's them in the picture, ranked according to earnings in millions of euros. Number one and three of the other oeuvres are video games from Japanese companies. There are five DVDs, no music and one book.

Well, at least the book is high brow:. Les Bienveillantes, the novel as long as a phone directory about the Holocaust that won last year's Goncourt Prize, the highest literary award. Yes, but... it was written by an American. Jonathan Littell's feat, writing in French in the voice of a German SS officer, was the phenomenon of the last literary season. The only all-French item in the top 10 is Camping, a low-brow comedy hit adored by Kevin and his parents.

So what can we conclude from the list, produced yesterday by le Parisien newspaper? It shows that French taste, for all the official efforts to promote Gallic creativity and l'exception française, is pretty much the same as everyone else's. Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series (Winning 11 in the USA) is hugely popular all over Europe. Perhaps Littell's book does prove the exception to the popular culture of the rest since it is a very heavy read. I suspect, though, that many have bought it because it was a phenomenon and gave up after 20 pages, like Steven Hawking's  Brief History of Time in the late1980s.

It might also be uplifting to see that one of the video games is designed to sharpen the intellect: Nintendo's Dr Kawashima's Brain Training, also known as How Old is Your Brain and Brain Age.   

It will be a comfort to cultural patriots that the dreaded steamroller of US entertainment is responsible for only a minority of the 10 items. Only two, the movie Ice Age 2, and the Prison Break TV series are all-American. The Chronicles of Narnia was produced by Disney but with a lot British input and based on the work of a very English writer (C.S.Lewis.) Harry Potter's Goblet of Fire was produced by Warner, but it was British in cast, direction, location and story. Les Bienveillantes, the only high-brow item among the 10 biens culturels, was written by an American, but...he did chose to do it first in French

Perhaps the most misleading thing about the list is that it heaps video games, television series and a novel into the same basket and call them all cultural goods. Entertainment is a better word, but its French equivalent, divertissement, sounds too frivolous.

On the publishing front, France is geared up for another "Anglo-Saxon" onslaught. Bookshops across the country were open at midnight last night to launch Harry Potter et les Reliques de la Mort, the French edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . Some 240,000 copies of the English version have already been sold in France since it came out in July and over two million of the French version are expected to sell here.  In keeping with French tradition, the trade unions have been protesting over the extension of the bookshop opening hours to start unloading the last Potter adventure. 

Comments

[Dominique]

Calling videogames a "cultural good" is rubish. It is called "cultural" for having the same low VAT tax as books and music. Lobby thing.

One day, food will become "cultural" and will therefore top everything and be n°1.

Sorry Charles, but you fall in the Videogame lobby trap. Come on! resist the politically correct lobbies statistics!

[Bluemoon]

Libération today says Harry Potter is leftwing. I find that hard to believe. He is the all Anglo-Saxon liberal hero

[Actu75]

"It shows that French taste, for all the official efforts to promote Gallic creativity and l'exception française, is pretty much the same as everyone else's"
Rien de vraiment neuf sous le soleil de France, actually. I do not clearly get the contradiction betwin politics trying to promote gallic (but not only) forms of creativity and the fact that cultural tastes tend to be globalised in a global world. I would not expect an exception to enter any top ten. Therefore shouldn't or couldn't it be "because" rather than "despite"?

[John Gregory Flinn]

With the possible exception of the book these are hardly representative as 'cultural favourites or goods' in France.
'The 10 most popular last year' is more accurate, and better places them into the realm of fashion which seems more appropiate.

BLUEMOON's distinction between 'liberal (hero)' and 'left-wing' is interesting....

[Ros]

I don't think the word "divertissement" is too frivolous - Le Parisien's Editor has just chosen the wrong word - that's all there is to it!

[azloon]

Dominique --

i guess you don't play video games, huh?

a real dinosaur, you.

or chatter in chat rooms, have a facebook page (or whatever it's called in france), pay your bills online, talk with video to friends on skype?

"Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'."

it just occurred to me that one of the categories in a french facebook page might be how many pounds of books you carry to school. this could be an indication of virility for pubescent boys, along with height, weight, barechested photo in tight underwear, etc.

i am trying to imagine your facebook page. and smiling.

