Who to root for in Rugby World Cup Final b/w All Blacks and France: Unless you're married to Binoche, Doutey, Delpy or Frégé, root for New Zealand

Elodie Frégé -Et maintenant (circa 2004)

http://youtu.be/sAsbjfHK0b4

Who to root for in Rugby World Cup Final b/w All Blacks and France: Unless you're lucky enough to be married to Juliette Binoche, Mélanie Doutey, Julie Delpy or Elodie Frégé, root for New Zealand

Match starts Sunday at 3:45 a.m. Eastern Time

You can watch LIVE in U.S./U.S. Territories for $29.99 via

https://secure.universalsports.com/login.html?pid=10512&newsid=302445

Same-day tape-delay on Sunday on NBC-TV from 3-6 p.m,

Repeats Sunday on NBC Universal Sports/DirecTV Channel 625 from 8-11 p.m.;

Monday 12:30 a.m.-3:30 a.m.

http://www.universalsports.com/news-blogs/blogs/blog=thescrum/postid=562642.html#it+comes+down+this

I watched most of the France-Wales semi-final match, as well as the third-place match between Australia and Wales.

The question of the day at BFM TV's website, http://www.bfmtv.com/

Mondial de rugby : le XV de France a-t-il une chance de battre les All Blacks?

This was BFM TV's last rugby-related video of Saturday, taken at l’Hotel de Ville de Paris.

http://www.bfmtv.com/video-infos-actualite/detail/le-rugby-fete-l-hotel-de-ville-paris-1817508/

Oui, since I mentioned her among other Gallic super-talents j'adore, I went 'old school' up at the top of the blog by posting an older clip of Elodie singing "Et maintenant" on Star Academy seven years ago, the year she won by virtue of her deep emotional connection to TV viewers. They love her!

D'accord!

"Et maintenant" was a song I once knew backwards-and-forwards when I was the top French student at NMB Senior High in the late '70's, and we'd often hear that song on certain Fridays as sung by the immortal Gilbert Bécaud.

That happened when my great teacher, Pearl Chiari, decided that we all needed a change of pace, and needed some genuine French culture and musical immersion while we took turns reading Pearl's collection of Paris Match and Le Point instead of simply using our ALM text books.

It was positively shocking to me once I got to Bloomington and came to realize how very little of consequence the other smart students in my French classes at IU -from all over the country- actually knew regarding French life, culture, politics or traditions -good and bad- much less, how little they knew about how and why the French think and act the sometimes peculiar way they seem to -again, good and bad- at least from an American or British p.o.v.

My insight came from the best French teacher there was -Pearl.

If DVD technology and the Internet had existed then, Pearl's easy manner and charm would've helped her make a fortune selling DVDs and teaching people how to speak French.

Gilbert Bécaud - Et maintenant (1962)

http://youtu.be/hmSBAJdie7E

France has all this, let New Zealand have something to celebrate!

-----

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliette_Binoche

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9lanie_Doutey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Delpy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lodie_Fr%C3%A9g%C3%A9

http://www.melaniedoutey.org/

Elodie's YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/elodieonlineCOM

French Connection & Conundrum: Mélanie Doutey, Yohanna en français; Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir

Sur ce blog, je vous parlerais
simplement de ce que j'aime,
et ce que je n'aime pas.
Among other things, j'aime
actrice Mélanie Doutey!

She's so adorable et charmant in her
films, that it's almost as if she's channeling

Sophie Marceau's kid sister, whom you

recall as a bit of a pesky and tomboyish

pre-teen.

Now, years later, you see her again and
her self-evident talent, smarts, good looks
-and sense of humor- just knock you off
your feet!

And you are smitten!

I first became aware of her enormous talent

a few years ago after seeing Claude Chabrol's

La Fleur du Mal, and she just knocked

me out cold.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322289/

It was one of the very last films that I saw

in the D.C. area in 2003 before leaving to

come back here, and rather obviously,

given the foreign language theater situation

down here, the last French film I saw

in a theater avec le popcorn.

Read http://www.melaniedoutey.org/

to keep up with what this busy actress

is doing.

It's a really fabulous site that clearly

spends a lot more time and effort than

99% of the film websites you'll come

across.

And it's well-designed with lots of good

current photos and videos.

As a bonus here, to the woman who

emailed me Thursday, asking if I knew

of a good version of Yohanna's song

Is it True en français.
Oui, s'appelle Si tu Sais.

Like most people in Iceland
-only one of the world's MOST
literate places, after all, unlike,
well, here- Yohanna's multi-lingual
and has released at least a
half-dozen versions of the song in
different languages.

As some of you may or may not already

know, many kids in Iceland actually learn

Danish while they're in school, and as it

happens, she was actually born in

Copenhagen, albeit to Icelandic parents.

Also, speaking of the French language,

for a sign of the times last year at
Eurovision, see this perceptive piece from
Le Monde titled La chanson française in english

http://www.lemonde.fr/cgi-bin/ACHATS/acheter.cgi?offre=ARCHIVES&type_item=ART_ARCH_30J&objet_id=1049465

"La France était représentée cette année à l'Eurovision avec une chanson... en anglais.

Les enfants de la mondialisation renoncent à l'écriture en français."

Mon dieu!

La France, can't live avec it,

can't live without it!

-----------------------------------

Les relations franco-américaines

devraient continuer à s'améliorer.

Thanks to Obama.