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September 14, 2008 10:35 AM   Subscribe

Savez-vous que Jodie Foster parle et chante en français?
posted by taursir (52 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Zut alors! Une Americane qui peut parle en Francais? Incroyable!

Drapeau'd.

Je suis desole, mais je ne peut pas parle en Francais.

Pamplemousse?

Deux pamplemousse?

posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:38 AM on September 14, 2008


oui.

pourquoi?

j'aime le pamplemousse!
posted by killy willy at 10:44 AM on September 14, 2008


Ce ne pas tres incroyable... Pour les gens qui vivent dans le ville du Ottawa, Ontario. Je suis désolé...

Mmmm.... J'aime le pamplemousse.
posted by Dark Messiah at 10:46 AM on September 14, 2008


Dans une terrine, mélanger
les 150 grs de farine, 2 jaunes
d'oeufs,
1 pincée de sel et 1 cuillerée à
café d'huile d'olive, verser
le lait peu à peu.
Battre les blancs d'oeufs en
neige et les rajouter
à la préparation
ainsi que le persil haché,
saler et poivrer.

What?! I want to French too!
posted by Foci for Analysis at 10:50 AM on September 14, 2008


As-tu vu Mlle. Foster dans le film Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles? Elle parle français parfaitment dans ce film excellent.
posted by Bobby Bittman at 11:08 AM on September 14, 2008


Frankly, I can't think of a better summation of Jodie Foster's career than the blurb under the video in the fourth link:

JODIE FOSTER STIMULATES LIKE A LOLITA/CHANGELING, WEARING MUCH HATS AND SUFFERING OF THE “BURSTING WITH FAR FROM ITSELF” WHICH LED WITH ITS UNRESTRAINED LESBIANISME. DID WHO WAIT? Did it EVER FIND? WHICH IS THE NIGHT OF THE PERIODS? THIS ENVISAGED ITS ROLE LIKE CLARICE STARLING IN ITS ROLE OF FBI IN THE “SILENCE OF THE LAMBS”? MANY QUESTIONS HERE!
posted by Bromius at 11:16 AM on September 14, 2008 [2 favorites]


Ooh, elle le parle tres bien, j'ai envie d'elle. Je n'arrivais pas a tout comprendre ce que elle disais.
posted by greytape at 11:24 AM on September 14, 2008


She ought to go into politics.
posted by pracowity at 11:25 AM on September 14, 2008


When her films are dubbed into French, she dubs herself.
posted by infinitewindow at 11:25 AM on September 14, 2008


Actually, the impressive thing is not that she speaks French, but that she speaks it flawlessly, idiomatically, and without even a hint of an accent (according to Wikipedia, she even dubs herself into French for most of her movies). As anyone who has even tried to really master a foreign language, this is extremely rare and only at the reach of very few.
Chapeau, Melle. Foster.
posted by Skeptic at 11:31 AM on September 14, 2008 [2 favorites]


C'est juste de traduire

J'ai mangé
les prunes
c'étaient dedans
la glacière

et qui
vous économisiez
probablement
pour le déjeuner

Pardonnez-moi
ils étaient ainsi
bonbon délicieux
et ainsi froid

posted by cortex at 11:32 AM on September 14, 2008 [3 favorites]


Drapeau'd.

J'ai LOLé.
posted by furtive at 11:34 AM on September 14, 2008 [7 favorites]


Chauffeur, suivez ce pamplemousse!
posted by briank at 11:53 AM on September 14, 2008


Je frapperais cela!

I do NOT know if that's correct, but this alone gives French extra points in the heated race to be AV's third language. Oh, Jodie, givin' girls gaydar since 1976.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:05 PM on September 14, 2008 [1 favorite]


As anyone who has even tried to really master a foreign language, this is extremely rare and only at the reach of very few.

It's easier if you start your foreign language in elementary school, which very few American children do. Formidable!
posted by dhartung at 12:24 PM on September 14, 2008


As anyone who has even tried to really master a foreign language, this is extremely rare and only at the reach of very few.

This is probably true for most adults who attempt to learn a new language starting as adults. However it happens all the time with children who are exposed to a second language. I believe Jodie Foster went to a French-speaking school and therefore had the advantage of starting much younger.
posted by tractorfeed at 12:28 PM on September 14, 2008


I found that she spoke French when I saw Jeunet's 'A Very Long Engagement' and she pops up in a major supporting role not just speaking, but acting and geniunely emoting in French. I like that she can still surprise me.

