NEWS, EV ENTS & AC T I V I T I ES
Modern Foreign Languages FRENCH DEPARTMENT
“A different language is a different vision of life” The French department has been lucky this year to be involved in some of the Alliance Française activities in which staff and Sixth Form pupils were invited to watch a film in French Abrahadabra and participate in a Q&A session with the film’s director, Yannick Ruault. It was a delicate and emotional independent film about the life of a young girl, whose life is turned upside down by the death of her father in a terrorist attack, plunging her into a waking dream. We enjoyed seeing aspects of the French countryside alongside beautiful prose which helped create a true sense of ‘dreaming.’ The following discussion, all in French, with the director allowed the audience to practise their questioning technique, express their ideas and hear from a native speaker, discussing his ideas and decisions in the making of the film. A very interesting and enjoyable evening was had by all, with lots of opportunities of exposure to French and to speak French with fellow Francophiles. Studying classic French literature is one of the perks of the Pre U French course, and it’s even better when the play we study, Cyrano de Bergerac first performed in 1897, is still being performed to this day and is used to inspire new productions. Our Sixth Form pupils and l met at the Grand Opera House in York and little did we know what treat would be in store for us when we saw Edmond de Bergerac starring Freddie Fox and Josie Lawrence. It certainly was a comedy and told the story of Edmond Rostand’s quest to write a play in three weeks, beginning only with the title
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The Peterite 2018–2019
Cyrano de Bergerac. The play, written by French director Alexis Mikhalik, shows Rostand’s quest to find the plot for his play and by doing so told us as an audience, the heroic comedy of Cyrano de Bergerac. It taught us a lot about the classic play, making us laugh and cry!
