Bastille Day

Today is Bastille Day in France. Well, everywhere actually, but like you might expect, they're really doing it up big in France.
I try my best to celebrate France every day, but Bastille Day gives me a good excuse to do it publicly in front of all 12 of you reading this. Here's a not-so-comprehensive list of my favorite les choses Français. (Thanks online translator!)

Film Moderne
It's pretty impossible to pick a favorite French movie, new or old, but the modern one that sticks with me is director Mathieu Kassovitz's "La Haine" (Hatred). It's about three struggling friends from the Parisian projects angered by the recent beating of one of their friends by the police. In the aftermath of a riot, one of the friends finds a police officer's gun and vows to kill a cop if their friend dies from his injuries. Hilarity ensues.
Actually, despite its intense subject matter, there are light moments, especially when the characters reveal their obsession with American culture. There's a character nicknamed "Wal-Mart."



Vieux films
Almost anything from French New Wave auteurs Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard is worth a watch, but will require some patience and an open mind. Again, it's hard to pick a favorite, Godard's "Breathless" is probably the best, but the really crazy revolutionary one is "Weekend" from 1967. It still drives me nuts, especially the hippie cannibals.





Musique
Edith Piaf and Serge Gainsbourg are really French and I really like them, but there's got to be some 21st century French musicians out there. Soy un Caballo is Spanish for "I'm a horse," but I thought this group wasFrench. Turns out they're Belgian...like me. They do sing in French and I don't understand a word of it.




Actrice
In America, we like a good French actress every now and then. We liked Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche for a while, then it was Julie Delpy, and Audrey Tautou was the thing for a couple of years. Now, we like Marion Cotillard, and I do, too.