French women

[Sylph]

It is kind of... Misplaced? That's a wrong word. Just weird, kind of twisted in a bizarre way. I did like Montreal, although it's been ages since I've been, but nonetheless it was just faux-Europe in America. And I don't mean that in a nasty way.

Wow.

And why exactly does he want Québec as a nation onto itself?

Well, isn't Montréal kind of like a Middle French name for what would now be Mont Royal?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

There's been an independence movement in Québec for years. The last time this issue came up to vote in a referendum in 1995, it was a very slim margin of people who wanted to be apart of Canada compared to those who want an independent nation, I believe.

I think it's basic sentiment the Québécois people and culture will always be at a disadvantage in primarily English-speaking Canada.

Yup, I believe so...

[SFK]

Cat, I don't believe Françoise was decapitated, she was rushing to the airport in Nice (where my chi-chi auntie lives ) and her rental Renault flipped over and burst into flames. She was seen desperately trying to get out. I read an interview with Catherine about a week ago as a matter of fact, she had never ever discussed her sister in print and she finally did. Just devastating for her family.

[Cat]

SFK, thank you for correcting me. I've got a memory like a sieve and all those years of reading Paris Match's "destins tragiques" editorials have clearly made me mix up stories of superstar tragedy! It is so sad to think that she died trapped and unable to get out of that burning vehicle. Given how close those two sisters were, this must have been the tragedy of Deneuve's life.

Some pictures of them (before and after Roger Vadim encouraged Deneuve to go blonde):

And is that David Bailey's beloved Jean Shrimpton playing with Deneuve's hair? Deneuve was Bailey's wife at one time!

[SFK]

Wow, I had NO idea that CD wasn't a natural blonde.

[EricMontreal22]

The Quebec as its own nation thing is thankfully dieing out--in Montreal especially (compared to small town Quebec) nearly everyone of my generation and younger view it as a non issue (which has some superatists worried). It's funny though as lots of Anglo Canadians I know still worry when they'd come to visit me that people would be mad at them just cuz they were English (especially silly considering Montreal).

I think your friend was jumping a bit to conclusions because of personal feelings--if anything there's actually a lot of snobbism fromthe QUEBECOIS towards the French (and a lot of French people, the Summer I spent there, were very impressed I had lived in Montreal and seemed to consider it a lone ally of theirs in the hostile continent of N America LOL--this was right around the time the US had all that anti French propoganda--"freedom fries etc" though). In fact, in my experience I've seen more of the snobbery from Quebecois towards France than vice versa, but of course that's coloured by my own experiences.

I have to say, I was glad that all my french immersion schooling, from preschool on, was done primarily with teachers from France (I guess cuz I grew up on the West Coast) not Quebec, so I have a much more France based accent compared to the uglier (IMHO) Quebec one. And it's true, for various reasons, Quebecois actually has much less diluted and "truer" French than France does--something that does cause some conflict (both ways--France has that ridciulous Academie that tries to keep their language pure and lately has been trying to revert back to some Quebec french terms--mainly less use of English-isms like "du fun" or "Beurre de peanut"). Similarly the swear words in Quebec tend to still be much more old school ("Tabernacle!") than simply ones like "Merde" (ie religious based more than crude based).

[EricMontreal22]

François Ozon who did Swimming Pool is my fave working French director. (Of course he did the camptastic Agatha Christie/old school Hollywood musical hommage 8 Femmes with Deneuve). It's a shame his last couple of films have been more mainstream and less brilliant (even the recent Angel with Rampling) than the subversive early hits like Sous le Sable, Sitcom and his short films.

HAHA there you go. Surely one of the best French "gay films" (even if it isn't explicitly) ever.

[EricMontreal22]

Not quite, it's more a corruption of the two words, but yes the way it's joined is apparently very true of old French. That said, the way it's pronounced in French is precisely the way one would say "Mont Royale" quickly when speaking. (No idea where the over literate English pronounciation of monTREEal came from LOL, but it does make me think fo the way some Americans say certain French words, like niche as "nitch", etc)

As was mentioned the Seperatist movement has plagued Canada for some time--but I think it's now basically a non issue and soon will even be seen as fringe or radical (even Bloc QUebecois, the political party has basically no interest in it anymore).

I don'tthink it's quite fair to call Montreal faux Europe, though I do get your point. It's in its own way as authentic as anything else--this isn't EPCOT. And small town Quebec, oddly, in some ways felt more authentically European than much of small town France (I have NO idea how I can justify that feeling, lol, except that it did). I admit though, I'm a huge Montreal lover, it's the one city I've been to in this continent I feel the most at home in--and I love all the weird mixes of language, culture, etc. (It suffered a huge recession in the 70s and 80s--which in some ways has done it good now as it falls out of it, for one thing people didn't move out ofthe downtown into the suburbs the way they did in so many major cities of that time, so it has one of the best and most lived in and diverse downtowns of any N American city--for another thing it's still pretty remarkably cheap to live in--but was even more so when I moved there ten years ago and we had a spectacular brownstone flat in the ehart of downtown for $400 dollars a month, utilities included).

[Sylph]

I love the Académie!

Does anyone actually use the word courriel? Or the more pompous, formal courrier électronique?

[Sylph]

How about some Jeanne Moreau lovin'? Love her as the witch matriarch in that awful Un amour de sorcière! (Of all films, I go and pick that one! LOL!)

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=APYEqVP2wtA

[Sylph]

Here's a gallery with some very nice photos of Carla, who is Italian, but it doesn't matter :

http://www.telegraph...on.html?image=9