French Culture Strikes Back

For a country whose culture has been proclaimed dead, France did not do badly in Hollywood's Golden Globes. The award for best foreign language movie went to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le Papillon) and its réalisateur, Julian Schnabel, won best director. Marion Cotillard (picture above) won best actress in a musical for her role as Edith Piaf in La Môme (Released abroad as La Vie en Rose). Yes, Schnabel is a New Yorker, but the film, in French, has a cast of French stars and is based on a French best-seller.

This offers an occasion to update the polémique that followed Time magazine's obituary of Gallic creativity last month (The post here has drawn over 310 comments so far). Rather than treating Time's piece with lofty silence, official France has hit back, in the form of a broadside from CulturesFrance, the state agency responsible for conveying French civilisation to the world.

The boss of this organisation is Olivier Poivre d'Arvor, brother of PPDA, the subject of my last post. He was clearly stung by what he calls "a quite pleasant and highly stimulating hoax." He has written a clever, slightly sarcastic counter-attack which Time has published over four pages. 

Poivre d'Arvor, who looks like his brother without the implants, scoured the world for answers to the magazine's challenge to name any famous French figure and he has come up with 300. On top of that, he is issuing 100,000 copies of an eight-page parody of the Time article, called "Great Time for French Culture" in English and "Belle Epoque pour la Culture Française" in Molière's tongue. .

You can read his letter to America and list of celebrities on CulturesFrance's site. Here's an extract. 

Imagine if a French weekly had put on its cover recently, to mark the death of the great writer Norman Mailer, the title: "The Death of American Culture"!

The argument does not stand up. You know that there will always be some mischievous souls in France who will say that the difference between our two countries is that nine out of ten French know who Marcel Marceau was, while only one in ten Americans has heard the name of Norman Mailer.

And others more mischievous still, asserting that Mailer was better known in Europe than in the United States. And you must admit, dear friends, that they are not altogether wrong: Woody Allen, William Klein, Philip Roth, Paul Auster and so many other American creative spirits are better box-office in this country with its supposedly dying culture than in the United States.

OPDA (to distinguish him from PPDA) goes around the same track as we have here, offering the roll-call of French designers, architects, performers and others who are global names. Guess who features on his list under B between Patrick Bruel and Daniel Buren ? (Hint: she was a model, became a singer and now has a famous new boyfriend)

Poivre d'Arvor also points out that French culture is a melting pot: From Manu Chao to Youssou N'Dour, artists who are famous all over the world have strong links with our country, even if they don't necessarily sing in French.

And here is another news item that confirm's France's continuing health on the creative front. After Abu Dhabi's construction of a local version of the Louvre museum, Dubai has started building a replica of the city of Lyon on a 400 acre site. I don't imagine them doing the same with, say, Baltimore or Birmingham (England).   

Comments

[Ros]

"Guess who features on his list under B between Patrick Bruel and Daniel Buren ? " -- Well, Charles, it could have been you except that correctly you'd have been before Bruel - only joking! Frankly, I didn't find this article as interesting as usual.

[Juliette]

It's funny, I had the same reaction when I saw Marion Cottillard had made best actress for a musical: "Take THAT the Time!"

An American author, Stephen Seley,*** at a bar terrace in Ibiza was approached by an American girl, 19, who said she was in college and she had heard he was a writer. She sat down and asked what he wrote about (the usual question)and then said: "I may have read some of your work. What's your name?"
"Norman Mailer" Steve said.
She thought for a moment, then said; "Nope, I can't say I've heard of you."
A quote from Seley: "The literature of America is the Funnies page."

[Terry]

CLothing designers? Now, who said that here on that previous post?

Another million franc bounty is offered.

BTW: Good riddance to Norman Mailer who recently departed this Earth.

[Albert]

Aren't the Golden Globes awarded by foreign journalists? And, anyway, the Piaf film is an American-style biopic, far removed from the work of Godard, Resnais or Carax. French success at the Globes shouldn't been seen as an indication that the Americans know or rate French culture.

Hope they don't include all the graffiti that defaces Lyon's elegant facades.

