Cuisine française: La Bûche de Noël

Marc Frissard parle à Frédéric Suteau de SBS Français dans le cadre de la série de conversations culinaires “A Table!”. Dans cet épisode, ils explorent une tradition française: “La Bûche de Noël”, version Australie.

Want to make your own? Regardez la recette en vidéo de L’atelier des Chefs! Visit their YouTube channel for more stunning French recipes, including Recette de petites brioches au chocolat.

Melbourne French Theatre: Courteline

In their final show of the year, the Melbourne French Theatre presents a collection of comical sketches by Georges Courteline, including: “Monsieur Badin”, “Une lettre chargée”, “L’Extra-Lucide” and “Avant et Après”. Entirely in French with English surtitles.

When? 8pm Saturday 17 December.
Where? La Maison de Maître Building, 203-205 Canning Street, Carlton.
How much? $15 students, French teachers, MFT members, $20 general admission. Tickets include show, wine and refreshments. Bookings online.

Watch the wonderfully over-the-top 1969 video above for a taste of Courteline’s comedy.

Médias Français: L’Œil de Links

L’Œil de Links is a cool French émission from Canal+ that showcases the most interesting and curious clips on the web, along with interviews with their directors. The final clip featured in this edition is a stunning stop motion film by Emmanuel Bernardoux, a visual artist from La Rochelle and La Trobe French Club’s own podcast guest!

Revisiting Simone de Beauvoir Wrap-up

Sheila Malovany-Chevallier

Translators, philosophy buffs, students and francophiles alike had the unforgettable pleasure of an audience this Thursday evening at the Alliance Française de Melbourne with Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, the translators of the first ever unabridged English version of Simone de Beauvoir’s Le Deuxième Sexe.

Illuminating not only the history of the feminist chef-d’œuvre but also the history of its translation, Constance and Sheila revealed to what extent the previous English translation mistreated and cut the original text at the insistence of the American publisher Knopf, in the belief that de Beauvoir suffered from “verbal diarrhoea”.

Constance Borde

Fascinatingly (and sadly), since other translations, such as the Chinese version, were often based on the English version, this mistreatment was only compounded over time.

Constance and Sheila’s 2010 translation, in contrast, is an exercise in extreme fidelity, the two women (American, based in France since the 1960s) having laboured intensely to respect the 800-page work’s original punctuation and syntax, a task made all the more difficult, they explained, by Simone de Beauvoir’s extensive use of the semi-colon. Ultimately, however, they were faithful even to these subtleties, having realised that to change them would “betray her voice”.

Cinéma Français: “L’Ordre et la Morale” de Mathieu Kassovitz

L’Ordre et la Morale, le nouveau film de Mathieu Kassovitz, crée la polémique. Ce film d’action engagé revient, vingt-trois ans après les faits, sur un épisode quelque peu oublié, voire occulté: l’assaut sanglant de la grotte d’Ouvéa en Nouvelle-Calédonie. (Above is the film’s official bande-annonce, below are the reactions to the first screening.)

To learn more about the controversy, see this rigorous article from Le Point. Visit the film’s vimeo channel for extensive behind the scenes footage.

Podcast: Interview with Julia Zemiro

Julia Zemiro, on a warm spring evening with
La Trobe French Club’s Myles and Mia

It is with unbridled pleasure that we post the fourth installment of the La Trobe University French Club podcast, with la femme la plus awesome du monde, Julia Zemiro!

The star of SBS juggernauts Rockwiz and Eurovision, Julia Zemiro is also one of Australia's foremost francophones.

Born in Aix-en-Provence to a French father and Australian multilingual mother, Julia immgirated at an early age to Australia and continues to speak impeccable français (as heard on SBS French).

In this in-depth podcast interview, Julia speaks eloquently and candidly about la politesse anglosaxonne, la fierté française, the schizophrenic nature of Australian culture, the evolution of SBS, l’interdiction de la burqua and her fantasy of doing a bilingual one-woman show.

Melbourne Event: Beaujolais Nouveau

This Friday is Beaujolais Nouveau tasting time at the Alliance Française de Melbourne. Featuring live music from the duo Metro Mademoiselle and door prizes courtesy of La Parisienne Pâtés, your servers at this evening of wine, food and music will include La Trobe French Club members who would love to see you there!

French.about.com’s expert Laura K Lawless writes about this well known wine: “Par définition, le Beaujolais Nouveau est un vin très jeune, et les puristes répugnent donc à le boire. Mais pour d’autres, le troisième jeudi de novembre est simplement une bonne occasion de participer à un évènement marrant, ni plus ni moins.” (Cliquez ici pour lire la suite.)

When? 7pm Friday 7 November.
Where? Alliance Française, 51 Grey Street, St Kilda.
How much? $50 or $35 for Alliance members, includes two glasses of Beaujolais Nouveau and buffet. Bookings essential through 9525 3463 or online.

Médias Français: France 24

France 24 est la chaîne française d’information internationale 24h/24. Sa mission est de couvrir l’actualité avec un regard français et de véhiculer partout dans le monde les valeurs et les perspectives françaises.

Best of all, not only are the videos rich and wonderfully in-depth, but it’s all free and en ligne! Watch the panel discussion below, “2011, annus horribilis pour Nicolas Sarkozy?”, to get a taste.

L’Europe en difficulté, l’automne qui succède au printemps arabe, la crise libyenne ... 2011 semble bien être l’annus horribilis pour Nicolas Sarkozy. Dans sept mois les Francais vont désigner un président, que restera-t-il du quinquennat de Nicolas Sarkozy?

Oh, and did you know you can retrouver Nicholas Sarkozy sur Facebook? The man is actually a Facebook powerhouse, 11,000 people liked his latest satus update!

