Absolutely fantastic - perfect music, great film. But yeah, I'm with Rosemary. That accent is absolutely painful. I can't tell if it's someone who doesn't actually know French but is winging it, or if it's a Canadian. Absolutely nails on a chalkboard.
I love the artful glance over the shoulder... so filled with pathos, so spontaneous. Clearly, he's a method cat. Unlike my tiger striped fool, who is currently licking tape, after hours of chattering at the leaves waving in the wind.
This cat deserves a best actor award. I loved this video. Something only the French could do. I'm only sorry Jean Paul Sarte and Kafka weren't alive to see this.
Rosemary - I wish you had done it.. even tho I don't know how your French is. Anything would be better. D. Humfrey - nothing like a Canadian accent. This is just a miserable distortion.. sounds perhaps like an Italian or Spaniard speaking.
This is so good. The commenters criticizing the French accent are so ridiculous and predictable. I knew I'd find a few immediately. That's not the friggin' point folks!
To those complaining about the accent, I can only say what Dr Science says in similar circumstances: "Your ignorance is appalling." The hard and soft palates of humans and cats (which affect articulation) are very different. Therefore a French cat speaking French would be speaking it with a Cat accent. A cat like Henri who is a native French speaker and is speaking (or in this case soliloquizing) in English will be doing so with a French-Cat accent, which sounds exactly like what you hear when you play the video (convincing me of its authenticity).
I've seen a lot of on line videos in the last 25 years, this has taken over the #1 spot....each of Henri' observations is unexpected and perfectly suited my sense of humor -- while I often smile at video's, I was laughing so hard at this, that I had to watch it at least three times to extract every morsel. What a joy this was at the end of a very cranky day. Comments below are worth reading as well....extending my 'moment of zen'. I totally agree with Cleototh on the accent.
I just can't care about the accent. For the "real" French speakers it might make it even more funny. The film is brilliant and Henri looks almost just like my most precios cat, Persiztance who persited against all odds.. "I am free to go, but yet I remain.". Persistance remained and so did Henri Exestential angst. A perfaect little film. Thank you Cassie Murdock.
...and look at the poster behind the budgies cage, it's in English: "Ancient Rome"... and @ 1.31on the far left: 'French VERBS"..... and the light switches in the bathroom are North American style ones.....1.46.... and the toothpaste is "CREST"!
The "Susan Boyle" of Cat or Philosophical posts going around. By far, the best (most imaginative, witty, subtle, funny, engaging) e-show to date. Any imperfection with the accent is by far surpassed by 'l'ensemble."
This is just so well done- memorable lines, perfect visuals, and the background music... so French. Sooo - cat. So hysterically captures the beloved immortal aloneness of being - for a cat.
Francophones who comment like this -- Terrible accent, like nails on a blackboard! -- are just the one who discourage foreigners from learning French. No wonder the number of French speakers is on the decline.
I believe the accent may be French Canadian.It certainly isn't French as taught in school, but that doesn't make it bad or wrong. I have known people in France who speak similarly.I was asked by a colleague who came from the Pyrenees to help him negotiate with a farmer near Melun. I was amazed , they didn't understand one another at all!
A plausible guess, but no: the French Canadian accent is quite different -- nor would they make such egregious errors in pronunciation. This is clearly an American who had the text translated for him, then 'had a go' at reading it himself, based on what he'd learned at high school. Tant pis, as the French say ("More's the pity").
I always thought all cats spoke French. Mine did anyway, or rather understood it purrfectly.....and Henri can't be anything but French; mais, bien sûr!!! I love this piece as well!
84 comments:
Inspired, despite insufferable accent. I'll gladly do the voiceover.
More - MORE !!
Inspired, despite insufferable accent. I'll gladly do the voiceover.More - MORE !!
oops! I overlooked
that, and have now edited the post. Thanks for letting me know!
Nice post, thanks
:D
Au contraire, I LOVE the accent!
This absolutely killed me - the funniest thing I have seen in months. But perhaps a reading of "Nausea" is required.
Sartre chat!
Mon dieu! Anyone who has suffered through an Alan Resnais film will get this.
OMG this is absolute genius.
Rosemary makes an interesting point.
Absolutely fantastic - perfect music, great film. But yeah, I'm with Rosemary. That accent is absolutely painful. I can't tell if it's someone who doesn't actually know French but is winging it, or if it's a Canadian. Absolutely nails on a chalkboard.
I love the artful glance over the shoulder... so filled with pathos, so spontaneous. Clearly, he's a method cat. Unlike my tiger striped fool, who is currently licking tape, after hours of chattering at the leaves waving in the wind.
The best depiction of the pain of French existentialism. The voiceover is classic, and perfect.
Inspired, despite insufferable accent. I'll gladly do the voiceover.
More - MORE !!
jean paul sartre would have loved this
I can't remember the last time I laughed at a FB posting till tears came. THANK you.
Pain et chococat.
Not a Canadian accent... I grew up around that. Just mispronunciations. Still: hilarious!!
Ah, bon! Henri parle like it is.
Apparently the accent is African. (according to French friend.)
And so...we are our cats.
So thoughtful, so many moods.
We contemplate our cats, we understand life.
Deed, very deep.
Brilliant! Love the play on French melodrama.
Purrfect.
Chat formidable! Henri cest marveleau! Merci!
Brilliant, never noticed the accent, not even important to the message.
this cat is the best actor i have ever seen.
this is brilliant and hysterical.
This cat deserves a best actor award. I loved this video. Something only the French could do.
