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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

Stephanie,

I didn't know you couldn't see your comments. For some reason, they come up on the page when I'm logged in, but I just logged out and checked, and yes, they're not there. I'll have to notify the website manager. Please do not think that I had erased them or did not want them shown.

Replying to your responses:

1. You're right that he does make the comment about his jaw, and maybe I should watch the movie again (I'll have to wait for the video), but I think it's pretty hard to deny that there is a definite connection made between Boon's being drunk and Boon's accent, and that to outsiders, they sound the same.

2. I misread your statement about the French naming the Ch'tis "Ch'tis". My mistake.

3. I'm sorry, I don't understand. In your original comment you said you "had spoken to" many people about the film. And in your second, you're saying they were people on web chat sites and in cafés. Whatever, it's okay. I understand that you weren't necessarily speaking to friends, but just reporting on what you've heard from others.

Again, sorry that you can't see your comments. I'll ask the web admin to correct the problem. It must look pretty lame if I'm just carrying on this odd conversation with myself.

Thanks again,
Stephen

Stephanie,

Thanks for your comment. It's nice to know that someone actually reads these reviews of mine.

You're right that Nord Pas-de-Calais is not really northeast. It's dead north.

My description of the accent sounding like 'drunk French' is actually played out in the film itself. In the first scene when Kad Merad's character comes to Bergues, he thinks Dany Boon's character is drunk, when he's not (though he is drunk in several other scenes, and there isn't much difference in his accent in these scenes and the others).

As far as whether or not people from Nord Pas-de-Calais call themselves Ch'tis or not, well, in the film, they do. The very name of the film indicates that. I don't doubt your historical reference to the fact that it was the English who originally called them Ch'tis, just as it was the English who first called (derogatorily, of course) northeastern Americans "Yankees". This term now, though, is used by people from the northeast themselves, just as I believe Ch'tis now call themselves Ch'tis, which is what I said in the article.

Regarding your friends' comments on why they liked the film, I really have nothing to say about that, as I didn't talk to them, but I still believe my point is valid, that people, from France, from the US, from wherever, do feel strong ties to their native regions, just as you obviously do. And I think this universal sentiment is represented well in the film. And this has not as much to do with ethnicity as it does just a love of the land from where you come. There are plenty of African Americans, for example, from Atlanta who love Atlanta, though it is not their 'ethnic' home. For that matter, white Americans aren't 'ethnically' from Washington, DC, or Cleveland, Ohio, either.

Your last sentence bothers me a little: I hope you did not mean to imply that I look down on Ch'tis. If anything, I believe my review champions a healthy pride in one's origins. And while I did not think Bienvenue was the greatest film ever, I did like it for what it was, a somewhat funny, well-scripted film where I learned something about a region of France I've never had the pleasure of visiting, and I have an ever-deepening appreciation for the French people, their culture, traditions and their roots.

Thanks for the very thoughtful comments, and I look forward to future dialogue with you about other films in the future.

-Stephen