[Jean]

Cultural goods?? These...
Alright this has been discussed already on the previous comment by Dominique. However I do feel France still has that Exception Culturelle as well as French people enjoy the opportunity of having so many "cultural events".

And just a proposal, if we want to "measure" the importance of culture in a country we should have a look at the budget allocated to culture from the government.

Even though I totally agree on the globalised world which affect everyone’s culture.

[christopher muir]

Dominique -

Following on your interesting points, the word "culture" in its Anglo-Saxon context is evolving strangely. Rather than just meaning a pursuit of excellence in the arts, the word is more or less increasingly being defined as "the behaviours and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group: the youth culture; the drug culture." In Australia, there's a football culture and even a culture of crime. True culture may have to remodel itself.

[Terry]

CB:

"It will be a comfort to cultural patriots that the dreaded steamroller of US entertainment is responsible for only a minority of the 10 items."

As well as it should be. American movies have been getting notoriously worse. Of late, there have been too many sequels, remakes or movies with "borrowed" ideas. My friend in the industry calls them "cookie cutter" movies. All designed with the similar audience tested themes designed to draw in a wide audience. When I was in Paris, Spiderman III and Pirates of the Carribean III were playing in the Montparnesse district. Next I guess we can expect the 4th editions.

[Blendi Progri]

I think that Entertainment is a better word desription than cultural goods, or we can use leisure activities/ hobby etc.

As for the Prison Break well, I can safely say that it has the most ridiculous central plot and storylines ever seen in tv, ( bar soaps )including D. Housewives. Glad to know that French folks follow it too. Cant wait for the next series to start.

[Dot KING]

"Culture" also has a growth meaning, French farmers and winegrowers practice agriculture, viticulture, polyculture, and refer to the crops they plant, sow or tend as "cultures".
All of the Top Ten items listed would be available in shops called "espace culturel" or "cultura" where you could also find artists' materials, gift-wrap, newspapers, magazines, handicrafts materials, information, maybe an internet link and a photocopier.

I think at base, culture is growth, in the "Top Ten" case, of knowledge and competence. Society and knowledge grow (or change if you prefer) culturally all the time. A person who has lots of knowledge, education and/or abilities would be called "cultured" in English, "cultivé(e) in French.
What's the problem? You don't have to accept play-station or X-box games if you don't like them, you can read a book, blog The Times, listen to music, t'offrir un cinoche - the list is endless.

What have Harry Potter's politics got to do with anything? I hope anyone who posts a comment on this subject will have at least read the books. I haven't seen the Libé article, but I heard the comment on this morning's news. What nonsense! La Croix could equally well argue that HP is an allegory of a newly-risen Christ.
The Harry Potter series is a rip-roaring, well-written, engrossing story for children and young people (up to 90+), with the traditional values of good versus evil, the rest is setting, character, and plot - and you need setting, character and plot after all.
Is there an implication that JK Rowling set out to influence children's political "culture", or did Harry become left or right, or JC all on his own? Why can't we be left to enjoy the book - or at least if someone wants to impose a political interpretation, JK should firstly be consulted about her intentions.
Any book demanding so much commitment to the reading of it, that has kids forming lines outside bookshops all over the world is good news whichever adult way you want to interpret it. I doubt whether unlike CB says for the J Littel book, many young readers give up after 20 or so pages . . .

[Daniel Strohl]

Dot King,

"I hope anyone who posts a comment on this subject will have at least read the books".

Sorry, Dot, I didn't read them. However, there was an interesting interview (on Antenne 2 ?) of the French translator of all Harry Potter books. He seems to make his work with "une grande conscience professionnelle et avec compétence".
He explained that he had got two months to translate 600 pages. Quite a job ! He is also a writer for himself.

When I was younger and still professionally active, I have made several translations (English-French, German-French) as a by-product of my main job, but only in very specific technical matters I knew well. Otherwise, it is not possible IMHO to make good professional technical translations.
Of course, if the original text is no good, the translation can not be much better ...

Had you the opportunity to read Harry Potter in French ?

[Helen]

OH, so the new Harry Potter is out today. I was wondering why there was someone dressed as a witch on my RER platform selling books this morning!