I'm only sorry Jean Paul Sarte and Kafka weren't alive to see this.
Rosemary - I wish you had done it.. even tho I don't know how your French is. Anything would be better. D. Humfrey - nothing like a Canadian accent. This is just a miserable distortion.. sounds perhaps like an Italian or Spaniard speaking.
There is No Exit.
"I'm surrounded by morons." Ack, the pain.
brilliant
Brilliant
Hey, why I'd love to see your cat video..sounds like as typically an American cat as this one is French!
It may be Italian. There was something written in Italian in view. Not that I could tell!!
humanoid.
L'idiot blanc qui passe son temps à mendier pour les cheeseburgers..... ah ha hahhahahhaha1
the part i like best is "no exit" e.g. the cat door ...sartre would appreciate that...perhaps.
Ah, c'est magnifique! (hope my spelling is not too bad - it has been decades since I spoke French).
Who are the French? And are they all cats?
Life: the ultimate humiliation ...pain,hopelessness,tedium. Why must we suffer? Am I a French cat,too? Henri,my soulmate,you understand.
No Exit.
awww - shoot the phoquer
So funny :-D
so mean...........
Ah mon Dieu! What I do? It is like French Haiku is it not?
This could not possibly be any better! THANK YOU!
spoken like a cat
I love it!! LOL!
This is so good. The commenters criticizing the French accent are so ridiculous and predictable. I knew I'd find a few immediately. That's not the friggin' point folks!
To those complaining about the accent, I can only say what Dr Science says in similar circumstances: "Your ignorance is appalling."
The hard and soft palates of humans and cats (which affect articulation) are very different. Therefore a French cat speaking French would be speaking it with a Cat accent. A cat like Henri who is a native French speaker and is speaking (or in this case soliloquizing) in English will be doing so with a French-Cat accent, which sounds exactly like what you hear when you play the video (convincing me of its authenticity).
the french is hopeless
If it had only relieved my boredom.......I could have slept better this evening.
If it had only relieved my boredom.......I could have slept better this evening.
If it had only relieved my boredom.......I could have slept better this evening.
If it had only relieved my boredom.......I could have slept better this evening.
Brilliant! And I'm a Texan so I would never have known the French accent wasn't authentic.
Henri Camus? This was perfect.
Henri sounds like Clement Freud!
I've seen a lot of on line videos in the last 25 years, this has taken over the #1 spot....each of Henri' observations is unexpected and perfectly suited my sense of humor -- while I often smile at video's, I was laughing so hard at this, that I had to watch it at least three times to extract every morsel. What a joy this was at the end of a very cranky day. Comments below are worth reading as well....extending my 'moment of zen'. I totally agree with Cleototh on the accent.
Tres bien fait!
I just can't care about the accent. For the "real" French speakers it might make it even more funny. The film is brilliant and Henri looks almost just like my most precios cat, Persiztance who persited against all odds.. "I am free to go, but yet I remain.". Persistance remained and so did Henri Exestential angst. A perfaect little film. Thank you Cassie Murdock.
Put a proper Frenchman in the voiceover, remove the errors in French ("Encore" -- really?), and it's a masterpiece.
I'll bet Henri's mama was an American shorthair (papa a longhair, of course), so that's where he learned his French.
I salute you for capturing life as it is while my chat lovingly runs her claws through the hair on my legs.
Great artistry in film making...loved it!!!
It's an accent from North Africa, probably Morocco or Algeria. Which makes it even more perfect, reminiscent of Camus!
Look at the backyard @ approx 27 sec and I think you'll start leaning towards this having been shot somewhere in North America, likely in Quebec.....
...and look at the poster behind the budgies cage, it's in English: "Ancient Rome"... and @ 1.31on the far left: 'French VERBS"..... and the light switches in the bathroom are North American style ones.....1.46.... and the toothpaste is "CREST"!
The "Susan Boyle" of Cat or Philosophical posts going around. By far, the best (most imaginative, witty, subtle, funny, engaging) e-show to date. Any imperfection with the accent is by far surpassed by 'l'ensemble."
MORE, PLEASE !!!!!!!
This is just so well done- memorable lines, perfect visuals, and the background music... so French. Sooo - cat.
So hysterically captures the beloved immortal aloneness of being - for a cat.
haha :)
j´ai aimé le film et le chat philosophe, la prononciation du français, terrible! je peux à peine comprendre ce que j´entends. salut!
I think "No Exit" would be more appropriate. ;>)
Mervellieux!!!
My cat inclines toward the Hegelian dialectic rather than Sartrean existentialism. ;)
Tres bien fait, Henri! (Well done, Henri!)
Francophones who comment like this -- Terrible accent, like nails on a blackboard! -- are just the one who discourage foreigners from learning French. No wonder the number of French speakers is on the decline.
I believe the accent may be French Canadian.It certainly isn't French as taught in school, but that doesn't make it bad or wrong. I have known people in France who speak similarly.I was asked by a colleague who came from the Pyrenees to help him negotiate with a farmer near Melun. I was amazed , they didn't understand one another at all!
A plausible guess, but no: the French Canadian accent is quite different -- nor would they make such egregious errors in pronunciation. This is clearly an American who had the text translated for him, then 'had a go' at reading it himself, based on what he'd learned at high school. Tant pis, as the French say ("More's the pity").
A wonderful video of an existentialist
cat.
I always thought all cats spoke French. Mine did anyway, or rather understood it purrfectly.....and Henri can't be anything but French; mais, bien sûr!!! I love this piece as well!
more Camuesque than Sartesque methinks!
Post a Comment