[John Gregory Flinn]

"And here is another news item that confirm's France's continuing health on the creative front."

I'll vouch for that, after all emulation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I've yet to apreciate Lyons, but Dubai is already an impressive and modern metropolis which must speak volumes about its intention to build a replica of Lyons.
I must see the original!

[Anna, Paris]

The point being made in Time was that there are no global heavyweights coming from France any more, such as 'Molière, Hugo, Balzac and Flaubert to Proust, Sartre, Camus and Malraux'. It may be my ignorance but when I read his list OPDA has only underlined the point made in Time and shown that most of these 'cultural figures' are best known on their home turf: Jonny Halliday, Vanessa Paradis!, hardly global icons...

[Daniel Strohl]

John Gregory,

"I must see the original" (Lyon).

Yes, good idea. Another incentive to visit the city : la cuisine lyonnaise ...

[Chris]

Thanks for the valuable blog entry limning the nuances of Olivier Poivre d’Arvor’s reaction to Time magaizne’s article. In my Jan. 5, 2008 posting “French Culture Wars: The Mandarins Strike Back” on FrenchCultureNow.com, I took a dimmer view of Poivre’s familiar rhetoric, which comes verbatim from the CulturesFrance playbook. We would do well to remember that the French cultural-industrial complex is a massive state apparatus run not by artists, but by Enarques with no cultural training or experience, but with a fondness for juicy government sinecure posts. These taxpayer-funded apologists always invoke the same tired and Jesuitical arguments as they try to impose the unifying brand of “French Culture” on a diverse post-colonial, 21st century hodgepodge of productions (books, theatre, circus, visual art, etc.) by creators of various nationalities who just happen to reside in France (Kundera) or who were born there but live elsewhere (Louise Bourgeois). The mandarins seem to have no shame in co-opting succesful post-colonial artists like N’Dour and others, who are very far from friendly with the chauvenist and neo-colonialist white man’s preserve that is CulturesFrance (formerly AAFA, Association Francaise d'Action Artistique). On a psychological level, France’s obsessive taking credit for other people’s acheivements is a classic symptom of an inferiority complex, and it strikes many Anglo-Saxon” observers as pathetic. Ironically, just as Poivre was citing Daniel Buren as an example of French prowess, Buren was attacking the French Culture Ministry for destroying his sculpture and “artistic vandalism.” Anyway, the argument can be followed on FrenchCultureNow, where I post over 500 French news items in English per month. With links to BremnerTimes, bien sûr.
http://www.frenchculturenow.com

[LN]

I strongly opposed Albert 's comment on Jan. 14: La vie en rose (La Mome) was a huge success in France too, one of the big successes of 2007, so you can't that the Americans rate French culture! and what if she get awards at other festivals? will you say that the Indians, the Chinese, or the Germans, rate French culture?

[T. Tubby Endash]

Catherine Ringer and her late husband surely deserve a mention on that list. They performed all over Europe last year. One London venue was absolutely packed.

[Lily]

Self-explanatory news in German
(ja = yes; Donnerstag = Thursday... - last Thursday!)

http://www.n-tv.de/903467.html

[Lily]

Apologies with regards to my aforementioned link!!

This news about the Sarko/Bruni marriage was spread with a DOUBT!! I should have added ???????????? - !

[Monika]

I always am astonished on how little relaxed the French are with themselves.
That OPDA answers the mentioned article in this manner is like reacting as a mixture of feeling offended and incomprehension that one's achievements aren't acknowledged. It's like the little brother trying to prove his admired elder brother that he was equally good.
That clearly shows to me how little France est sûre d'elle et combien elle aimait d'être reconnue par les autres, particulièrement des Etats Unis ...
One wants to like them for that little weakness ...

[Dominique]

OPDA does not "talk for France". That does not make any sens. Why are you all complaining about France just like if OPDA did have some kind of mandate for answering in our name? Please don't make french bashing just because you don't like what this man, known only because of his brother PPDA, wrote. Who cares?

