What's fun, French, and on Netflix?

January 24, 2011 7:36 PM

Here’s a question that I think a lot of Ottawa-area Anglophones would appreciate an answer to: Are there any good French television shows or films available via the Canadian version of Netflix streaming?
posted by sindark to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Relatively few, and nothing from Canada that I've seen. But there are some classics (Truffaut, Renoir), and some very good recent stuff, like A Prophet or Man on the Train. All the French stuff I've seen on netflix.ca is subtitled.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 8:24 PM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

And you're aware of tou.tv and the French stuff on nfb.ca? If you haven't seen La vie heureuse de Léopold Z. or L'âge de la machine, or the extremely silly IXE-13 (L'As des espions Canadiens-Français), or Golden Gloves... (I could go on and on)
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 8:31 PM on January 24, 2011

Response by poster: Please do go on. This is all new to me.
posted by sindark at 8:39 PM on January 24, 2011

On tou.tv, La vie la vie is a fun show about a thirty-ish group of friends, while Du tac au tac is a silly sitcom about office life from around 1980 (it's worth watching an episode just for the costumes). If you're feeling a bit more serious, Gilles Groulx, Claude Jutra and Pierre Perrault are the OGs of French Canadian cinema. Arcand's short documentaries tend to be fun and sort of snarky; his longer stuff is more political. To me, Le confort et l'indifférence is essential to my understanding of Canada; a speech in it also made me realize why Jean Chrétien was able to stay in power as long as he did.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 9:21 PM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

A warning about Perrault: it's better to start with his Île-au-Coudres stuff (Pour la suite du monde, Le règne du jour, Les voitures d'eau) and maybe Un pays sans bon sens before going for the Abitibi trilogy or La bête lumineuse.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 9:28 PM on January 24, 2011

Finally, if you're willing ot brave the cold, both the Ottawa and Gatineau library systems have pretty good DVD collections, with a lot of highly-rated French stuff.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 9:51 PM on January 24, 2011

Not sure if they're available on Netflix streaming, but I've heard The Simpsons in Quebec is pretty good, as they translate it locally, and tailor some of the jokes to reflect Quebec goings-on.
posted by Grither at 5:24 AM on January 25, 2011