The day after I got back from the Pyrenees I remembered that at night I had signed up to be in the audience of a TV show called, “le grand journal” or the big newspaper. I showed up 15 minutes early for the meeting time before going into the tv station and I was the only there out of 20 students. The French professors were probably thinking damn Americans never listen and just stroll in whenever they please…well its true, but you can’t fault for culture haha. Anyway once everyone arrived they let us into the entrance where they took some form of ID that they would keep until we left. We had to check our coats with cell phones and cameras which I was bummed because I wanted to take pictures.
Since we were the last group of students to arrive, they made us wait a bit before taking us in the multi-colored studio that had table and chairs in the center with the audience sitting around it. Before anyone was allowed to sit down, the staff told individual people to sit in certain places so that their colors of their clothes wouldn’t contrast and that there would be a balance of guys and girls. It kind of felt like middle school sports where people choose teams. I of course was last and being one of the only guys put in the middle of a bunch of girls sitting right behind the table in the front row. I thought I would be on TV but the way people were sitting once the show got started I didn’t see myself. Although I never saw a tape of the program, so I wouldn’t know. Just like expected, there was a guy in the audience who prompted us to clap, scream, and be silent.
This show consisted of some political debate at the beginning with news, popular culture, music, sports and weather. So it was a conglomerate of everything going on in the world. The most interesting part was that each guest would sit down with the three people (the moderator pictured above in glasses: http://www.canalplus.fr/) on the show and it would be somewhat of a cross-table debate. And it would be interesting because with the last batch of quests there was an actor with sports figures talking about different issues. The first quest was former prime minister of France, Jean-Pierre Raffarin (pictured above without glasses: http://www.wikipedia.org/), who served under Jacques Chirac from 2002-2005. He actually resigned his position after France rejected the new EU constitution and now is currently a leader in the conservative party UMP in France (a branch of this party is King Sarko’s). He was on the show promoting his book that dealt with 10 questions about decentralization of the government in France. As many know the French state is very strong, and some people feel that as France moves into the future the power should be handed to regional and municipal governments like in the US. He also commented on Sarkozy’s letter reading to kids, which told the story of children in the resistance during WWII. The former Prime Minister made a point of saying that it is important for the youth of the country to remember all of those who died in order so that they could have the liberty they enjoy today. It is a touchy subject because of course with the unification of Europe these historical conflicts seem to be foreign to younger generations.
What the most interesting part of the interview was when they brought a man who was in charge of NGO that dealt with housing in Paris for homeless people who fall out of the welfare state (SDFs in France). This NGO guy made a point that there is housing in Paris for these people who mostly are refugees but it is not adequate and that it would only take a little work and money from the budget to get these people out of the cold. The former Prime Minister defended against allocations that he did nothing to fix this problem and that you can’t just say lets take this extra money and build more housing. The NGO started to get angry and kind of put on a show which the prime minister called him out on. France probably needs more housing for their homeless but so do most countries in the world. Also remember that a lot of people seeking asylum from African end up in France because of the former colonies so they have I think a bigger problem than others.
The second batch of quests consisted of Marc Lavoine, a popular singer and actor in France who has a movie coming out “Les Cœurs des Hommes 2.” It looks like a movie about middle-aged men who all have family problems and then come together in friendship and work through them. With regards to his singing capabilities I can’t find a comparison to a singer in the US but maybe a male Celine Deon? Anyway with him were four players from France National Rugby team who just lost the 3rd place game. Two notables were Rapheal Ibanez (captain) and Frédéric Michalak (best player). Of course all of the girls went crazy when they came on the show because these guys before the coup modeled for a nude calendar. I have actually thought about buying a few for some people back home but then again that wouldn’t be appropriate in conservative America. One comment about the rugby men, they are not as huge as they look on TV except for one who looked like a brick wall.
The best parts of the show were the advertisements and the weather lady. The advertisements and commercials were hilarious for the station (CANAL) mocked TFR the other major French station in a puppet show that satirized their news staffs. Favorite line was “TFR – the news station for the dying.” They showed puppet medical crews electric shocking the anchor’s heart during every commercial. The puppets were so lifelike that is was disturbing while funny au meme temps. The second major attraction of the night literally was the blond babe who was brought out to read off the weather report for the day. She was of course like a stick wearing white boots and fury hat, top, and pants. Her attractive and aesthetic appearance didn’t translate into intelligence for she stumbled over the words on the prompt many times. Isn’t it terrible when people fall directly under discriminatory stereotypes? But hey wasn’t complaining and neither was the Prime Minister who must have had the most sinister smile on his face as he looked her up and down 5 times. If just one of the cameras had caught the man who looked like he was in 70s creepily checking out this 25-year-old woman it would be a field day for the French muckrakers. Some things don’t change across borders, including nasty old politicians putting their eyes on the grand prize.