Chris says,

" These taxpayer-funded apologists always invoke the same tired and Jesuitical arguments as they try to impose the unifying brand of “French Culture” on a diverse post-colonial, 21st century hodgepodge of productions [...] On a psychological level, France’s obsessive taking credit for other people’s acheivements is a classic symptom of an inferiority complex"

I wonder what "inclusivness" means for Chris. If foreigners are not included in "french culture", France is accused of not being open enough. If foreigners are included, France is accused of "taking credit" for other people. Does it mean that France is "essentially" wrong whatever it does?

Obviously for Chris, foreigner once, foreigner for ever! There will always be some "Chris" around believing foreigners should remain foreigners.

French identity is inclusive Chris, whether you like it or not. Deal with it.

[Robert Marchenoir]

For proof that Time is right and Olivier Poivre d'Arvor is wrong, look no further than the name of his outfit.

When government luminaries have the gall to call "Culturesfrance" an official governement body devoted to promoting French culture abroad, you know that their attempt is failed right from the beginning.

Ignorance of their own language, grammar and spelling by cultural "promoters" means there is nothing left to promote.

Browsing the home page of Mr. Poivre d'Arvor's site reveals such menu items as "Afrique et Caraïbes en Créations", "Publications et écrit", "Coopération et Ingénierie culturelle" and "Cirque, Arts de la rue".

By the way, I thought that there was no French colonial empire in Africa any more, so what is that section doing up there?

I just hope Olivier Poivre d'Arvor is not way overpaid, since all of his paycheck is obviously wasted anyway.

[Daisy]

Why do the French care so much what the Americans think about them? The Golden Globes award is voted on by the members of the Foreign Press Association. This does not mean a resurgence of French culture. It's unlikely she will win the Oscar.

"The point being made in Time was that there are no global heavyweights coming from France any more, such as 'Molière, Hugo, Balzac and Flaubert to Proust, Sartre, Camus"

I wonder if there are really any heavyweights nowadays. We live such an inflation of pseudo-cultural "stars" that it's impossible to discern real value. Balzac and others became great in an age when there was nothing of today's media frenzy.
Someone please list some present day heavyweights, anywhere in the world... We're all quite pitiful societies, in that respect.

[azloon/robert furlong]

i am a dinosaur, no doubt.

but i have admired french culture since i was a teenager in the 1950s.

french films were, back then, among the most interesting and artistic being made anywhere in the world.

as a graduate student in 1970, camus and sartre were among the most widely read authors in the u.s. (and the world), and fascinating to me. montaigne is among the wisest authors in human history.

france has a wonderful intellectual tradition, all accomplished WITHOUT an office for promoting french culture.

a modest proposal:

unleash the talents of the french people by dismantling the rigidity of the french welfare state, and all the barriers to creativity and the pursuit of happiness (or unhappiness in the case of french artists).

OPDA is no doubt a fraud (no libel, Valentin), with a difficult assignement, little more than a PR hack. i hate to think of a cabinet-level official in the u.s. assigned to defend and explain to the world, the iraq war, rap music, urban blight, britany spears, lindsey lohan, school assassins, hateful christian conservatives. i could go on and on.

let national cultures speak for themselves, the good and the bad, the successes and the failures. people aren't stupid. they don't need to be told what's worthwhile and what isn't.

[Brooke01]

@Anna and others : as a twenty-seomthing, 'educated' person, I can tell you that you can ask any twenty-something, 'educated' person in Britain : unless they studied literature or philosophy, they're far more likely to have heard of Halliday then Proust, Balzac, Malraux or Flaubert (or indeed Hume, George Eliot, TS Eliot, Chaucer - to take some random examples of similar fame). Plus, another reason that older intellectuals from past centuries are more renowned is because they have become well and truly canonised, unlike contemporaries who tend to be still in competition, as it were. I also think that this whole debate is quite a good demonstration of what might be called the ever-increasing multiplying, and multiplicity of canons, as well as the increasing multi-polarity of cultural centres. It seems to me (a somewhat neutral observer, with both a Francophone (Swiss) and Anglo-Saxon (Irish/English) background), that people find it particularly difficult to be objective about these kinds of issues ; US/Anglo-Saxon/French bashing abounds.

