Blog Francais Numero 1

I've been trying to keep up with my French. I'm afraid that I'll lose it if I don't practice. I've spent over twenty years learning the grammar, literature and history of the language/culture; if I get lazy now, that would mean several years of hard work down the drain. Although, it's kind of like riding a bike. You never really forget it, you just have to refresh your memory. Re-familiarize my mental muscles with a language into which I haven't invested any effort for quite some time. So, that is what I am doing so I started reading this novel a while ago, with my trusty dictionary at my side. It is called Robert des noms propres by Amelie Nothomb. Thankfully, I didn't need it as much as I thought I would. The story is very interesting and, to my knowledge, well written. French writing has a different feel; the sentence structure has a different rhythm. But I sit back and pretend I am in Paris. The plot line and character development is fun. I enjoy reading about their psychological hangups and difficulties. The thematic concept is a little strange but still pleasantly unexpected.

In the spirit of all things French, this is the only of the trilogy I have yet to see. I've already seen White and Red. Red is probably my favourite so far. Though, White is really well done; the cast includes Julie Delpy, one of my favourite actresses.

Okay, so I've got the literature and film covered; time for the music portion of the blog. This is a fun video. I think it's about five years old but this particular recording artist, Alizee, has also released an album in 2004 (or so, give or take a year) called Psychedelices. It's fun pop music but with a really interesting literary twist. The first video is a song called Moi Lolita. Nabokov is one of my favourite writers, and her use of the icon is really appropriate, I think. The airy, cinematic quality of the music video is quite haunting. The second video is a song called Mademoiselle Juliette, of Shakespearean fame. Also, the artistic nature of the video (despite the poppy sound) is intriguing.