When you've lived in France for a while, sooner or later you're bound to hear about "Un Gars, Une Fille" and about "Caméra Café".
These two shows taught me a great deal about every day life in France, both on the personal side (Un Gars, Une Fille) and the professional (Caméra Café).
When it comes to Un Gars, Une Fille, (A Boy, A Girl) a lot of you might already have heard of this show. It was originally a Canadian program back in the 90s and starred a guy (Guy) and a girl (Sylvie) and basically the show was a series of short sketches about every day life as a (married?) couple.
The french version starred Jean (Dujardin) and Alex (Lamy) and again, the theme revolved around them as a couple and how they dealt with every day stuff like going to the bank, inviting friends over for dinner, passing the driver's test, dealing with in-laws, not to mention their own personal turbulent relationship. While the show itself was based on the Canadian original, the cast and the script of the french version gave me a great insider's look at the way the french look at things and their take on everyday life. It also enriched my vocabulary with french lingo and mannerisms. After a while I began to recognize the more subtle things in the show that make up the quintessential french art-de-vivre.... and funny enough I began the compare them to my own "Un Gars, Une Fille" personal story with hubby.
Although the following scketch is not one of their best (it's hard to find translated versions of Un Gars, Une Fille on youtube), I think it's a fun introduction of Jean and Alex.
Then there is Caméra Café.
Again, this show is part of franchise that became highly popular and was exported to several countries, only this one is originally french.
The sketches are held in the "espace détente" (relaxing space) of your average French company. Basically, throughout the day the employees come to this spot to grab a cup of coffee and have a quick chat with other colleagues before returning to their office. The funny thing about these sketches is that, if you've ever worked in a french office, you are definitely going to find some parts (or all) of the show a little too familiar. There is the extreme union-representative, the cool intern, the hot secretary, the nerdy accountant, the stuffy CEO, the ambitious working-girl, the lazy sales guy, etc, And then of course, there is the "espace detente" itself... which is an absolute must-have in any company in this country (I should check if it's not in fact a legal requirement. I'm sure it is). Ours is actually on my same floor and has the same exact high tables you see in the background of Caméra Café!).
As with "Un Gars, Une Fille", Caméra Café gave me quite a good glimpse of life in the "corporate world" in France and a lot of the jokes and themes, even if they do tend to be blown out of proportion on the show, sure hit home at some point in my professional career in this country.
Once again, sorry for the not-so-enlightening-sketch of Camera Café... not easy finding a translated version of this show on youtube.
Fned.
9 comments:
We have Camera Cafe here too. The set up is EXACTLY the same, they didn´t change anything!
When I was in France for business, I remember seeing 'one boy, one girl' advertised. Or at least, I'm pretty sure that's what it was since my french is pretty nil. It sounds like Camera Cafe is sort of like "The Office" here.
Bluestreak: I know! I came across a few of the Spanish Camera Café while looking for a translated version of the french one. It's true they have exactly the same decor..... does it give a good idea of the Spanish Corporate world as well??
The Cubicle's backporch: I've never seen the Office but if it's anything like caméra café I'm sure it's hilarious as well... And speaking of hilarious... that post you wrote on the "F" word on your blog is totally pee-in-your-pants hilarious! Diet coke snorted out of my nose since I made the mistake of taking a sip while reading it!!! LMAO! Thanks for stopping by! ;)
Fned.
Hola Fned!
Será que mi sentido del humor se quedó del otro lado del mundo o viene con el retraso horario de 7 horas, pero no entiendo el humor de estos programas.
He intentado poner mi mejor esfuerzo y atención para ver si cojo algún chiste, y nada! es desesperante ver como a mi alrededor se ríen y a mi no me causa la menor gracia.
en fin, choques culturales
un beso y sigue visitando mi lugar
que yo haré lo propio
Karla: ajajaja te entiendo. Aunque para serte sincera vi algunos de los clips de Camera Café España y no mas no me hicieron gracia tampoco... pero creo que es porque todavia no he adquirido ese sentido de humor gachupín! LOL
En Francia estos programas realmente no son tan chistosos si nomas se fia uno a los chistes en sí... lo que a mi me pareció increible es que una vez que llevas viviendo un buen aqui comienzas a ver las semejanzas de estos clips con la vida real (la manera en la que Jean y Alex se gritan por ejemplo me recuerda mucho a una pareja que conocemos o la manera en que el tipo de Camera Café es muy de la izquierda y reivindicador de causas sociales me recuerda mucho a un tipo del trabajo, etc).
En fin, yo creo que si a un frenchute o a un españolete lo pones a ver al Adal Ramones en Otro Rollo tampoco le va a agarrar la onda a nuestro sentido de humor! jejejeje
Fned.
agree with Karla!!! well to me the alien thing is the stand up comedy.. oh my! my husband likes it and I just can't stand it!!! to me is pretty lame, but then I thought, ok, Adal Ramones would be some sort of same old-same old... so I suppose that I should give it time.. next thing I would be loving it (the office is ok :)
Hmmm...so I really wanted to read this post, I really did... but I got caught up with the other blog you just started (or I just noticed?) and was wondering where my invite was for that....
soooo... I really should go back to read this post, since my comment had nothing to do with it :-) hehe.
Ok I'm back with a real comment:
Lol...cool. I have never heard of Camera Cafe before this though.
Ale: Oh god, Stand up comedy.... I think there are VERY VERY VERY few people that can actually do it and can keep my attention for more than, say, ONE minute... but take your regular Jerry Seinfield wannabe (or Jerry Seinfield himself!) and I simply DO.NOT.GET.IT.
Right now hubby and I are on a Dexter and Californication obsessive trip (we get things very late here) but I should check The Office next.... :)
That girl: yeah... about that other blog, the title really does give it credit. I got up one morning and actually DELUDED myself into thinking that I could write a story... I've come back to reality since then and am going to delete the (ONE) chapter I posted on that blog.
But I still do have the idea in the back of my mind though... I wonder if I could simply send it to a screenwriter and get the actual writing part donewith....
Fned.
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