[christopher muir]

Albert Camus reportedly once said that culture is the cry of men in face of their destiny. Every country does so in its own way - to attack another nation's culture seems pointless, but magazines need to keep their circulations ticking over. I'll choose my reading matter and music without the assistance of TIME, thank you.

[Andrew]

It is a simple point. The French filmmakers who projected such an exciting image of France in the 60s and 70s have not been replaced. True, film itself has become tired and commercial but France is not making commercial successes either these days. As for writers, who can name a single French writer of the last half century of any quality? Maybe Houellebecq? Not much compared to France's past record. Artists? Precisely. Musicians? Johnny Halliday? Please. Even French haute cuisine is sadly out of touch these days - still very good, if you want an enormous blowout, which many do not. French design? Yes, but this is a minor art. Of course it is all connected to the absurd French attitude towards the economy. With a sick economy, of course the creative psyche will suffer.

[M.K.DAMODARAN]

PRESIDENT SARKOZY AND CARLA BRUNI/PRINCE CHARLES AND CAMILLA!
Now President Sarkozy has a new girl friend.Carla Bruni,his latest girl friend,was born on December 23,1967.It is interesting to note that number 23 has strong significance in the life of Sarkozy.Numerologically his name number(occult number) is 23,as arrived below:
s+a+r+k+o+z+y=3+1+2+2+7+7+1=23
It is seen that Sarkozy had married Married Marie-Dominique Culioli on a 23rd!(September 23,1982).Number 23 adds up to 5(2+3=5).
Sarkozy's marriage with Culioli lasted for 14 years.See,14 adds up to 5(1+4=5).
Sarkozy married Cecilia in 1996.His son Louis was born on April 23,1997.
Number 5 is mercurial in character.Consistency is not its virtue.They will be consistently inconsistent!
Prince Charles was born on a 14th(1+4=5).His wife,Camilla,has resemblance with Bruni.The names Camilla and Bruni carries the name number 16.
M.K.DAMODARAN,numerologist,Post-Edayannur,Kannur,Kerala,India,Phone-04902485193

[Anna, Paris]

If I had the time I would compile an exhaustive list of arts, architecture, music & literature international prize-winners, as this discussion has well and truly captured my imagination but if the Nobel & Turner prizes are anything to go by, Time still has a point...

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/history/artists.htm

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/all/

[Brooke01]

I'm sorry to say this, Andrew, but if you can't think of a contemporary French writer other than Houellebecq (who, in France, is considered 'Anglo-Saxon'), that is because your knowledge/interest of French contemporary literature is at fault (no doubt influenced by US/English bias on these kinds of things : though you do occasionally read articles in the Anglophone literary press bemoaning the reluctance of Anglo-Saxon readers to read translations and the ensuing lack of translations that exist) and not the quality of French literature per se. As for evaluating cultural strength by commercial criteria, well, on that score, Dan Brown is a great success, but that begs the obvious question, will he be remembered? Does anyone take his books seriously? Same goes for cinema : the best films nowadays are not those produced with an over-abundance of commercial criteria in mind, as your average Hollywood blockbuster shows quite plainly. This confusion of cultural quality and commercial success was perhaps the most glaring mistake made by the Time journalist, whose article was essentially an application of US/commercial values to cultural output, which, as I think anyone with a serious interest in culture will agree, is nonsensical.

That, of course, is my own bias (relating to my earlier post), yet I think it also reflects that of a majority of Continental (and British too, on the whole) cultural commentators. Try suggesting to aesthetic theorists of the past (Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Greenberg, for instance - whoever you like really) that cultural quality should be measure by commercial success!

