Learn french in France

Hello everybody!

We all know that a great way to learn French is by using French media, such as French movies or French songs. But what if you want to get a little bit of both at the same time? There’s a simple solution: watch a French musical! Les Chansons d’Amour (Love songs) is a French musical from 2007 directed by Christophe Honoré, staring  Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier, Clotilde Hesme and Chiara Mastroianni.

Story line:
Ismaël and Julie are dating, but as with most couples, they have their relationship problems. To spice things up they include Alice, Ismaëls co-worker, in their relationship and a passionate but complicated “ménage à trois” begins. Alice is there as much for Julie as for Ismaël, butJulie can’t stop doubting Ismaël love for her, even though he ensures her that she’s the only one for him. One night when the trio are at a concert together, Julie starts feeling ill and wants to leave. Ismaël goes to get their things and when he returns Julie has collapsed on the floor. The ambulance arrives, but it’s too late, Julie is dead.
Alice and Ismaël stay friends, but nothing more than that. Julie’s family tries to support him but nothing they do can make him feel any better. One night, when he can’t bear to go home, he stays over at Alice’s new boyfriend’s place. There he meets Erwann, the boyfriend’s younger brother. They start a kind of tug-of-war, but in the end it is with Erwann that Ismaël can find peace, comfort and love.

The musical parts of the film correspond very well to the story line and the songs themselves are very beautiful in my opinion. It could have been a rather dark film, but the songs make the film much brighter. I watched it with French subtitles to make it easier to understand. The dialogue isn’t very hard nor very long since it is often interrupted with a song. Of course the film is also available with English subtitles.
This is a very nice, almost cute, musical but with a very interesting story line. I would recommend it to everybody, not only to learn French but also because it’s a very good film with very beautiful songs!

Here is the movie trailer:

This is the first song in the film. Very, very cute!

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