Je ne sais quoi

Hardcore movie watching should be considered a sport – make that a extreme sport, since there is the possibility of hypothermia, immobile eyeballs and sore rear-ends. Let’s not forget the 10 straight hours that go into that.

My thesismates decided to do just that on the first day of the French Film Festival held in Ayala Center Cebu. And let’s just say, our body temperatures will never be the same again.

We sat in the same seats for 10 straight hours, only leaving them for the occasional bathroom break and required food intake. By the time we left the cinema, we were delirious and started talking in mock French – which we still do up to this day (“Omelet du fromage!”).

Film festivals are another great wonder in the world (next to coffee, that is). It would be insane to pass up a great opportunity to watch good films and not spend a dime. And if your lucky, you get to meet and greet (or perhaps stalk) filmmakers.

I watched all films, one of which I watched again since the way the characters in L’Esquive (Games of Love and Chance) talked fascinated me. French is an incredibly beautiful language, and hearing kids talk a mile a minute just makes me giggle, since it all sounds like gibberish (as if it didn’t sound like gibberish to being with).

I tried to teach myself French years back, since I had this strange vision of climbing the Eiffel Tower with some French poet and eat baguettes and escargot (yes, snails!) up there. Yet, I soon realized while learning how to roll my tongue properly that I lacked that certain je ne sais quoi in teaching myself French.

Oh well, the poet will just have to wait – I’ll just continue reading French poetry to myself and mispronouncing every other word.

Right now, I’m in no hurry to teach myself French again. I’ve forgotten most of it, if not all, and my French-English dictionary is in no condition to teach me another round of French as it is yellowed and frayed. And honestly, I lack the patience to do so anyway.

If we all want to learn French, we might as well go into the sport of hardcore movie watching. 10 hours can do wonders to your French vocabulary after reading all those subtitles.

Speaking of subtitles, wouldn’t it be great if people came with subtitles? That way, we all could be easy to read and understood – just like French films.