[rocket]

Dominique

"One day, food will become "cultural" and will therefore top everything and be n°1."

It already has in France and it's called economic patriotism invented by guess who?

http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=7939

On other occasions, politicians were more active. Last year, mere rumours of a bid from American PepsiCo for the French yogurt maker Danone caused the French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to embrace economic patriotism. PepsiCo never made an offer, but the fear of a takeover triggered new legislation making it easier to protect businesses in strategically-related sectors from foreign takeovers. For some, this may extend to “strategically important” yogurt-makers.

[Pierre]

Antenne 2 is France 2. I haven't read the books either.

[Dot KING]

Daniel, I've read all the Harry Potter books - in English of course because that's my first language and the language they were written in. And they are excellent. I appreciate them on multiple levels. One or two of the films I've seen in both French and English and I don't find that anything is lost in translation on that level.
I read French writers in French because I can and I try to alternate between English and French originals. But I have read one or two books in both languages to make a comparison ( for eg: Kate Atkinson's "Behind the scenes at the museum" - "Dans les coulisses du Musée") - it wasn't as good in translation I have to say.
I'm a sworn translator too so know the difficulties in both getting things right and working to a deadline.
A bad translator can ruin a work of literature - I once had to teach Camus' "l'Etranger" in English - the translation was very poor and unnatural - quite took the pleasure of such a good book away.

[azloon]

is that book by the american any good?? les bienveillantes.

i read somewhere that it's popularity arose partly because french were curious and surprised that an american would write a book using french. as well they should have been.

it's probably the only book of note in french ever written by an american, and well may be the last.

in my many years, i have known well exactly two americans who spoke fluent french. a co-worker who studied in belgium, and my son who lived and worked in paris for a year.

i have know thousands who could say, "voulez-vous coucher avec moi."

[Dot KING]

Azloon - "Les Bienveillantes" won the Prix Goncourt, THE literary prize in France, maybe equivalent to Pullitzer un the USA or Booker in the UK.
Other than that, a sort of summary, and radio criticisms of it, I don't know a darned thing about it, and it doesn't appeal to me, though if a copy came to hand it might be interesting to see whether the French it's written in has any mother-tongue influences.

[Daniel Strohl]

Dot King,

"I'm a sworn translator too" - Unfortunately, I was only an amateur translator; but it was ok, since my customers i.e the end users were most of the time not better than I was... However, may be 30 years ago, I have translated draft norms, in a field I was really acquainted with, and the end customer was apparently happy.

Due to your recommendation, I will buy a Harry Potter (in the original version if easily available).

Both of us are fans of Hercule Poirot (TMC on cable TV).
It is of course the French version, but the original subtle humour is apparently not lost in the translation. Quite an achievement, if one takes into account the synchronization problem. And if the original actors are really good, the French voices are also very good.

Pierre,

I always mix up the TV stations "sigles". There are so many channels - one gets confused.

Azloon,

"voulez-vous coucher avec moi."

You are a naughty boy; however, congratulations for the perfect French grammar. But please don't forget the question mark next time ... Things are not always granted !

[Ros]

Rocket
Indeed "food" has already become cultural in France (& in French too) - this link will take you to Le Monde's "la Toile Gourmande" which appears about once a month - the texts and the recipe ideas are really original - http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3238,36-969635@51-628868,0.html

[azloon]

and what would it mean without the question mark, other than that the writer was sloppy. (oops ??)

[Valentin]

Read several Potter books in English and French. The two versions sounded quite different, feeling-wise. For the rest, children books, nothing particular, plot, style or whatever. I really don't see how a grownup can read them all and in full, after a while I got bored with the neverending "Harry Ron and Hermione" did this or that, or with the sentimentals for simpletons and started to jump every two pages.
Children-book-wise I remain a traditional, still prefer StExupéry or Jules Verne.

[azloon]

Daniel --

in my era (mesolithic), american high school boys used to say 'voulez vous coucher avec moi?' to girls whom they wanted flirt with. since few kids knew exactly what it meant, it was a bit of camoflage for these embarassed, testosterone-soaked teenage boys who wanted to impress the girls (the girls weren' impressed, or they pretended not to be, after being told what had been said to them).