La Grande Séduction

Questions (comprehension, culture, and vocabulary)

1. Why is the term séduction used in the title of this film?

2. In which Canadian province is the film set?

3. What is S.Q. (the new employer of someone who left the village portrayed in the film)

4. What is B.S. (the source of monthly checks)

5. In the scene beginning around 0:15:16, what type of adjustment or change does the banker make when addressing his friend Germain? Why does he make this language-related shift?

6. There are a wide variety of pronunciations and accents in parts of Canada where French is spoken, and this is also true of different areas of France and other countries too, of course. The pronunciations in La Grande Séduction are not that different from what one would hear in a movie with actors from France, actually. Try to identify some of the differences, even though they may be very subtle. The best way to do this would be to compare the "regular" transcription with the phonetic transcription. All differences weren't indicated in the phonetic transcriptions because in most cases, the sounds are only very slightly different. One obvious difference is the pronunciation of 't' at the end of the word "tout" (which means that pronouncing the final consonant on this word is simply something that has been generalized). This is similar to the English pronunciation of "often" since some people pronounce the 't' and some don't. Are there other examples like this in English? What about the French spoken in Canada? Or the French spoken in France or some other Francophone country?

7. In many films stereotypes are used so that people can easily identify certain characters. It is also obvious that there are only a certain number of basic plots available to (screen)writers. Try to identify some of the Canadian stereotypes as well as some stereotypes of Québec, but focus primarily on finding the so-called "fish out of water" stereotypes, which would portray Dr. Lewis as someone who doesn't "belong" in this setting.