The Brave One should've been good, damn it!
posted by slimepuppy at 12:33 PM on September 14, 2008


oui, parce que j'ai vu l'apartement ou elle habite sur L'isle de la Cite.

okay my written french has always been de la merde, but I can still speak it, a little...
posted by Busithoth at 12:37 PM on September 14, 2008


Ca y est.
posted by blue_beetle at 2:22 PM on September 14, 2008


J'ai LOLé.

furtive le fit pour les lulz, and won the thread.
posted by taursir at 2:48 PM on September 14, 2008


Why can't she sing in American like a real person instead of a dead language?
posted by Postroad at 2:56 PM on September 14, 2008 [1 favorite]


I remember reading an interview with Tatum O'Neil back in, oh, 1979, and she said that she and Jodie were best buds at the Lycee Whatchamacallit in NYC, and how envious she was at how flawless Jodie's French was.

I don't know why or how I remember that, but I do. It's always nice to see people who've kept up their foreign language proficiency. It takes practice and is NOT like riding a bike. At all.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 3:01 PM on September 14, 2008


I was myself surprised lately of hearing Nada Surf doing French songs.
Je t'attendais. L'Aventurier (Indochine cover).
posted by zenzizi at 4:08 PM on September 14, 2008


>> LOL hey Ambrosia just FYI - I guess the correct translation would be "Je me la taperais" which is also almost litteral - but yeah I love litteral translations of idioms it's often hilarious.
posted by zenzizi at 4:48 PM on September 14, 2008


>> Sheesh - sometimes here I find myself looking for the down arrow - French is much very alive merci beaucoup ..
posted by zenzizi at 4:54 PM on September 14, 2008


lol - "very much" that is
posted by zenzizi at 4:56 PM on September 14, 2008


As-tu vu Mlle. Foster dans le film Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles? Elle parle français parfaitment dans ce film excellent.

Read someplace that the character was made Polish to account for a less than flawless accent.

Then again, I read a lot of things, many of them just mean.

But really, folks, having gone to the highschool she went to, she damn well ought to speak good French.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:16 PM on September 14, 2008


Oh, now that is just not on. She goes to a French high school in America and her French is perfect. I go to French middle school and bilingual high school in French Switzerland and I still get people very kindly saying, "Oh, you have such a good accent for an American!" whenever I can get through two sentences without stuttering. Le sigh.
posted by bettafish at 5:30 PM on September 14, 2008


Sings in it too.

Bonus points if you can tell me what the bloody hell she is on about in this thing.
posted by cerulgalactus at 5:35 PM on September 14, 2008


I think she mentions in the second line a "moufette" which is French for skunk. So I am going to guess the gist of the song is "Life is cute, yet sometimes stinks".
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 5:40 PM on September 14, 2008


>> Amourette - The lyrics and translation are on that page.
posted by zenzizi at 5:46 PM on September 14, 2008


The version I imagined is far superior.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 5:48 PM on September 14, 2008


Are those really the best videos of Jodie Foster singing in French available online?

I am picturing her agent driving to Foster's house at double the speed limit, new webcam bouncing around on the passenger seat, and shouting into a cellphone that she doesn't CARE about the Meyers deal, that YouTube account needs to be created NOW!
posted by No-sword at 5:57 PM on September 14, 2008


> It's easier if you start your foreign language in elementary school, which very few American children do.

Seriously? They started me off on French in the first grade in a nothing-special public elementary school in Atlanta. Je me plumerais la tête, je me plumerais la tête.
posted by jfuller at 6:28 PM on September 14, 2008 [1 favorite]


I'm American and I started learning French in first grade in a public elementary school, just like jfuller.

zenzizi: Postroad was making une petite plaisanterie.
posted by tzikeh at 6:37 PM on September 14, 2008


oh zut alors - <facepaume>
posted by zenzizi at 7:14 PM on September 14, 2008


I remember seeing her on french tv for the first time and my jaw dropped. She's without doubt the most impressive american french speaker that i've ever witnessed.
Jane Birkin has been living in france for the last 40 years, actually she became a french citizen, her french is utter shit compared to Foster's.
posted by SageLeVoid at 7:47 PM on September 14, 2008




Also, this thread makes me mdr.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 9:21 PM on September 14, 2008


I on the other hand had to fight to be allowed to take French as a sixth grader. (Them: "You're too young!" Me: "What? I'm too *old*!")