Since we were the last group of students to arrive, they made us wait a bit before taking us in the multi-colored studio that had table and chairs in the center with the audience sitting around it. Before anyone was allowed to sit down, the staff told individual people to sit in certain places so that their colors of their clothes wouldn’t contrast and that there would be a balance of guys and girls. It kind of felt like middle school sports where people choose teams. I of course was last and being one of the only guys put in the middle of a bunch of girls sitting right behind the table in the front row. I thought I would be on TV but the way people were sitting once the show got started I didn’t see myself. Although I never saw a tape of the program, so I wouldn’t know. Just like expected, there was a guy in the audience who prompted us to clap, scream, and be silent.
This show consisted of some political debate at the beginning with news, popular culture, music, sports and weather. So it was a conglomerate of everything going on in the world. The most interesting part was that each guest would sit down with the three people (the moderator pictured above in glasses: http://www.canalplus.fr/) on the show and it would be somewhat of a cross-table debate. And it would be interesting because with the last batch of quests there was an actor with sports figures talking about different issues. The first quest was former prime minister of France, Jean-Pierre Raffarin (pictured above without glasses: http://www.wikipedia.org/), who served under Jacques Chirac from 2002-2005. He actually resigned his position after France rejected the new EU constitution and now is currently a leader in the conservative party UMP in France (a branch of this party is King Sarko’s). He was on the show promoting his book that dealt with 10 questions about decentralization of the government in France. As many know the French state is very strong, and some people feel that as France moves into the future the power should be handed to regional and municipal governments like in the US. He also commented on Sarkozy’s letter reading to kids, which told the story of children in the resistance during WWII. The former Prime Minister made a point of saying that it is important for the youth of the country to remember all of those who died in order so that they could have the liberty they enjoy today. It is a touchy subject because of course with the unification of Europe these historical conflicts seem to be foreign to younger generations.
What the most interesting part of the interview was when they brought a man who was in charge of NGO that dealt with housing in Paris for homeless people who fall out of the welfare state (SDFs in France). This NGO guy made a point that there is housing in Paris for these people who mostly are refugees but it is not adequate and that it would only take a little work and money from the budget to get these people out of the cold. The former Prime Minister defended against allocations that he did nothing to fix this problem and that you can’t just say lets take this extra money and build more housing. The NGO started to get angry and kind of put on a show which the prime minister called him out on. France probably needs more housing for their homeless but so do most countries in the world. Also remember that a lot of people seeking asylum from African end up in France because of the former colonies so they have I think a bigger problem than others.
The second batch of quests consisted of Marc Lavoine, a popular singer and actor in France who has a movie coming out “Les Cœurs des Hommes 2.” It looks like a movie about middle-aged men who all have family problems and then come together in friendship and work through them. With regards to his singing capabilities I can’t find a comparison to a singer in the US but maybe a male Celine Deon? Anyway with him were four players from France National Rugby team who just lost the 3rd place game. Two notables were Rapheal Ibanez (captain) and Frédéric Michalak (best player). Of course all of the girls went crazy when they came on the show because these guys before the coup modeled for a nude calendar. I have actually thought about buying a few for some people back home but then again that wouldn’t be appropriate in conservative America. One comment about the rugby men, they are not as huge as they look on TV except for one who looked like a brick wall.
The best parts of the show were the advertisements and the weather lady. The advertisements and commercials were hilarious for the station (CANAL) mocked TFR the other major French station in a puppet show that satirized their news staffs. Favorite line was “TFR – the news station for the dying.” They showed puppet medical crews electric shocking the anchor’s heart during every commercial. The puppets were so lifelike that is was disturbing while funny au meme temps. The second major attraction of the night literally was the blond babe who was brought out to read off the weather report for the day. She was of course like a stick wearing white boots and fury hat, top, and pants. Her attractive and aesthetic appearance didn’t translate into intelligence for she stumbled over the words on the prompt many times. Isn’t it terrible when people fall directly under discriminatory stereotypes? But hey wasn’t complaining and neither was the Prime Minister who must have had the most sinister smile on his face as he looked her up and down 5 times. If just one of the cameras had caught the man who looked like he was in 70s creepily checking out this 25-year-old woman it would be a field day for the French muckrakers. Some things don’t change across borders, including nasty old politicians putting their eyes on the grand prize.
1 comment:
Don't worry about bringing back one of those calendars to the U.S., it's definitelybeen done before, by non other than myself ;)
As for the scary rugbyman, did he have long hair +beard? If yes, it was undoubtedly Sebastien Chabal, our star rugbyman.
It's pretty sweet that you got to see famousish French people, although Raffarin is definitely not one of my favorites.
Hope all is well,
Chloe
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