Events - Edimbourg Francais: Edinburgh's French Conversation Group

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Friday, September 08, 2006

No need to bored in Edinburgh!!

Tonight, you can go and dance in French with Les Bof! - apparently "a night of 60s French pop with a live set"
When? 8 Sep: 11.00
Where? Henry's Cellar Bar
How much? £5 (£4)

Tomorrow, in Glasgow....
Border, a documentary about the French Sangatte Red Cross Camp with Afghan and Iraqi refugees.
When? 9 Sep: 7.30
Where? CCA (Glasgow)
How much? ?

Or else: pop to the Filmhouse to watch this:
8-13 Sep: various times
Regular Lovers (Les Amants Reguliers) (18) : "Much acclaimed but overlooked in the UK, Garrel directs his son, Louis, in experiencing the emotional upheavals of revolutionary France and falling in love. Shot in low definition monochrome, a series of exchanges, visual and occasionally verbal, capture the emotional freefall of the era in a demanding piece of work that is worth seeking out."
avec Louis Garrel, Clotilde Hesme, Julien Lucas, Eric Rulliat
When? 8-13 Sep: various times
Where? Filmhouse
How much? normal cinema fares I suppose...

This week-end....
Toulouse-Lautrec and the Art Nouveau Poster
"A display of French poster prints, spanning from the Romantic period to the start of the Art Nouveau movement, including 15 works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec."

When? Until 22 October
Where? City Art Centre
How much? £5 (£3.50-£14 family)

Roussillon: Now and Then
"A selection of work by Scottish painter Ian Scott created over the last 30 years in his French base." - Part of the Mackintosh Festival
When? Until 30 September, Mon-Wed 10.00am-4.00; Thu-Sun 10.00am-1.00
Where? House for an Art Lover (Glasgow)
How much? £3.50 (£2.50-£7 family)
More info: www.glasgowmackintosh2006.com


To look forward to...

Thursday 14 September, 6pm
"Penrose as a collector, curator and apologist for Surrealism"
"Elizabeth Cowling is a specialist in 20th-century European art and
particularly in artists' working processes, techniques and use of sources.
Her talk will embrace Roland Penrose's lifelong love affair with France
which began in 1922 when he moved to Paris to study painting. In 1925 he
married the poet Valentine Boué, through whom he met many of the leading
Surrealists. Paul Eluard became a particularly close friend and it was
through him that Penrose first met Picasso in 1936, shortly after the
major Surrealist exhibition he helped to organise in London. Although he
continued to practise as a painter, collagist and maker of 'objets
surréalistes', after World War II Penrose became increasingly involved in
arts administration, curating exhibitions and writing. In this talk
Elizabeth Cowling, author of a recently published book about his
forty-year relationship with Picasso, will talk mainly about Penrose as a
collector, curator and apologist for Surrealism."
The talk will be in English, and it is free!
Where ? Institut Français d'Ecosse, 13 Randolph Crescent, Edinburgh EH3

16 Sep: 10.30
Death Disco: "An Edbanger Records two-hander, with French electro pairing Justice (of 'vs Simian' remix fame) and deej Pedro Winter, ably supported by resident DJ Mingo-go."
The Arches (Glasgow)
£10

17 Oct: 6.30
Carol Drinkwater: "Drinkwater celebrates the launch of 'the Olive Route' not just with a talk, but with a tasting session too at which you can sample olives from her farm in southern France."
Ottakar's (Glasgow)
Free

19 Sep: 1.10
Get Organised! - The French Connection: "John Kitchen presents an all-encompassing programme of French music, including ballet music by Lully and Rameau, works from the time of the Revolution such as Balbastre's 'Variations on the Marseillaise along with organ favourites by Franck and Widor."
Usher Hall
Edinburgh
£3

20 Sep: 8.00
Tribute to Stéphane Grappelli: "Pioneer jazz violinist Grappelli who formed the first all-string jazz band, the Quintette du hot Club de France, is resurrected by Dutch jazz violinist Tim Kliphuis and the John Russell Trio."
North Edinburgh Arts Centre
£9 (£4-£6)
25 Sep: 6.00
Les Journées Télécinéma
"The INA (French National Institute of television and radio archives) reveal the fruits of their annual foray into their archives, containing more than 60 years of French TV footage, which aims to allow the public to rediscover the best of screen through the free screening of two selected programmes."
Institut Francais d'Ecosse

