Over the last few months I've been sifting through Amazon, Imdb and Allocinema trying to come up with the best possible offering of films for www.alevelfrench.com
We've finally come up with a formula two Truffaut films, les 400 coups and La nuit américaine. Les 400 coups is still so incredibly fresh in many ways and the black is white is so colourful! I just love the story within a story format of La nuit americaine which reminds me of Wagon's East which was finished off despite the death of John Candy. Either or both of these films repays study enormously.
Alevelfrench.com/home is also the home of the Claude Berri films Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources which really do need to both be viewed even if one is studying them both. There's an element of Thomas Hardy tragedy in these Pagnol written stories-Thomas Hardy but with sunshine. The haunting melodies with the harsh but beautiful landscapes are still a treasure so many years on. We now have the recent fille du puisatier to tempt us as well.
The third two are from Louis Malle. I first saw Lacombe Lucien in my first week or two at York uni and had only seen it again once. This tale of a young peasant lad drawn unwittingly into becoming a gestapo collaborator is very thought provoking. It was such a pleasure to revisit it and I'm sure people who have been doing Au revoir les enfants would appreciate a change with the resources on alevelfrench.com With all the drama of the Arab spring I decided that Milou en mai would make an an excellent second Malle film. A little risqué in parts perhaps but this multilayered film is a masterpeace with a family tragedy playing out with the background of the mai 68 riots.
Independent learning is often talked about but not so often practised. With alevelfrench.com you can do a mixture of literature and language in your class without worrying about students not having enough support. L'étranger, Un Sac de billes, Kiffe Kiffe Demain, Bonjour Tristesse, Le silence de la mer, Les petits enfants du siècle and No et moi have the same or similar exercises to the films with the same grammar covered in context.