Cinéma Français: “Un Monstre à Paris”

Those of you who relished the bande-annonce of this new, wonderful french animated feature film (featured on this site earlier), will appreciate this musical extract from Un Monstre à Paris, performed by French national treasures Vanessa Paradis and -M-. Click “read more” to view more extracts!

Site Utile: Corrige-moi

For a speedy online French spell check, visit Corrige Moi, le correcteur orthographique multilingue! Simply type or copy and paste your French into the text field and hit the “Corriger” button. The site also checks some 20 other languages, from Afrikaans to Esperanto. Every misspelt word yeilds a multitude of possibilities, and is therefore probably best used in accompaniment with multilingual dictionary Word Reference or the like.

Other free online French spell check sites include Bon Patron, which also includes grammar check, and Reverso, which forms part of Reverso’s greater site encompassing dictionnaire, conjugaison and grammaire.

Vidéo: Interview avec Marine Le Pen

Marine Le Pen, présidente du Front National et candidate à l’élection présidentielle, est l’invitée de Mardi politique. Elle est interrogée par Guillaume Naudin (RFI), Roselyne Febvre (France 24), Yvon Mezou (20 Minutes) et Saïd Mahrane (Le Point).

Georges Perec Melbourne Salon Wrap-up

From left: Philip Thiel, Norie Neumark,
Maria Miranda and Raphaël Trantoul

Thirty years after Georges Perec visited the Alliance Française de Melbourne, Perec amateurs assembled once again last night to celebrate and dissect this curious genius at “Georges Perec: The Australian Connection, 30 Years On”.

A panel featuring some of La Trobe’s finest, Norie Neumark, Maria Miranda and Raphaël Trantoul, examined Perec’s enduring popularity in Australia, where his books have per capita sold more than anywhere else in the anglophone world. Our love of his gameplay was one hypothesis which arose over the course of the evening’s tantilising discussion.

The evening also featured an alternately moving and hilarious atelier d’écriture, comprising a series of Perecquian literary challenges, such as writing a poem using only the letters of your name.

Finally, listen to SBS French’s interview with Kerry Mullen and Raphaël to discover more about The Melbourne Salon series and, naturellement, Perec.

Vidéo: Au Revoir Pauline

In our first YouTube video, students from La Trobe’s French department farewell tutor and honorary club member, Pauline Balan. Merci à Raphaël pour la vidéo!

2012 La Trobe French Subject: “France in Film”

Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette will be
studied in week 3 of France in Film

Offered for the first time in 2012, “France in Film: The Invention of France 1789-1919” is an innovative subject, available for either History or French credit.

Devised by Raphaël Trantoul and Ian Coller with both French-speaking and non-French-speaking students in mind, the subject’s lectures will be delivered in English, while tutorials will be split according to language (French students’ tutorials will be conducted in French, History students’ tutorials in English).

Running in semester 1, the syllabus will cover the history of France from the French Revolution to the First World War and will encompass such films as Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, Danton, The Other Dumas and Jean Renoir’s French Cancan.

Enquires regarding this subject should be directed to Ian Coller at i.coller@latrobe.edu.au. Click “read more” for the official subject description and poster.

Vidéo: Alain Delon et Romy Schneider

A l’aéroport de Nice, Alain Delon attend Romy Schneider, sa partenaire dans le film de Jacques Deray, La piscine. Interview des deux acteurs, visiblement émus mais heureux de se retrouver. Watch the trailer for La Piscine below!

SBS Podcast: Waffle maker Marc Laucher

Waffle On, just outside Flinders subway

Dans ce nouvel épisode de la série “A Table!”, Frédéric Suteau parle à Marc Laucher sur une petite de douceur de Belgique: La Gaufre de Liege façon Waffle On.

“A Table!” is a regular podcast on SBS French with a Melbourne-based French chef or culinary personality. In this episode, Marc (originally from Versailles) discusses his métier, his life and the difficulties of using Australian flour. His store, Waffle On, is a waffle and sandwich spot in Melbourne’s CBD on Degraves Street.

In other SBS news, you can now download the free “SBS Your Language” mobile app to listen to SBS French anytime or anywhere! Features of the app include live 24/7 streaming, program catch-up, podcasts and program reminder notifications. Available from iTunes.

Vidéo: Interview avec Simone de Beauvoir

Jean-Louis Servan Schreiber reçoit dans son émission “Questionnaire” la philosophe et écrivain Simone de Beauvoir, venue parler des raisons de son engagement en tant que féministe.

Melbourne Event: Revisiting Simone de Beauvoir and “The Second Sex”

Les traductrices, Constance Borde et
Sheila Malovany-Chevallier

The French Studies and Translation Studies Programs of Monash University, the Alliance Française de Melbourne, and AALITRA (The Australian Association for Literary Translation) present an evening around Simone de Beauvoir and the new translation of Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex) (London, Vintage, 2010) with the translators, Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. Participants in the discussion will also include members of the university and translation communities in Melbourne. Watch a fascinating talk with the translators below!

When? 6.30pm Thursday 17 November.
Where? Alliance Francaise, 51 Grey Street St Kilda.

How much? Free, bookings essential: info@afmelbourne.com.au

“Translating The Second Sex: A Discussion with the Translators of the New English Edition 
of Simone de Beauvoir’s Classic Feminist Work”. (The other eight parts of this video series are available at the Centre for Translation Studies’ youtube channel.)

Star Bilingue: John Malkovich

John Malkovich, American actor best known for his starring roles in such films as Dangerous Liaisons, The Killing Fields and Being John Malkovich, is stunningly fluent in French.

One of his most enduring French-speaking roles is as Javert in the 2000 miniseries adaptation of Les Misérables, co-starring Gerard Depardieu and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Watch a portion of his glacial performance below!