Tue 26 Sept only
Le mépris: film by Jean-Luc Godard with Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance, Fritz Lang. "A young woman (Bardot) is gradually possessed by an overwhelming contempt for her husband (Piccoli), a writer beset by doubts when he is called in as script-doctor to a film of 'The Odyssey', being made by a director (Lang) who wants to capture the reality of Homer's world, and a crass producer (Palance) who just wants more mermaids..."
Filmhouse

28 Sep: 6.00
The Edinburgh Quartet and The Auld Alliance: "The Edinburgh Quartet and friends introduce their 2006/2007 season at this exclusive event, performing and discussing a selection of excerpts from their forthcoming French and Scottish pieces."
Institut Francais d'Ecosse
Free

4 Oct: 7.30
The Gipsy Kings: "The legendary French band return to keep the flamenco tradition flying."
Edinburgh Playhouse
£36.50

24 Oct: 7.00
Phoenix: "Groovy French popsters who marry the best of 70s pop with a club sensibility."
The Arches (Glasgow)
£12


20 Oct: 12.45
Travel and Study: George Reid in Holland and France
"Dr John Morrison examines George Reid's travels to Utrecht, The Hague and Paris between 1866 and 1871."
Weston Link
Free

24 Oct: 12.45
Painting Idleness: Boudin in Normandy and the South of France
"A talk on Boudin's paintings of tourists on the Normandy Coast by Frances Fowle."
Weston Link
Free


14 Dec: 7.30
Scottish Chamber Orchestra: The Old Rivalry
"A comparison of dance music and symphonies from France and England featuring the composers Rebel, Charpentier, Haydn, Handel and Purcell by director and harpsichordist Richard Egarr."
More info: www.sco.org.uk
Queen's Hall
£8-£24 (£6-£18)

Shaken (and stirred)

Here I am, reporting back after my first week back to teaching! Quite an enjoyable week, if a bit stressful, as incredibly I had completely forgotten what it was like to work!! And I was only away for 3 and a half weeks... One of my students has been away, travelling through Africa for 10 months, and I cannot start to imagine how difficult it must be for her to re-adjust to the british way of life...

Anyway, it's great to meet old and new friends, and to discover how I can help them (hopefully) improve their language skills. The False Beginners courses seem like quite a challenging set of classes to teach, given the various skills the students possess, and what they need really still remains to be determined at this stage. It's going to be a tailor-made affair, which i quite like, since I will have to decide on a week by week basis what we do next so they reach the levels we agreed on! I suspect this will keep me out of mischief for some time to come!

I have also had good news, as I was contacted by Valerie Blanc, a French woman who has just started a new wine venture (La Provenance). She has offered to organise wine tasting sessions in French for those classes whose understanding of the language was sufficient to cope!
Keep your eyes peeled - I suspect the second week of October will be an alcoholic one!
;-)

Otherwise, I have been contacted by Jubilee Scotland, who are looking for volunteer interpreters to help in November:

Jubilee Scotland, the debt campaign organisation in Scotland is looking for French interpreters willing to volunteer their skills in November. We have a Malian activist coming to Scotland between 1-18 November and we need French speakers who could help translate/interpret for him at events. If you would like more information please get in touch at mail@jubileescotland.org.uk

More information on their website here. It seems a very worthy cause, and hopefully I will be able to help, though, as I pointed out, I am not a simultaneous interpreter, and I could probably only deal with very general translation and/or social events.

Anyway... I had a good laugh this week when asked by Darryl how to translate the famous James-Bondish 'Shaken, not stirred'. To my utmost shame, I was at a complete loss, and so resorted to google to find the appropriate answer and I found this:
"une Vodka Martini, médium dry, au shaker, non à la cuillère"
Truthfully, it seems to me a tad literal, but - hey! - who am I to judge?: all I could say when asked was 'erm... erm... Dunno... will look it up, I promise...' Anyone coming up with a better answer though will win... my eternal gratitude!

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