Le Placard

Questions (comprehension, culture, vocabulary)

1. At the beginning of the film, what is the group doing? Is this similar to what is done in the U.S. (or some other country)?

2. In any scenes of the film, do any of the characters use ne with any second negative particle (such as pas, rien, etc.)?

3. In the context of the workplace, who uses tu and who uses vous? Are there any changes at any point in the film?

4. Does François use tu or vous with his elderly neighbor? Which of these does the elderly neighbor use?

5. Which second-person pronoun do the members of François' family use?

6. When the character played by Gérard Depardieu is in the cafeteria with François (0:21:40), what word is used as the English equivalent of beets? What about carrots? What is the French term for the kind of carrots mentioned?

7. In the scene on the rubgy field where the characters played by Thierry Lhermitte and Gérard Depardieu are talking (0:24:03), quite a few informal slang terms are used to refer to homosexual men. The noun pédé (which is a derogatory term) is actually used quite a few times during the film. In this scene other derogatory terms are used, and there is a discussion involving two French soccer teams, le PSG and l'OM. What are the full names of these teams? What are the derogatory terms used? As a learner of French, this is one of example of vocabulary that you should understand because there is a clear difference between a type of discourse that is acceptable in all situations (e.g., at the post office or the supermarket, etc.) versus words and/or phrases that would most likely be considered offensive in most contexts. This is not only the case with derogatory terms. Many words have synonyms that are more or less formal and should be used according to the type of communication environment you are in.

8. The derogatory terms are used by the character played by Gérard Depardieu because this character represents the most offensive personality/character in the film. How does his character evolve during the later scenes of the film?