My First French Movie in France

I saw my first French movie in a movie theater with no subtitles this past weekend.  My favorite French movie is Les Choristes, a really great movie about a man who takes a teaching post at a boys reformatory school.  He ends up creating a choir and is one of the first people to earn the boys' respect.  You should definitely add it to your Netflix list if you've never seen it.  When it came out in France, it created quite the phenomenon and the choir that sang the songs in the movie toured all over.

Anyways, the movie that I went to see is called Faubourg 36 and is directed by the same person who made Les Choristes and stars a handful of the same people.  I understood the general plot of the movie but the specifics were hard for me to grasp, especially without being able to read the words that they were saying.  In fact, it wasn't until a good couple of hours after I watched the movie that I finally figured out that this film wasn't the sequel to Les Choristes.  So maybe I still have to work on my French a little...

The friends I saw the movie with all really liked it, but their French is a lot better than mine so I think they appreciated more of it than I did.   It's surprising to me how many NYU students go to see movies here.  I guess it's a good way to learn French and even seeing American movies helps because you can read the French subtitles.  Also, word on the street is that there are a bunch of movie theaters that play old American classics, so I'm excited to check that out.

In fact, David Sedaris has an essay in his book Me Talk Pretty One Day about living in Paris and discovering old American films instead of visiting the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower.  At one point he describes the appeal of sitting in the dark in Paris saying, "This is the French dark, it's darker than the dark we have back home." I'm not sure if I agree with that, but he is right about the fact that no one talks in the movie theaters in Paris.  I can't find the essay written online anywhere, but if you're interested in hearing it and have 6 minutes and 53 seconds to spare, you can download his essay off of NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyld=1080195

I Just Saw the Coolest Thing Ever

The other day NYU put a flier in our mailboxes for Soirée du Centenaire de la Musique de Film à New York University in France with a notice that said "seating is extremely limited. RSVP immediately".  After getting the note, I subsequently forgot to RSVP until this afternoon when a friend reminded me that the event was tonight.  When I asked if there was any room left, Raissa, the woman in charge of cultural events, said that they were all full but I should come anyways because chances were, they would have a couple of empty seats.

So, I dragged my friend along with me and sure enough, when we got there, there were a couple of empty rows.  We didn't really know what to expect, but what I had gathered from the invitation (written in French) we were celebrating the 100th anniversary of film music with live performances and a movie.  Turns out there 3 different music groups playing music from different movies.  We started off watching the 18 minute film L'assasinat du Duc de Guise, a French silent film made in 1908.  A wind quintet and a strings quartet played the musical score for the film while we watched it.  It was really really cool.  After that, the string quartet played Lullaby by George Gershwin and the the wind quintet played the scores for An American in Paris and The Mission.  When they were finished, a jazz quintet played the scores of Claire de Lune, Les Parapuies de Cherbourg, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, and Les Valseuses.  For the finale, all 16 musicians played Amour et Printemps and the concert was followed by wine and finger foods.  

It was a really amazing performance and the first time that I have ever experienced a movie with a live orchestra.  I definitely recommend it if anyone ever gets a chance to see anything like this.  It was the perfect way to end my first day of school! 

Classes Start Tomorrow!

Now that the intensive 2 week course is over, real classes begin this week.  Just thought I'd share what classes I'm taking...

Topics in French Literature: Autobiography and First Person Narration in French and Expatriate Literature 

This course explores the ways in which Paris plays a role in the representation of the subject. Through the study of novels and autobiographies by Breton, Hemingway, Stein, Duras, Modiano, de Beauvoir, and Baldwin.  What is the role of place in the imagining or invention of the self? How does the experience of a specific city, Paris, influence the formation of identity? How do these authors represent, or subvert, the notion of 'real? 

Conversation and Composition

Systematizes and reinforces language skills presented in earlier level courses through an intensive review of grammar, written exercises; an introduction to composition, lexical enrichment, and spoken skills.

