The "Little girl who" (was supposed to speak french)

[Gorilla Mask]

Bonjour Tout le monde,

By 80's Big Hair request, as a french born, i was asked to give my piece of advice concerning the quality of the french lines that were supposed to be declaimed in the episode 7.7 "Little girl who".

First i have to say that I enjoyed that very emotional opus , full of good acting, especially from Marta DuBois (sorry to heard that she passed away two years ago)...

So, Here is my little report you will be free to comment.

severals introductory and general comments:

-the little actress that plays Lily-Catherine is by no means french or from a french spoken country (her accent is clearly anglo saxon by the way). She was doing quite well for her age, but she mostly declaimed (from time to time correctly or awkwardly) learned words or little sentences . From her attitude (staring eyes and pauses), i would say there was some kind of prompter for her behind the camera;

- TS is a complete neophyte in french, that is obvious he hardly catch even the simpliest words; His vietnamese seems not to be convincing too (I tried to match what he said with phonetic dictionaries on the web, and had no result, except for one line);

- JH surprised me since his french -while limited to the simpliest sentences - is clearly understandable, with the right pronunciation;

- Marta Dubois do not say a word of french (except at the end of the episode) but his english pronunciation and tone is pretty close to what i would have anticipated from a french born person. I guess she made here a remarkable performance. From that point of view, she is a very credible 'Michelle'.

Usually there i a clear difference between anglo saxon and french: anglo saxon use much more the rear part of the mouth and sinus while speaking while french make more usage of the fore part of the mouth and tongue. For french hears, english spoken people, and especially american, usually sounds like more 'nasal'. For me this was clear during that episode.

To be continued, tomorrow.

PS: i would to deeply thanks Styles Bitchley. Without him, this review would not have been feasible.

[80s Big Hair]

Between his British accent and being able to believably speak French I am convinced John Hillerman was a great actor. Thanks Gorilla Mask.

[Gorilla Mask]

Here are my comments about what i perceived from the lines between the actors (the first 15 minutes):

2:35 - animated talk between Soon-Tek Oh and another vietnamese officier. From my point of view the asiatic accent of the speech was somewhat forced. Sounds like japanese-like for me. I made some research and found out that the great actor was bord in 1932 and had seen as a little boy the brutal japanese rule over korea... He might have kept this accent from that painful era. On this matter, I have to add that he embodied a really impressive kudo butai young fanatic pilot in the well known 'Final Countdown' movie.

4:10 - Marta DuBois said sadly : "it is an occasion i di not want to celebrate" with a distinctive french accent. real pleasure to hear !

somewhere around 12:00 - TS, unfasten Lily-Catherine (LC) seatbelt, talked about the way she will like the place and to go swimming, try to speak some vietnamese (i heard "Jo-to-ke de Boy" for "stay here" (the right words would have been "ô day" or something similar !

just after that, with the unsucessfull attempt of TS to hide LC behind his back, we heard her little voice for the first time: "Connaissez-vous ma mère ?" (Do you know my mother ?) adressed to Higgins. This sentence was understandable but quite approximate. With the little girl (english) accent i was rather : "Caunaysay Vhoo Ma Mey-re ?"

At 12:46, JH answer was really very correct : "Je regrette, je ne connais pas votre mère" (I am terribly sorry, but i was not introduced to your mother." At the same time TS is just looking like a douche He just doesn't understand a word which is illogical since it is said in "china doll" that he has some skill with his wife language !!

The next line from LC is "Connaissez-vous mon père ?" (do you know my father ?) which consist of same quality - understandable but not correct in pronunciation.

At 13:05: Lily Catherine just mixed up and declaimed a nearly abstruse sentence: i barely heard "plou couragou dheu mon, ma mayre hey dit". I had to switch to the french DVD to have the correct sentence: "Ma mère m'a dit qu'il était l'homme le plus courageux du monde" (Mother said that he was the bravest man in the world), talking about her father !

From 13:30 to 15:00 TS received a (very behaved) LC in his Bachelor(s kitchen ! An awful Hotdog, what supreme french cuisine !! Except fot the "Detroit Tiger !" and the "Maman!" , exclamation marks, the script is quite poor here...

To be continued...

[80s Big Hair]

Wow! That was a lot more thorough than I had expected. Excellent work Gorilla Mask.

[Gorilla Mask]

Thanks 80s Big Hair for your appreciation !

Here are the last part of my little comments:

24:00 LC said : "bonne nuit Mr. Higgins and "Bonne nuit Lads" (adressing to Zeus and Apollo). A real french little gril would probably not have employed that word "lads", but rather "Toutous" or "Chiens-chiens"

As usual, JH Hillerman's reply is a very correct "Bonsoir Mademoiselle Hue" while TS (as usual too) tried a very messed up "Bôn Nouy Môôssieuu HeeGuinsse". How weird !

25:00: TS said "time to go to bed" at LC in vietnamese. It sounds like "Tô-no di" which in my vietnamese dictionnary is literraly translated as "fill it" (??? ).

Then LC claimed to her doll with a scorching "pôpeeh !" and "twa mon pôpeeh ?" (the right word in french is "poupée" and "tu as ma poupée ?")... And suddently, (light under that BB cap !), TS understood immediatly !

25:55 to 26:26: LC pronunciation of "Thomasss" (in french you will have ignore the "s") is clearly englo saxon...

32:40 I was just amused by the good performance of Lance Le Gault there: he is talking like John Wayne while playing the ruthless Greene !!

36:00 LC show to TS and JH her drawing and said - that time quite distinctively : "C'est Soeur Marie et Maman." (That is Sister Marie and Mom).

36:45: JH mixed up here and said: " Lily, il va sur le marché, pour votre mére." which you could barely read into : "He is going at the market for your mother."

A good mark at the end for LC who, at 37:00, revised well here Lesson, with a nearly perfect: "Il est l'homme le plus courageux du monde."

Last point: Marta DuBois signed off there with a very good french accent: At 45:00, her "Promess me Something". is typically french with the point made on the 'some -heu- thing' and the nearly indistinct "th" replaced here by a mere "t". Very good again.

[K Hale]

I recall seeing an article featuring the little girl who played Lily, that was written at the time that episode aired. In it, she was quoted as saying that she had had some lessons in French and Viet, and she illustrated this by saying “bup be” was Viet for “doll.”

Now granted, she was like six years old at the time…

[Gorilla Mask]

Hello K Hale, and thanks for that comment. indeed, i checked it another time and, well you're right, she said "Bup be" and that is very close to "Pôpeeh" and seemed, at first listening, to be an attempt for the french "Poupée".

So you've got the credit for pointing it !

However, the second line seemed really close to "Tu as mon Bup be" (i heard "T'wa"). It would have been another coincidence if it was again a vietnamese resemblance.

Nice rectification, thanks again.

[frao51]

Gorilla Mask, there's a line just before Lily shows her drawing, I think the meaning is something like ''Do you want to see my drawing?'', could you tell us the exact French words spoken by Lily? Thank you