Strangely, I can now read fine, listen ok, but I can't talk or write at all. Quelle domage.

Foster's French is impressive, certainly. But it's somewhat unfortunate that an American's proficiency in a foreign language comes as a suprise.
posted by nat at 9:43 PM on September 14, 2008


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URr37OUyC6I

The original take on "Comic Strip," courtesy of Serge Gainsbourg et Brigitte Bardot. I shudder to think of the amount of untoward leering SG would have given Jodie were they swinging together.
posted by stannate at 10:42 PM on September 14, 2008


(crap, forgot to make that a link--sorry, iPhone users, you'll have to figure out another way to copy and paste)
posted by stannate at 10:46 PM on September 14, 2008


link here
posted by Wolof at 11:57 PM on September 14, 2008


I did Immersion Francaise depuis la maternelle in Canada and my Franglais is most certainement beaucoup better than mon francais. I can comprend very well, I can lire just fine, I can even speak and be understood well enough for native speakers to compliment me. my francais ecrite though? Terrible.
posted by arcticwoman at 6:15 AM on September 15, 2008


Je suis très jaloux.

I took 2 years of French in high school - the earliest any language other than Spanish was available in my school district at the time. At the time I felt I was barely remembering vocabulary long enough to pass the weekly quizzes.

A couple years ago, when prepping for my first trip to Paris, I got a language tape and was surprised at how much was familiar to me - apparently I remembered more than I thought. Buoyed by this, and by some pleasant reactions in Paris (a gentleman at the next table in a bistro said my French was pronounced so well that he didn't at first believe me when I said "Je suis Americain." But then - I think he may just have wanted moi enculer, si vous me comprendre.)

Anyway. I've got an older version of the Rosetta Stone software, a review text book, and I've been listening to news broadcasts "in easy French" on the Radio France website - still, what continues to elude me is much understanding of spoken French when I don't already have the words in front of me on the page, and a dictionary close at hand.
posted by dnash at 9:26 AM on September 15, 2008


My French teacher gave me an A and played my cassette out to the class because during our oral examination, I kept on saying "euuuuh" instead of "um" to stall which apparently made me sound more French.
posted by spec80 at 10:55 AM on September 15, 2008


I kept on saying "euuuuh" instead of "um" to stall which apparently made me sound more French.

This a good thing to do deliberately. It 'prepares' your voice/throat to pronounce correctly. 'Um' which is what I say between when talking English, this turns to 'eeeh' in Spanish and 'ööö' in Finnish. It takes a while but you pick it up moderately quickly if you're surrounded by native speakers. Better not to hestitate or vocalise that hesitation, of course, but that is much easier said than done.
posted by slimepuppy at 11:23 AM on September 15, 2008


It made me laugh when Zhodie said "New York" and "Times Square" with a Freedom accent.
posted by Devils Slide at 12:00 PM on September 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


That second video has reignited my crush on Jodie Foster. It also makes me want to get some great big bow ties.
posted by smartyboots at 3:47 PM on September 15, 2008


Wow. Her accent is incroyable.
posted by Dick Paris at 7:47 PM on September 15, 2008


This has been my youtube hobby - trawling out clips and interviews of actors speaking in more than one language. Yes I know it seems really lame, but it's fascinating stuff, I swear.
There's Viggo Mortensen (English, Spanish, Danish), Daniel Bruhl (English, German, Spanish), Alexandria Maria Lara (English, German), Diane Kruger (English, French, German), Alicja Bachleda-Curus (English, Spanish, Polish, German)... oh, and Takeshi Kaneshiro, who speaks English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, and Taiwanese.
Ugh, these people make me feel useless for only being fluent in two.
posted by Xere at 6:30 AM on September 16, 2008


Oh, now that is just not on.

Respectfully disagree. I know graduates of the NY version of the school and they're as spot on as Ms Foster. The accent thing- it's a knack, useful for an actress (the way we let voice slide in American acting in general is a scandal, to my mind), and though a good thing, nothing to get too excited over. Given the job, I would expect a talent for mimicry.

Also- some of the best second language speakers I've known have had horrible accents; some of the worst, the best of accents.

End of the day though, fluent French and fluent English alone won't qualify you even for a desk clerk job at a good European hotel. They'll want a few others as well....
posted by IndigoJones at 8:44 AM on September 16, 2008


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