Patrick Modiano

When the announcement came through about Patrick Modiano winning the Nobel Prize I promised myself that I would read some of his work as soon as possible.  Spurred on by finding that his works were quite short and were often about the occupation  I picked up Dora Bruder at Foyles. 

Reviews of his work for the Nobel compared Modiano to a modern Proust and I was not sure what this led me to expect.     What I found was almost an anti-novel which was as much about the writer as it was about Dora Bruder, a  young Jewish girl.   The narrator was moved to write the book when he found  Un avis de recherche for the girl in a wartime newspaper:

“PARIS

On cherche une jeune fille, Dora Bruder, 15 ans, 1m 55, visage ovale, yeux gris-marron, manteaux sport gris, pull-over bordeaux… »

The author undertakes a leisurely hunt for clues as to what had happened to Dora;   most of his discoverys come in the shape of finding out the address she was living at along with the dates.   He fills in the details about anti-jewish laws and actions carried out by the police on dates relevant to Dora’s current status and even goes so far as to evoke the weather at the time Dora might have been walking around or hiding in a particular area.  

The other side of the novel which permeates the narrative is the narrator tracking his relationship with his father over the period of the occupation;  the father seems to have behaved extremely badly towards his son and the emotional carnage which the narrator describes, parallels the much more shadowy, sketchy life of Dora.

The novel feels documentary-like in tone, a less emotional version of the TV programme “Who do you think you are?”.    The style very much underlines the message in that it alienates us almost completely from Dora and others in her position, rather as would have been the case at the time-“there’s an official programme of expulsions going on; let’s not ask too many questions-we’ve enough to worry about”.   As there are no memories, or virtually none, of the girl herself, we find it hard to really feel any sympathy except in a very distant kind of way.

The commentators who say that Modiano is concerned about memory preservation are right,  as even the places associated with Dora’s existence are fast disappearing so she is rapidly passing  from being a shadowy figure to one who never existed at all, to all intents and purposes.   There is no memorial, just a few entries with her name on some very inaccessible public records-except of course she now has a complete book about her.

Alevelfrench.com has covered several works relating to the second world war and the holocaust;  this novel would be approachable by sixth formers but probably doesn’t have the necessary level of emotional involvement to interest them as is the case with Un sac de billes or Un secret.

Audio version of literature text

I've recently been working on a German text,  Die Verwandlung by Kafka, and was delighted to find what I thought was a really good audio-book version of the novella.   I downloaded the mp3 files from www.vorleser.net and opened them in the Readdle App on my smartphone to play them (other options are offered when you try to open the file).    I do a 4 mile walk every two or three days and like to listen to podcasts of an improving nature so began to listen.

I had the whole, admittedly not very long, narrative in my head after producing the page by page vocabulary although the narrative was slipping away quickly from my memory.   The novella was read by Karen Schulz-Vobach and was well produced with frequent spooky sound effects and I was struck by several things.   I do find reading complex German sentences challenging and was surprised to find to what extent hearing the text read meaningfully, with emotion, highlighted the meaning and brought it back stronger into my consciousness.  

 

My suggestion is that it would be extremely useful to get students to go back over, via the audiobook, the section/chapter they have just been covering to help capture it in the mind in a more meaningful way.   I think it's certainly worth trying-it also helps students internalize the musicality and rhythm of well written language. 

I was moved to see what was available online for the French texts I cover on www.alevelfrench.com and found the following some of which are free (the titles out of copyright, though watch the details for your country's precise details).
 
Boule de suif-Guy de Maupassant- litterature audio site  Go to site page

L'avare-Molière-litterature audio site Go to site page   Nice and slow but film better.

L'étranger-Camus-read by Michel Lonsdale-there is also a version read by Camus but he doesn't read it that well in my opinion.

