French in Action

I've been watching this show on US Public TV since 1990. The show is written by Pierre Capretz of Yale using his method of speaking only French until you gradually pick it up. It's best used in conjunction with an actual course in French. Valerie Allain, what can be said that hasn't been said about her by other reviewers already except elle est magnifique! And the whole show is done with class, but you know what I like most? The closing music over the scenes of Paris. It's got so much atmosphere to it, and I'd love to find out who does it as it isn't credited.

The show centers around the Sorbonne where Mireille (Allain) attends and Robert (Charles Mayer) is an American who meets her. Some surrealistic characters also show up like the mime stalker and the pickup artist with exaggerated French mannerisms. And all the shows end with a puppet show segment, while the Professor cuts in at times to explain some vocabulary. Also it cuts in with snippets of other French TV shows and films. It's a great program overall consisting of 52 half-hour shows.

There is a rumor going around the internet that Valerie Allain died in a motorcycle crash, but I hope it isn't true. She probably got more men interested in French than anyone since Bardot. She also appears in the film Aria as well as a few other films from the '80s and '90s.

Ah, Mireille... Okay, Valérie Allain is super-chouette and really, really hot in this educational film series. Presented in half-hour lessons complete with crazy interjections by a professor, a mime, and puppets, the show concerns the story of Robert and Mireille. It uses the good old method of throwing you into a foreign language - no English at all, and I think it's for the better.

So the acting isn't Oscar (or even Cesar) winning...who cares? It's a decent story, told with a sense of humor, and shot entirely in France. You do have to know quite a bit of French to understand it (I took four years in high school and I still only understand half of it).

School teachers, take note: all the guys in your French class will pay attention with Mireille around...

Remember Mireille? If you've made it this far, of course you do.

Word is she's a different Valerie Allain than the one who did everything else on her IMDb list. Rumors abound that she died, that she disappeared, that she discovered underwear.

By the way, I beg to differ with the you-gotta-know French to learn French criticism. Did you have to know English to learn it?

This is supposed to be a learning tool for people who want to learn to speak French. The only problem is that the entire series was in French, thus you need to be able to speak it before you can learn it.

So is it worth watching? Hell yes! This loser American runs around like a... loser, and the French babe runs around in tight shirts with no bra!

Trying to follow the "storyline" makes this series funny, and all the time the characters actions are being analysed and commented on by this crazy looking professor.

The series is funny to watch, and the girl alone makes it worth checking out.

That being said, it also helps to be studying French with other people. Practice is important. Once you get to a point of minimal understanding, it's also good to read French books, simple ones to start with, out loud.

Allain and other women in this show are absolutely gorgeous. -- I'm not at all fluent yet, but I'm working towards that and I hope to marry a French woman so that I can listen to that pleasing sound everyday.

French In Action is one of the best instructional television shows available. I've rented movies made in France and I try to not read the subtitles. That's not easy, but it still helps. French is such a beautiful language.