[Robert Marchenoir]

"i hate to think of a cabinet-level official in the u.s. assigned to defend and explain to the world, the iraq war, rap music, urban blight, britany spears, lindsey lohan, school assassins, hateful christian conservatives. i could go on and on." (Azloon)

Go no further than the American Embassy in Paris. I'm not sure what their position is on rap "music", but here is their mission statement about American culture:

"Le Bureau des Affaires Culturelles est dirigé par l’Attaché culturel de l’Ambassade. Le bureau s’efforce de mieux expliquer les positions américaines dans leur contexte via la participation de conférenciers américains officiels et indépendants à des séminaires et des colloques. Le bureau conçoit aussi des programmes qui permettent une meilleure connaissance de la société américaine, de ses valeurs et opinions. Il gère les programmes d’échanges et les voyages d’études du gouvernement américain, comme par exemple les bourses de la Fondation Fulbright. Le bureau culturel favorise également les projets entre institutions privées françaises et américaines et participe à la promotion des arts et de la littérature américaines en France."

http://www.amb-usa.fr/sectionsfr/ca.htm

Doesn't seem different from Culturesfrance's mission to me.

Promoting one's culture abroad is a perfectly natural and legitimate thing for governments to do. All countries take good care of that.

There was once something called the United States Information Service. And Radio Free Europe. And The Voice of America. I am sure all these state-funded propaganda machines put together vastly exceeded any efforts by the French government.

What you have to promote and how you do it is another matter altogether.

[Valentin]

Looking at the Turner and Nobel prize lists, I don't think any of the people there could compare to Balzac or Malraux - very few are known at all, to begin with...

[Daniel Strohl]

Anna,

"Jonny Halliday, Vanessa Paradis!, hardly global icons"

On the contrary, Paris Hilton & Britney Spears are well known well beyond their "home turf" (LOL)

Christopher Muir,

"I'll choose my reading matter and music without the assistance of TIME, thank you."

Me too, Christopher ! And also without the assistance of some of our own high-nosed "intellectuels" - ils m'énervent !

[John Gregory Flinn]

I thought OPDA's letter covered all the aspects needed to be covered.
The inclusion of those popular cultural celebrities at least did'nt include footballers....did it?

But I fear that 'Time' will only respond with their list of cultural celebrities, and a 'competition' will result.

OPDA's point about the language difference is probably the most significant reason why French culture does'nt readily 'translate' across the Atlantic (nor the Channel).

Popular acclaim is often the standard by which the Americans judge culture... or anything!
Although some parts of Maine and Louisiana do speak some French it is not commonly understood. Accordingly, French cultural exports usually have to rely on specialist attention.

Then there is the question of politics, which these days can narrow the frame of reference, and for example, render controversy out of the banal or vice versa.
I feel the fact that 'Time' may have only put the critique in its European edition exemplifies this. It may not be appropiate for mainland USA!

[Daniel Strohl]

Brooke01,

"but that begs the obvious question, will he be remembered?"

Good point ! That reminds me of a funny definition of culture I have read somewhere a long time ago - "la culture est ce qui reste lorsque l'on a tout oublié" (culture is what remains when one has forgotten everything). My bad - I can't remember the name of the author, and Wikipedia is not any better ...

More seriously : may be it is quite restrictive to limit culture to Anglo-Saxons and French. A few European names come immediately to mind : Goethe, Schiller, Leonardo da Vinci, Dante etc. etc. There are also many other cultures - but this is probably off topic.

[Maggie G]

"Although some parts of Maine and Louisiana do speak some French it is not commonly understood. Accordingly, French cultural exports usually have to rely on specialist attention."

This morning on the radio there was this guy who composes music for movies. He said that when French movies go to the States, not only do they translate the words but they often get new music composed, more suitable to American tastes.

Maybe this is commonly known, but it was new to me.

[Roger Goodacre]

JG Flinn - "Popular acclaim is often the standard by which the Americans judge culture... or anything!"

And what therefore do you think of a French state that in recent years has awarded its highest decoration, the Légion d'Honneur, to Sylvester Stallone, Michael Douglas (Chevalier, no less), Robert de Niro, Sharon Stone, Charlton Heston, and inevitably Woody Allen?

[Roger Goodacre]

JG Flinn - "Popular acclaim is often the standard by which the Americans judge culture... or anything!"

And what therefore do you think of a French state that in recent years has awarded its highest decoration, the Légion d'Honneur, to Sylvester Stallone, Michael Douglas (Chevalier, no less), Robert de Niro, Sharon Stone, Charlton Heston, and inevitably Woody Allen?