Intouchables

I found Intouchables at once funny, refreshing, frustrating, annoying and manipulative.    The initial mad driving, reminiscent of Taxi 1, just to get the teenage part audience in the mood led seamlessly into a demonstration of how not to succeed in a job interview by the main protagonist, Driss.   Of course he does get the job as his quadraplegic employer, multimillionaire Philippe wants to be be cared for by someone who doesn't pity him, forgets that he is even disabled and questions his cultural choices.

The tension between the expectations of the haute-bourgeoise in contrast with the squalid daily life and attitudes of the cité Balzac  provides the platform for humour throughout the play, the mischievous teasing and seducing of Driss enlivening nearly every scene.  The master dragueur's efforts to seduce Magalie, Philippe's PA could offend if the latter were not so competent at giving as good as she gets, leaving Driss amazed at the failure of his previously foolproof methods.

I guess that the overall message of the film is that we should all endeavour to see beyond disability and address the spirit within the person;   as Driss gets to know his boss he applies his own standards to his predicament and as a result gradually improves his standard of life, not the least with judicious use of sex and drugs, albeit in the best possible taste.     It is good that the modification of life style is reciprocal as Driss learns to profit from the gullibility of the art world.

What is particularly interesting is that the story behind the film is based on truth.   I read the book "Le second souffle" by Philippe Pozzo di Borgo before attacking the film and was surprised to find that Abdel, the real Driss, is only a small part of the narrative.    The autobiographical account is mainly about Philippe's relationship with his much loved, late wife to whom there is only a short nod in the film.

While some of the events reflect reality, such as the altercation with the incorrectly parked driver,  the impression I gained was that the scénariste took the main adjectives used to describe Abdel and took it from there:-

"Il est insupportable, vaniteux, orgueilleux, brutal, inconstant, humain.   Sans lui, je serais mort de décomposition....Il m'a fait rire quand je craquais.  Il est mon diable gardien.

The term "diable gardien" would give good substance for an essay.   I may use that in the resources produced for www.alevelfrench.com.  We have produced a set of resources which will enable you to develop systematic language work at the same as reinforcing knowledge of the content of the film.

View the resources here: they include a gapped summary of the film (10 pages), questions, grammar in context, sample essay plan and essay   View summary on www.alevelfrench.com

L'occupation-ALF resources and 2 page cartoon summary

The German occupation of France is a topic dear to my heart and one which can be exploited on many different levels by language teachers. I have just returned from a visit to old friends in a village near Orléans and Ginette our exchange partner's mother whom I've known for 40+ years was telling me of her experiences as a 5 year old. Her mother was running the farm south of the Loire by herself and as the Germans approached, she loaded up a cart and set off on the "exode". They only got 20 or so kilometres into the Sologne area and then came back, presumably after the armistice. Her father was a prisoner in Germany working on the Uboat works by the river Weser near Bremen. She clearly remembers German soldiers coming into the farmyard and machine gunning their chickens and a cow, presumably in order to obtain fresh produce. I never knew to ask about this 43 years ago-but I know now!

My first creative work based on the topic was this cartoon summary which I wrote in 1991 for the Stanley Thorne's Escalade 1 reader-it was for Key Stage 3 if the term existed then! Allo allo was still a popular TV comedy into its 7th series.

I wrote the summary including as much transactional language as possible:- shopping, transport, finding the way and it was surprising just how well the topic fitted. When I went for interview for a head of dept job, the incumbent showed us her materials for the occupation and, guess what, she had my summary as the ultimate condensation of the topic...so if you need it, use it.



Download the cartoon summary of the occupation (Stanley Thorne's Escalade 1)

For an introduction to the fall of France which illustrates why the country was in such a traumatised state by June 1940, the Channel 4 World at War, part 2 is essential viewing.

