The French Journey

I hadn’t seen this film until now. The film “La haine” at the start of my French learning had a big effect on my curiosity about the language and culture, the story of which is very much in this vein. But “La haine” is filmed in a more stylized, calculated manner than this one.

However, this remains a cult French film and is well worth a watch for examples of youth accents, Parisian suburb accents, slang words and seeing how French youth interact. This could have been filmed today, apart from the clothes and cars; so little seems to have changed. The riots of recent years bear testament to this.

I must warn you this film depicts scenes of violence and bad language that would probably be classified as an 18 in the UK or an R in the US.

So to watch this film, “Ma 6-T va cracker” (1997) click the following link for the streaming version:

Ma 6-T va cracker – Watch online

Notes:
Look out for the following words “tasse-pé” (pétasse in verlan), “pine-co” (copine), “meuf” (femme), “keuf” (flic = cop). “Niquer” means the f-word in the sexual and violent sense. The accent is harder and faster than a well articulated French, such as that in the previous poetry post.

Disclaimer: This is by no means “the Queen’s French” so I wouldn’t recommend copying the actors’ accents when interviewing for work in France. Any questions, the comment section is all yours.

Another trailer, this one more serious than the last, for the new Vincent Cassel film called: L’instinct de mort.

You’ll find the key phrases below in French and English, listen out for them in the trailer (bande annonce) and try to copy how they’re pronounced.

Ferme ta gueule!
Shut your mouth! (Gueule being slang for bouche)

Qu’est-ce que tu faisait en France?
Je braquais les banques.
What did you do in France?
I robbed banks.
(sounds like keske - that’s also how kids write it in sms messages – also, bonus points for noticing the guy asking the question having a Canadian/Quebecois accent)

Le jury réunie condamne Jacques Mesrine à la peine de 20 années de réclusion criminelle
The jury condemns JM to the sentence of (think, ‘on pain of’)20 years of criminal reclusion

Vous voulez m’enfermer?
(Tu me manques)
Allez-y enfermez moi.
Mais sachez que je m’évaderai. (Future tense ending ai)
(Je t’aime papa.)
Et ca vous pouvez compter sur moi.
You want to lock me up?
(I miss you)
Go on then, lock me up.
But know that I’ll escape.
(I love you dad)
And you can count on me for that.

C’est quoi ces conneries, Jacques?
What’s all this BS, Jacques?

Tu veux toujours avoir le dernier mot tu te retrouves toujours tout seul.
Et c’est comme ça que tu finiras, Mesrine, tout seul.
You always want to have the last word and you always end up alone.
And that’s how you’ll end up, Mesrine, alone.

Moi?! Moi!?
Me?! Me?!

Police, rendez vous! (Not rendezvous, rdv, like a meeting, but the verb ‘se rendre’)
Police! Surrender!

Personne ne me tue tant que j’ai pas décidé.
Nobody kills me until I say so (lit. nobody kills me for as long as I’ve not decided).