[Tara_Lane]

Ooh, I'm excited. I've got La Vie En Rose next in my Netflix queue. Between this and the Sarko dating/marriage mart madness, there's a lot of France to be talked about in America right now...

[Daniel Strohl]

Maggie G,

"Maybe this is commonly known, but it was new to me".

It was new to me also. The name of the music film composer is Cosma (or Kosma ?).

PS : Jacques Pradel makes most of the time very interesting broadcasts on many different subjects. And it is very funny to hear him laugh along with Julie when Canteloup makes his imitations ...

[azloon]

[Promoting one's culture abroad is a perfectly natural and legitimate thing for governments to do. All countries take good care of that.] Robert Marchenoir

Robert, it's clear to me that the u.s. and french approaches are entirely different.

the u.s. prefers a public relations approach, e.g. radio free europe, voice of america. (the little blurb you took off the embassy website is pure fluff, and meaningless compared to a cabinet-level minister whose job it is to defend french culture). the publicity department of eurodisney does more to promote american values that the entire u.s. state department.

france on the other hand seems to be fighting a rear-guard battle, defending its sagging reputation to the world's critics and doubters.

as i said, cultural accomplishments stand on their own, and speak for themselves. a country won't be admired because a minister of culture writes a defense of a time magazine article. and, likewise, a country won't be admired, tho perhaps appreciated by some, because it broadcasts news to areas of the world that might not otherwise get it.

it occured to me after last posting that french culture seems to have deteriorated during the period of the establishment of the french 'nanny' state.

artists have no pressure to produce, so they sit on their asses like many of their bretheren waiting for their unemployment checks to arrive in the mail.

art arises, at least in part, from hardship and deprivation. france is going broke trying to create a society that attempts to eliminate this very human predicament. so art and culture suffer. JMNSHO.

[dot king]

"He said that when French movies go to the States, not only do they translate the words but they often get new music composed, more suitable to American tastes."

Maggie, this might be a standard practice in other fields as well.
Sorry if this goes a little off-topic, but:
Remember the dreadful James Bulger case in the UK about 10 years ago? He was the little boy who was taken from a shopping centre in Liverpool and beaten to death by two boys of an age to be still at junior school.
His parents had chosen the song "Tears in Heaven" composed by Eric Clapton after the death of his own son, to accompany the coffin from the church.
On the French TV news, we heard about 3 guitar notes of the Clapton song, then it was superceded by a Michael Jackson song, "Save the children" ?? (I'm no expert in MJ). I can only think that this totally unnecessary substition was to make it more - what exactly? Relevant? Recognisable? Is MJ more widely-known in France than EC (well, perhaps not now)? There was no entertainment value in the item, it was very short, so no difference to the audimat. Mystery. But they did it.
And when you consider subsequent events surrounding MJ and children, it was also ultimately inappropriate, to say the least.

Back on topic, when this article appeared, I saw it just before setting out to school and thought, great, something we can all be positive about - came home to find that the usual fierce argument surrounding any topic was in full swing.
So, I'd like to say that I am simply very happy for Marion Cotillard's achievement being rewarded, and for the success of "le scaphandre et le papillon" a remarkable story - I hope the film is at least faithful to the book. Strange that the film indistry has only just picked it up, it was on TV while the journalist himself was still alive, as an excellent documentary.
Whatever the other preoccupations, whether such-and-such lives in France, or whether Piaf's life has been "Hollywoodised", I think I'd like to put all that aside and just be pleased for the artists concerned.

