French Movies vs American Movies - Essay Sample

Introduction

On this vivid Friday evening, after I was done with my school work, I spent some time go and watch a French movie in the cinema. It was not my first time encountering a French movie. I invited my younger brother to come with me because he had seemingly shown more interest in French movies and hence, I found it appropriate for him to come along. The purpose of this activity was to help me find a clear comparison between French movies to American movies and hence critically analyses the main similarities and differences of the movies. As part of my project, I wanted my younger brother to learn more about the difference between movies in French and American concept hence help me in my discussion. At the cinema, we watch a French version of the movies "The Beauty and The Beast" which is actually our favorite French movies. I Then Compared the movie to the American version of the same movie "The Beauty and The Beast." After watching the movies, I realized that there was so much comparison that I could be pulled from both movies.

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As a student of French civilization, I choose this particular activity because I'm a big fan of movies. Movies are part of learning and improving our cognitive learning of the French language. Movies provide a way to understand the culture of a country in an entertaining manner. This is because they are used to entertain the nation at the same time maintaining the cultural heritage of the people. French movies are full of subtitle and translation which can help a beginner to read and interpret the language in a simpler way. French movies have colloquialism and slang which can be understood better in movies even words pronunciations. Movies are relaxing and informative and this the reason I choose this particular activity.

In France, cinema is considered an art rather than a form of entertainment or industrial activity and is taken seriously by the French. Cinema is heavily embedded in the culture of Paris as it continues to thrive as a global face of cinema showcasing among the best cinema works in the world. The French support homegrown cinema in both art and business aspects. They even have a phrase for films "cinema d'art et essai" which is used to describe ambitious films which compromise profitability for artistic and expressive purposes. The French view cinema as a way of uniting the community and while the people have their own experiences and taking in the films in their own ways. All these are aspects of the French culture on how they regard cinema that I witnessed as I went to watch the movie. The experience in the cinema is one to remember.Regarding the comparison between the French movies and American movies on these particular movies. I observed that it was the norm of the French movies to include subtitles. This was contrary to the American version. As an observation, I noted that French cinema focused more on the historic respect of the character and no innate superiority. I observed that French cinema setting is known to the audience early in the movie which was quite contrary to the American version of the movie it was hard to know the setting in the early stages of the movie. Form the start it was clear that the prince and was to become a beast until he learned how to love. The character presentation was quite different between the two movies as I observed that the French movie's characters actions were only revealed to the specific thing, but the American movies the character were more incentive to the overall role. My brother found the French version funny as some minor characters who got bogged up within the narrative and this contrary to the American version as the film was more of a problem/solution type of film. This means that there is always a bad guy and good guy with the root of the problem solved with violence.

After the movie, we sat in for a while as I reflected on the movie's plot. I observed that my brother was also doing the same. The movie had a happy ending with the prince who had been a beast for a large part of the movie and had the curse placed on him reversed after he finally found true love and learned to love back. I asked him which part of the movie he had enjoyed most and for him being a teenager I was not surprised by his answer. The action part where the Beast fights the antagonist Gaston on rooftops. What interested me the most was how fantasy and fairy tales are portrayed at this age and the cinematic effects that had been put in place to make the fairy tale-based movie possible. Watching the movie amongst other people was also a wonderful experience compared to watching one alone at home. How people react to the various scenes with varying emotions creates a wonderful environment in which one cannot be found at any other venue.