The Vercors novella Le silence de la mer fits neatly into the period following the defeat demonstrating how an old man and his niece resist passively against the German officer billeted with them. Although less than 40 pages in length I found that the poetic nature of von Ebrennac's characterisation of the relationship between the victor and the vanquished alongside the developing romantic attachment of the officer and the silent woman made for a classic of understatement-fertile ground for conjecture and therefore discussion. See summary of ALF resources for book

Written early in the 50's Au Bon Beurre by Jean Dutourd caused a good deal of soul-searching when it was published, dispelling many of the more up-beat, post war appraisals of private behaviour during the occupation. A crémier uses every opportunity to enrich himself and his family against a backdrop of Vichy propaganda. With a sub-plot of an attempted assassination attempt on Pétain this humorous novel feels authentic-even down to the crémier manning the barricades as a member of the résistance de dernière heure. An essential read for teachers wishing to get into the period.

The first film I saw based on the occupation period was in 1975; it was the first film I saw at university. Lacombe Lucien, directed by Louis Malle, was a shocking, morally ambiguous introduction to the topic. I enjoyed covering this title within the film section on ALF and commend it to teachers who may have had enough of Au revoir les enfants or Un sac de billes.

See cinema resources

The release of Au Revoir les Enfants, also of course by Malle, was an attempt by the director to deal with a disturbing experience from his past. I took a group of A level students to see the film at the Cornerhouse in Manchester and have re-watched the film ever since. I shall be releasing a sequence of materials on Malle shortly covering the director's career and examination preparation materials.

Lucie Aubrac's Ils partiront dans l'ivresse which I thoroughly enjoyed researching describes the effect of the German occupation on society and the internal workings of resistance networks in Lyon as this brave woman leads operations to release captive prisoners. The account came out when Klaus Barbie the German officer responsible for torturing prisoners was on trial in Lyon and the book raised many questions about the role of personal reminiscences in the recounting of history. Does Lucie come across as overly self-important and too enthusiastic a name-dropper?-if everything in the story is true, then I'm sure these characteristics are well-deserved. See summary of ALF resources on this book

Un sac de billes by Joseph Joffo traces the perilous adventures of the young Jo and his brother Maurice as they try to stay one jump ahead of both the collaborationist French and the Germans. Many aspects of life during the occupation are illuminated as the war progresses; the humorous tone of the book where the adult Jo looks over the shoulder of his younger self, contrasts with the ever present fear of the boys. Other works such as the film La rafle, home in on the single largest round-up in Paris but the sheer humanity of Un sac de billes gives a more life-affirming message. See summary of ALF resources for this book

In order to gain an overview of the opinions of a wide range of people during WW2 in France the classic Marcel Ophuls documentary "Le chagrin et la pitié" is essential viewing. The interviews all involve people living in and around Clermont Ferrand and include collaborators as well as people who worked with the resistance.

I have enjoyed watching the multi-series "Un village français" over the last few years. Set in a fictious village/town on the ligne de démarcation, the programmes, with a set cast of characters traces the fate of these people through the war years, starting from the exode and going right through to after the war. Available on DVD or through pluzz, the series is useful for teachers to get a feel for the period although it is probably too long winded to show to classes. This is a link to the FR3 homepage for the series.

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

 A young lady who told me about Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du coran put me onto Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt whose work is very popular in France at the moment and goes down very well here with young people.  Short, down-to-earth novellas written with good humour, the works combine a good story with a wealth of philosophical matter to discuss.  It has been a real pleasure to create the resources for www.alevelfrench.com to enable teachers to tackle these books in class.

In Monsieur Ibrahim, Moïse, Momo for short, is lacking affection in his life, living as he does with a depressed Jewish father who is unable to cope with his guilt at having survived the Holocaust.    An unlikely but ultimately magical relationship begins to develop between Momo and monsieur Ibrahim "l'arabe du coin" whose shop he frequents.   Amongst other things Momo is taught to use his smile to disarm other people in his life.  The statement,  "Je mitraille tout le monde avec mon sourire" characterizes the new attitude brought about in his behaviour by the older man.