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

I was searching the France Stops Smoking comments for the remark by one of my sparring partners, Terry, who said in his kindly, thoughtful way: "BTW Good riddance to Norman Mailer who recently departed this earth" My reply was it is a pity Norm isn't here to punch holes in you, Terry. NM was a two-fisted writer, sneered at and referred to as a "journalist" by the soit dissent American "intellectuals" who constantly put him down. But I remember Mailer at the Charlie Chaplin Press conference when they were goading him with: "Are you a member of the Communist Party? You made your money in America, commie..." etc and a voice at the back of the room (Norman Mailer) called out: "You are pillorying a great artist. Mr. Chaplin..." There were cries of "He's drunk again. Get that bum outta here..."
"Mr. Chaplin is a great artist, do you not understand...." "Get him out....You're drunk, Mailer."
Chaplin and his brother Sydney were orphans in the terrible slums of Lambeth, London when their mother was in an asylum, and Charlie was cetainly left wing and if he had voted it would be for labour, on the side of the poor against the rich. He gave the prongs to the British Royal Family and refused to appear at a "Royal Command Performance" until persuaded that his normal good manners should make him accept, which he did.
The Times refers to Mr.Mailer as one of the "literary greats", which he is because only an artist could have written The Naked and the Dead, which is in competition with From Here to Erernity by James Jones as the great American novel. Both books have an insight into the behavior of American men, and, especially, women. Mailer's red-neck officers' conversation shows how McCarthysim could take a hold in that great country with its statue of Liberty (Liberte Egalite Fraternite?)
R.I.P., Mr. Mailer. You were one Jew they could not have pushed into a gas chamber.
I shall now return to France Stops Smoking, where Terry is recommending Mein Kampf for light reading.

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

P.S.: We meet again, Maggie G. I hope a bright journalist invesigates what you say about the Yanks tampering with music to suit their own taste. They and the British certainly censor French and Italian films (in the cinema) and hack them to pieces for TV (cut for bad language, violence, nudity, drug scenes). The blue pencil Brigade are still at it...
M.K. DAMODARAN = Worth your while as a numerologist to study the work of Boby Lapointe, Pezenas troubadour with theory on mathematics and music now taught in French univrsities, I am told.
Buy his records: but do not expect to understand the lyrics. He sings in Occitan (sometimes called patois) and Truffaut had to put sub-titles on screen (for a French audience!) when he sang in Shoot the Pianist.

[Robert Marchenoir]

Azloon, the role of the French minister for culture is not to promote French culture abroad. Olivier Poivre d'Arvor is not a cabinet minister.

The role of the French minister for culture is essentially to give as many state handouts as possible to artists (or so-called artists) and make a lot of noise about them being the center of the world, so as to keep them happy.

Also to give medals to a lot of them, including a large amount of American celebrities.

[textibule]

There are certain indicators of Culture that need to be taken seriously.

The last 743 posts on Charles' blog have all been about the Life and Loves of Nicolas Sarkozy, except this one, which is about the So-called Death of French Culture.

I am now putting this information into a solution of Montrachet and poudre de perlinpimpim and shaking well.

Waiting...waiting...

Yes it's turning cloudy. I'm afraid French Culture is dead.

[Daniel Strohl]

Textibule,

Montrachet : c'est du gâchis !

Robert,

"Browsing the home page of Mr. Poivre d'Arvor's site reveals such menu items as "Afrique et Caraïbes en Créations..."

This reminds me of a school comrade who used to say jokingly : "C'est moi qui est le nouveau professeur de français qu'on vous a causé !". If I remember well, it was in 1954.

[John Gregory Flinn]

ROGER GOODACHRE
I'm not sure I equate any State with 'popular acclaim', and I did'nt mean it to be understood as the same.
As a matter of interest, when did any State do anything that was clearly popular with public?
I can't think of an instance, outside of elections and even then they usually find ways to negate a popular choice.
But then I'm just an old cynic - Sarkozy was a popular choice was'nt he....!

State honours are always a source of controversy and may or may not be related to cultural achievements.
Did'nt the names you quote show support for France during the worst of the Bush-junior mud-slinging?

[azloon]

[Also to give medals to a lot of them, including a large amount of American celebrities.] R. Marchenoir

thx for clarification of role of french minister for culture.

i guess we 're again back to the subject of jerry lewis.

:)

[Robert Marchenoir]

"i guess we 're again back to the subject of jerry lewis."

No, not really, Azloon. This hoax about the French being in love with Jerry Lewis is up there with smoking Gitanes, eating frogs and wearing berets.

