French cinema was one of my favorite classes as an undergrad. Alas, I speak no French (except menu).
'Not Fade Away'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
except menu
Ah, but do you know what menu actually means?
Regardless, I'm sure you know tons of other things.
En garde! Fromage! Cherchez la femme!
Ah, but do you know what menu actually means?
um..I mean I usually know what food I'm ordering off of a French menu! (even if I can't pronounce it properly)
What does 'menu' actually mean???
En garde! Fromage! Cherchez la femme!
And these things, of course!
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?
What does 'menu' actually mean???
Menu is a classic faux ami/false friend.
A list of appetizers, main dishes, drinks, desserts, etc. is a "carte" in French. So, if you are ordering "à la carte", it means you are ordering individual things off one big list.
A "menu" is what Americans call a prix fixe meal, i.e., an appetizer + main course + dessert, all for one set price, where you can sometimes choose from among 2-3 things for each course.
So if you ask for the "menu" in a French restaurant, you will get the special meal; not a list of individual items to be ordered willy nilly.
Seekrit message to juliana: Absolument pas!
So if you ask for the "menu" in a French restaurant, you will get the special meal; not a list of individual items to be ordered willy nilly.
Good to know!
(I feel like I did know this at some point..)
I just read Ballard's follow-up memoir The Kindness of Women and it's fantastic.
Eh. It's been a decade since I read it, but my overall conclusion was, it's a lot less fantastic if you're one of the women in question. About the most interesting part of it, for me, was mapping the little fibs it's speckled with: for a memoir, it's remarkably untruthful on some of the details.
(Then again, that was part of the weird/creepy appeal of Empire of the Sun as well. Mrs. Vincent is a lot ickier when you realize that she's loosely based on his own mother.)
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne
I love that movie, but I think most of that has to do with my gigantic crush on María Casares. I tried watching another Bresson film afterward... err, I think it was the one about Joan of Arc... and didn't even make it half way through.
We Tell Stories.
I've worked on a bunch of similar projects with Google Earth and various literature or culture classes. On the plus side, Google Earth is way more fun than Google Maps. On the minus side, I don't get Penguin-Putnam's money.