Paris Monuments and Political Power in the 19th and 20th Centuries

This course examines aspects of political and social change in France from the end of the French Revolution to the present day.  Through an exploration of Paris neighborhoods, monuments and museums, we will look at how the city's evolution has been inscribed on the urban landscape, and reflect on how history and national identity are imagined, produced and contested through the carving up of urban space.  Classes include walking tours and sites in and around Paris.

And lastly, I'm taking a course at the Universite de Paris VII in their Anglophone Studies Department.  

American Literature: The Classic Text

This course studies The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye.

I'll let you know how my first day was...

First Presidential Debate (Abroad!)

The Young Democrats Abroad Club and the Young Republicans Abroad Club hosted a live showing of the presidential debates at a bar on Friday night.  Since it was live, the debate didn't start until 3 am and I didn't get home until 6.  Needless to say it was a late night (and early morning) for all of us and I think the bar sold more cups of coffee that night than they did pints of beer.  

These are my friends Rachel and Caroline.  It was both of their birthdays on Saturday.

Ferris, Kelsey, and I.  I think this was early on in the night, because we all look way too awake.

The bar, watching the debate.  That's my friend Sara on right, sleeping.

Both senators on the big screen.

Ferris, really enjoying the debate.

Hommage à Jerome Robbins: A Night at the Ballet

After the walking tour, I went to the ballet (through the generosity of NYU) with my friend Kelsey.  It was, I think, the first time I've ever been to a ballet and it was really amazing.  This year marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Jerome Robbins, the American choreographer who choreographed The King and I, Fiddler on the Roof, and West Side Story. He also choreographed over 60 ballets and we saw 3 of them, along with another ballet created by a student of Jerome's.

This is a giant hall inside the opera house.  It was pretty huge and extravagant. 

Palais Garnier.

The ceiling inside the opera house, painted by Chagall.

Our seats were in one of the boxes.  And since we were there early, we got to sit in the front row until the people who actually had those seats came and kicked us out.

The stage.

Blurry picture of me in our box.

View of the staircase.  The opera house is also the setting for the Phantom of the Opera, so this might look familiar to you.

Me overlooking the stairs.

View from the balconies.

Me standing on the balcony.
The balconies. 

Kelsey and I outside the opera house after the show.

The Palais Garnier at night.

Walking Tour: Ghosts of Montmartre

There was another walking tour on Friday afternoon, this time at Montmartre (which is right by the Moulin Rouge and Sacre Coeur).

First stop: Montmartre Cemetery.

Among the famous people buried here: The man who invented the sax, the woman who is painted in the famous Moulin Rouge poster, Alexandre Dumas's son, the man who beheaded Marie Antoinette, among others.  Interesting fact: every couple of years, you have to pay to keep your ancestors plot, since space is in such high demand.  If you don't have the money, the body is dug up and moved somewhere else so that someone else can take over that plot.

There is a volunteer group in Paris that goes around Parisian cemeteries and restores neglected graves.  They were working on this grave when we visited.

The cafe that Amelie worked in (from the movie, Amelie).

Once the home of Vincent Van Gogh.

Not sure if you can see it too well, but there is an amazing view of Paris at the end of the street.

This building, Le Bateau-Lavoir, used to be really cheap housing, which means that a lot of artists lived there, including Picasso.  Apparently the housing was so terrible that there were holes in the floor allowing you to see into the apartment above/below you and water would freeze because of the cold.

The market that was featured in Amelie.

These Wallace Fountains, a gift from Richard Wallace, used to be found all over Paris.  They are public drinking fountains (that you can still drink from today) but the Nazis melted a lot of them for firearms.  Later, the city replaced a lot of the destroyed one, but there's one difference between the old and the new: the old ones had rings on the sides to which a cup would be chained for people to drink out of, while the new ones are ringless.  You can't really tell, but the one in the picture below is not an original. 

This garden is an homage to when nuns used to live on Montmartre and contains the plants and herbs that nuns and monks would plant in their gardens for medicinal purposes.  Sometimes it's open to the public, but not when I was there.  Also, attached to this garden is the I Love You wall, where "I love you" is written in 311 languages.