Monsieur Ibrahim gradually takes a larger role in Momo's life for reasons I won't go into and the book culminates in a trip back to the older man's roots.    Life affirming and thought-provoking the story is a good introduction to Schmitt's work.    The film, starring Omar Sharif, provides a welcome accompaniment to the book and one which will help enrichen the overall student experience of the work.  More details on the book and the ALF materials are available here.  Go to alevelfrench.com page.

Another teacher recommended Oscar et la dame rose also by Schmitt, although this time I wasn't keen on tackling the subject, that of a young boy dyng in  hospital.  When I was reminded of the book again  I thought I'd at least read the book which is very short.   What a good decision as it would not be going too far to say that the humanity and inventiveness of the book change one's attitude  towards mortality and death.

La dame rose, Mamie-Rose, comes in to cheer up young Oscar who has very little time to live.  The old lady regales Oscar with stories of her career as an all-in wrestler and the weird and wonderful opponents she supposedly fought.   She uses them to illustrate various qualities needed to face life-and indeed death.

When it becomes clear that Oscar's days are literally numbered, Mamie-Rose comes up with a wonderful strategy to help the boy live an entire life before the new year when he is expected to lose his fight for survival.   The way in which Schmitt builds such a sequence of events into the story is remarkable and by the end we are at the same time satisfied and moved that the boy has met his maker with dignity and satisfaction.

The book is written in the form of 14 letters to God in whom at the start of the book, Oscar makes it clear that he doesn't believe.    The accompanying film is charming in its own right changing the identity of Mamie-Rose into a self-interested pizza delivery woman who is completely won over by Oscar's charm and humanity.

Both Monsieur Ibrahim and Oscar are short novellas and the language is reasonably straightforward with no use of the past historic.    I believe they would be very popular with A level/IB groups anywhere and also for ambitious year 11 students to foster their interest in French.    More information on Oscar et la dame rose resources on ALF are available here.

La haine - Mathieu Kassovitz Teaching the film

I've recently been adding to the content on film on www.alevelfrench.com and have revisited La Haine with a vengeance.   I've always had mixed feelings about the film but have grown to admire the production of it and the performances of the principal actors.  I wrote a  guide to it with language exercises including a summary, contextualised grammar exercises and an essay plan three years or so ago. (You can order from the site http://www.alevelfrench.com/home/mod/book/view.php?id=5)  I decided however to produce a more detailed set of resources which would hopefully help teachers tackle the content of the film with more confidence.

Version of the film:  The French language collectors' edition of the film with Kassovitz's walk through and the making of et is now available for around 12 euros + PP   This provides lots of extra listening practice to back up language work around the film.

The script:- I sent off for a couple of versions of the script, one from the 90's with photos of the making of and a German edition of the scenario. Both these were the same and actually don't correspond very closely at all to what appears in the dialogue of the film.  One of the first lessons then is to compare these two versions linguistically.   I spent about a week transcribing the film on and off from the French version with the help of subtitles in French for the sourds et malentendants.   What gets missed in subtitling is both detail and the sheer repetition;  if Saïd says something once he says it three times;  hardly a sentence doesn't finish with là;  words which are misheard are often familiar words pronounced in verlan-therefore inverted as in oinj  -joint.   I've tried to capture the full conversation with its repetitions which gives a true reflection of how annoying Saïd and Vinz can be.

Getting down to detail:   Analysing the film and saying why a scene is filmed using a particular combination of shots with particular sound and effects is pretty straight forward if you introduce students to the language of cinema using a site such as Hors Cadre http://www.horscadre.eu/enpratique/limage-et-ses-codes/  or Centre Images http://www.centreimages.fr/vocabulaire/index.html

The detail around the language used is however dependent on having a good accurate transcription of the film.  There is more subtlety around Saïd than you would think;  close examination of what he says reveals a boy who is frightened of what his parents will do to him if he gets into real trouble and who is logical about his physical limitations:  "Je cours pas plus vite que les balles"   Having been hopeless at learning quotations myself (too lazy?), I've found that setting quotations up in Quizlet gives a good platform for learning which can be either printed off, practise on a laptop or PC or through a free download app on a mobile phone or tablet.  

