Dear Stephen, Thanks for
By JustReading - March 16, 2008 - 10:08am.

Dear Stephen,

Thanks for finding the time to answer my comment. It's a pleasure to exchange views with you.

But visitors must wonder why you are thanking me or what comment you are answering (shouldn't the readers' comments appear below your article?)

Just a few things, but it's not that important:

When you say that in the first scene when Kad Merad's character comes to Bergues, he thinks that Boon is drunk, it's not true : he thinks that his jaw is broken ("Vous avez un problème à la mâchoire?", he asks repeatedly)

Secondly, I've never said that the English were the ones who originally called Picard-speaking people "ch'tis". French soldiers from other parts of France called them so during the first world war. And yes, we now call ourselves ch'tis, and gladly (that's what I meant by "Picard-speaking people later adopted this name").

Thirdly, the comments I mentioned were not my friends'comments, but what people say on the street, at work, in cafés, on the train, on internet message boards, etc.

Anyway, it's time to think and talk about other films, but for "future dialogue"'s sake, it would be quite important that all parts of the dialogue appear on this page, unless you think you and me are the only ones who visit this page...

xxx

Stephanie
»

brotherhood
By JustReading - March 14, 2008 - 5:18pm.

Dear Stephen,

Thanks very much for this very interesting article. If you don't mind, I have a few things to add...

First, the Nord Pas-de-Calais region is not located in the northeast of France, it's in the north-northwest (by the North Sea and the Channel, between Belgium and Normandy).

2nd, may I say that I find your description of the Ch’ti language as sounding essentially "like drunk French" pretty insulting and more important, inaccurate in many respects? Even the most prejudiced southern French people wouldn't say that, not because they wouldn't dare, but because it just doesn't sound like drunk French to a French ear. However it does sound a bit backward to the elite. In fact, it has a lot in common with the Yorkshire accent in England (and it's no coincidence if Nord Pas-de-Calais and Yorkshire have been twinned for decades, and they also have a lot in common in terms of both industrial history and rural landscapes).

3rd, the Ch'tis don't "call themselves ch'tis" in so far as the name "ch'ti" ("ch'timi" in fact) was given to the French soldiers speaking Picard during World War I precisely by French soldiers coming from other parts of France, who were struck by the "ch-" sounds of the Picard language and by the fact that "mi" (prononced like "me" in English, with the same meaning by the way) was used in every sentence. Later, the Picard-speaking inhabitants of Nord Pas-de-Calais adopted this nickname.

Picard, of which the dialect spoken in the film is a simplified version, was THE language of literature in a very large part of France (north of the Loire river which cuts France in two roughly equal parts) during most of the Middle Age, until François Ier decided to choose the French language in an attempt to unite and control the nation (French was the language He could speak. Had he been Picard, the whole population of today's France would "sound drunk"...). But before that, French was just one language among others of equal importance: Picard, Breton, Corsican, Occitan, Catalan, etc... So Picard is not derived from French, but is a different language, like Irish, Breton, Scottish or Welsh. Picard is derived from Latin, like French, but has also many Germanic roots (like English, by the way...)

Picard is still spoken by millions of people in Nord Pas-de-Calais, Picardy and Belgium, many of whom are not alcoholic (including me, although I'm starting to ask myself questions...!)

Finally, having spoken with many people (from all social backgrounds) who saw the film, one of the main reasons they give for loving the film (apart from having a good laugh, which is vital and healthy!) is completely overlooked in your article (whether they come from the North of France or not doesn't change what they said) :

What many viewers have found so refreshing and deeply moving and reassuring in the film is that it is a comedy which, contrary to many recent ones, is not about well-off people having fun but about simple modest working-class people whose pantheon of values is made up of the following sacred trinity : friendship, solidarity and pride (and a good deal of derision and self-derision too), in a French society where the current values seem to have become "individualism, distrust and survival".

Many people suffer from the more and more unbearable individualism and pressure which pervade French society, especially on the workplace, but also at school (a pretty recent phenomenon here in France), where being competitive has become the only criterion to judge what a human being is worth, with growing difficulty for the lower and middle classes who witness the profligate ways of their new President who only swears by money and competition, while they find it harder and harder to make ends meet and live under permanent stress. In that context where politicians, journalists, TV shows and managers keep valuing ambition, ruthlessness and cynicism, this comedy comes as a welcome breath of fresh air, and is seen (and partly intended) as a modest act of resistance, relying on human relations, generosity, trust and good humour. Almost all viewers also insist that "there is not an ounce of cynicism in the film" and it seems to be a huge relief for everyone.

The north of France has always been reputed throughout the country for the warmth and kindness of its inhabitants, who have a tradition of welcoming foreigners (this is due to the industrial past of the region : people coming from Poland, Italy, North Africa, the Netherlands and France worked together in the coal mines or the steel industry, and being a miner was more important in terms of brotherhood than being French). In the north of France, you find something which you find in the 3rd world : People who are very poor welcome strangers as if they were princes, sharing the few riches they have rather than keeping them for themselves (unfortunately, this is slowly changing under the influence of so-called modernity, and also because the terrible industrial crisis that this region is slowly recovering from has left many people unemployed and has often deprived them of their dignity. Hence the pretty high rate of alcoholism in the area).

So, what you say about the film being about regional peculiarities, is not really accurate, and I'm not sure your comparison with Corsica and Brittany is relevant either : contrary to these regions, the Nord Pas-de-Calais has no ethnic homogeneity (which may also be why language is so important) and it has never demanded its independence : the feeling of identity and belonging is mainly linked to the industrial work which all inhabitants shared until the crisis of the 1980s and not to ethnic roots. And even today, many of us still define their identity as being deeply rooted in this past (I am a lecturer at La Sorbonne University in Paris, but when I'm asked where I come from, I always proudly answer "from a family of miners in the Pas-de-Calais", which to many French workers, still means being of noble and respectable descent). Part of our identity and pride are still linked to this rich heritage and could be summed up by what a famous French singer said a few decades ago "People from the North of France have in their hearts the sunshine which is lacking outside".

I'll stop here. I hope you won't be offended or bored by all these remarks, Stephen.

I hope many of you will come to meet us, with our funny accent and great hearts. If you ever come, don't mistake our simplicity and kindness for backwardness. Don't look down on us and accept our smile and cup of strong thick coffee as the most precious gift on earth : fraternity.

Stephanie