Bois de Bologne

About 5 minutes from my apartment is this massive park called Bois de Bologne (Woods of Bologne).  So today, after class, my friend, Ferris and I decided to check it out.  Because it's so massive (think Central Park but bigger--2.5 times bigger according to Wikipedia--and on the outskirts of the city), we only managed to walk around a lake that we found.  Oh, and through this really random seasonal carnival that is there right now.  

Fun fact about the park: At night is notorious for hosting lots of prostitutes and transsexuals.  We have been warned numerous times by NYU staff members to stay away after dusk.

The lake!

Candid shot.

Waterfalls

Ducks.  And I'm not sure if you can make it out or not, but there is a really cool building on that island in the middle of the picture. 

More lake. And a person canoeing. 

Trees.

You can rent those canoes.  But as you can probably tell from the picture, it looked like rain, so we decided to save the canoeing for another (non-rainy) day.

Restaurant on the island in the middle of the lake.  You can either canoe there or take the ferry that's on the right.  Both of them cost money, so we just admired the island from afar today.

Journée Européennes du Patrimoine Part Deux

On Sunday, my friend Rachel and I decided to hit up some other place that were open for Patrimony Days.  We decided to call it "We're-Glad-We-Didn't-Pay-For-This-Day." The first stop was the Wine Museum that is equipped with really amusing mannequins.  Then we walked to Honoré de Balzac's (a 19th century French novelist and playwright) house. After the two museums, we bought some pastries and ate them in the park by my house until it got too cold and we went inside.  

 

Wine Museum.

First mannequin scene.  I have no idea who these men were supposed to be.

Mannequins making wine bottles.

Napoleon discovering his favorite wine.

A wine glass from the 6th century.

Vats for making white wine. I'm not really sure how they use it because everything was in French and my french wine vocabulary isn't quite up to par.

Another really large vat for making wine.  You can't really tell how large it is, but it was taller than me.

View from Balzac's gardens.

Balzac's house.  It wasn't actually that exciting. 

Trees in the park.

The park.

My apartment is behind those trees. Ironically, I ate lunch in this park on my first day in France, before I knew where I was living and I remember looking at the buildings, thinking, Wow, I wonder if people actually live there?  That's my friend, Sara in the corner of the photo. 

Me! In the park!

Journées Européennes du Patrimoine

For one weekend every September, France opens its doors to government buildings usually not open to the public and a ton of museums for free in celebration of France's heritage.  I think other European countries do the same thing too.  Anyways, on Saturday, I went to Nicholas Sarkozy's house, Palais de l'Élysée, right off of the Champs-Élysée.  Since it's one of the most popular place to visit during European Patrimony Days, we had to wait in line for about 3 hours (though the French government was nice enough to supply us with complimentary water coolers and bathrooms).  We waited for so long that we missed the TechnoParade, which is just what it sounds like, a parade celebrating techno music.  Apparently, it is absolutely insane with lots of people dancing on light poles, smoking pot in the streets, and doing other crazy things.  Anyways, once we finally got inside the Palace, it was pretty awesome.  I wouldn't mind living there, that's for sure... 

Voila, le Palais de l'Élysée.

Moi in front of the palace (this is actually the backyard/gardens).

French gardens.

Close-up of the Palace.
By the time we got inside the Palace, the sun was setting. And we had gotten there at 4pm.

This, I think, is part of the President's personal quarters.  It was redone by one of the Presidents in the '60s.

This is a bad picture, but it's where Sarcozy's official President picture was taken.

The most impressive room in the whole palace. 

And again.  The room was so massive that they had set up special lights for this weekend so that you could see it well enough.

This is where all the important people meet. I'm not sure if you can make it out, but the white placards in the middle of the table denote where the President and the Prime Minister sit, respectively.

This is Sarkozy's office.

View of the courtyard from inside the Palace.

The front of the Palais.

I'm pretty sure the leaves changed colors while we were waiting in line...