Film Reviews by JG

Long ago as a schoolboy, I took a French exchange student who happened to speak fluent english to see 'Kes'. He did not understand a word of it!  This movie is the French equivalent from a language point of view. My french is not far above schoolboy level, but I found it almost impossible to comprehend the Ch'ti dialect (similar to Picard) spoken in this north-eastern French region where the film is set. Indeed, neither can the main French character who has been moved here from the sunny south - which is the whole conceit of the film. 

It is actually quite funny, but the writer of the english subtitles instead of providing a literal translation, has attempted to recreate the misunderstandings between the characters from the north and the south using english equivalents, which ............ let's just say are somewhat wide of the mark. For example 'chien', instead of being translated as 'dog', becomes for some unknown reason 'fish'.

There are some laugh out loud moments and plenty of visual humour, so even without understanding the language, it does make enjoyable viewing.

Sadly, no subtitles are supplied to the many 'extras' which is a shame. I would actually like to have learned something about this area of northern France.