Actually they watch the same stupid movies than you do with the same boneheaded rappers starring in them, bust their brains with the same poisonous drugs, eat the same junk food in the same joints and wear the same ugly caps in the same infantile way.

Maybe you Yanks should update your stereotypes a bit more often than twice a century.

[qwerty]

Who cares - if the French are happy with their writers and film-makers, that makes a potential audience of 60+ million people. There is a tempérament national, after all.

Taste vis-à-vis foreign culture? The French did like Jerry Lewis, and now they read Douglas Kennedy (a participant in an LCI talkshow mentioned that DK WASN'T EVEN PUBLISHED in the US: ces incultes!!!)

There's a lot of great stuff in French culture, but it's mostly small-scale, intimiste. Bashung, Yasmina Reza.

And then there's the mental masturbation, of course, that anglo-saxons really cannot understand, because they're too straightforward: let's make a great movie, with a real story, a beginning, an end, lots of things happening, nice twists, great actors, and we'll come up with Usual Suspects or The Great Lebowski or....

[Pierre Bernardi]

Robert Marchenoir, last night we saw a giant bull frog on TV. My wife took one look at its magnificent thighs and said "Oooh la la! Ca doit être bon ça!"

[Robert Marchenoir]

Pierre, I hope your wife only talks about the creatures and does not push them onto your plate.

[azloon]

[Actually they watch the same stupid movies than you do with the same boneheaded rappers starring in them, bust their brains with the same poisonous drugs, eat the same junk food in the same joints and wear the same ugly caps in the same infantile way.Maybe you Yanks should update your stereotypes a bit more often than twice a century.] R. Marchenoir

sounds grim, tho i did notice some of this myself when i was there five or six years ago.

but you can't read the lenin statue story, or accounts of the ongoing sarko saga, without coming away with the impression that france remains distinctive in many ways.

the u.s. can bombard french culture with cretinous entertainment and crappy food, and france will retain, at least for awhile, its own peculiar posture.

so even if it isn't jerry lewis, it will be some other improbable fascination.

[Pierre Bernardi]

Robert, the problem the British have with frogs in restaurants is that they always forget to cook them. So the maitre d' removes the bell and off they hop around the dining room. You have to catch them quickly with your fork. It was Ricky Gervais who was saying on this site that food in France comes with eyes and legs.

[Robert Marchenoir]

"It was Ricky Gervais who was saying on this site that food in France comes with eyes and legs."

I don't know about the legs, Pierre. However, when my fishmonger asks me whether I want the heads cut off my fish, I usually tell him I like to look straight into their eyes when eating them.

Everyone is entitled to their own little perversions, after all.

[millier marc]

please ,could you help me. i would like to know if the American people could understans "LA VIE EN ROSE" in french abroard..LA MOME HERE in france..mybe the old american people!!!!!!

[Pierre Bernardi]

Quite right Robert!

[Pierre Bernardi]

From tol: "The French state now scours auction houses all over the world for the fine furnishings flogged off by the wagon-load after the Revolution. Once empty and echoing, the royal palaces will soon be gilded once more – if not, perhaps, occupied." Money well spent! ("A Rough Guide: the Best of France", 2nd May 2007)

[azloon]

millier marc --

could americans understand 'la vie en rose' en francaise? you've got to be kidding.

i have known four americans in my adult life, my son being one of them, my mother another, who are/were fluent in french.

i am sure that 99.999% of americans fluent in french are living in france.

[Rose]

millier marc,

You do realize that subtitles are used??

[dot king]

An English friend of mine, who lives here full time, asked me if I'd seen "La vie en rose" and didn't believe we were talking about the same thing when i said I'd seen "La Môme"!
Of course for the anglophone market "la môme" is unknown vocabulary, whereas everyone who's heard of Piaf knows that song by that title despite the fact that Piaf also recorded it in English.

There are quite a lot (possibly the majority) of Anglophones living in France who never get any French news of any kind apart from what they see in the Anglophone press. To be living here and not know about a French film until it comes out in the UK and the USA under a new title is something I find quite absurd.