Essays:  My contention is that you can't write an essay if you can't write a paragraph and you can't write a paragraph if you can't write a sentence.  Hence I have produced tools for sentence, paragraph and full essay planning. The sentence tool takes a phrase and plays with it increasing the complexity until your complex sentence is at least half a paragraph.   The essay tool takes one piece of evidence and shows it incorporated using similar words in paragraphs which are responding to three different essay titles.   Finally the content free essay planning tool is designed to print off in A3 (preferably) to get students planning their work in a non-sequential manner (spider diagramming, brainstorming-whatever  you want to call it).

Sample essay plans and essays produced from them are provided for each examination board along with a guide to writing the essay to ensure students know where the marks go.  This should be used in conjunction with examiners' reports.

Director background:  I have produced a powerpoint for each producer tracing their childhood and early career linking through to youtube or dailymotion versions of their work.   This is extremely informative for Kassovitz whose preceding works tee him up amazingly well for La haine.   His spiky character comes across well in the interview made around the time of release of the film.   It is interesting to contrast this with his more recent reaction to the reception of L'ordre et la morale.  

Another film by the same director:  Métisse with its cast of characters overlapping closely with La haine seemed a really interesting film to study alongside.  The feeling of deja vu with certain images and scenes demonstrates the way a director gets certain ideas into his/her head that form part of their psyche almost.   The police harassment that forms the back bone of La haine is already present in a milder way in the earlier film.   The Jewishness which represents a third of the cultural influence of La haine is a dominant feature of Métisse.

The summary of the film I provide is several pages long and the verbs are gapped with the infinitive form to provide the necessary practice of verb forms.

Useful weblinks:  New materials appear occasionally and when I hear of them I add them to the course to provide extra depth to the course offering.


 
I am going to be adding materials around analysing scenes and themes over the course of the next few weeks.   This set of materials is £15.  If you're interested, let me know and I'll invoice you by paypal or with a school invoice.  The photocopy master, I wrote and published by linguascope, is also available for £15 from the URL above.

Vipère au poing-Hervé Bazin

I picked up Vipére au poing a few months ago and initially found the first couple of chapters a bit tedious and put it down.  Having a train journey infront of me I thought I'd get into it with no distractions and have to say that it turned into the most fascinating of reads.

Having spent so long on L'étranger  (see materials at www.letranger.co.uk) and its underlying notion that not loving one's mother is good enough to send you to the guillotine, the narrative of Vipère came as quite a shock.  

The narrator, the middle of three sons suffers at the hand of a cold, calculating and cruel mother who only returns from China with her husband to the family mansion after the children's grandmother dies.   The children's life is turned upside down and I would hate to spoil your enjoyment of the sadistic method's "Folcoche" the mother employs to torture her offspring as well as the staff.

The hen-pecked father who is passionate about insects and aims to get a species named after the family provides light relief from the relentless determination of the mother to beat down her children.  

As Brasse-Bouillon, the narrator, gets older he becomes every more rebellious and is horrified to realized that  he is so like his mother in many ways that he can anticipate her malevolent actions and counter them to good effect.  

As a coming of age novel Vipère au poing is quite unusual and there are two sequels about the Vezeau family which I'm keen to read now.   However the sheer determination and relentless desire of "Folcoche" to get one over on her own kids tempts me to call her the "Muminator".

Anyone shocked at the methods employed by the head at Fond de l'Etang in Les Choristes will think twice on seeing the damage a mother can inflict with a table fork!

Whilst there is a recent film to accompany the book nothing can reach the levels of intense mutual hatred between sons and mother in this strangely enjoyable work.  Will we cover the novel on alevelfrench.com:  I'd like to think so but would like to find out if anyone is studying it first.

Here's the first part of the film for the curious.