Over the weekend, I got to take a look at this film, “The Monuments Men,” that someone from my book club suggested…well technically, she recommended the book (on my list of books to read).  The Monuments Men is a story of how a group of men banded together towards the end of WWII to save and reclaim artwork and many items of historical significance that were stolen by Hitler’s army.  In some cases, they were racing to save these artifacts before they were completely destroyed as Hitler’s army retreated.

While some aspects of the movie are accurate, like all films, it was somewhat fictionalized.  It wasn’t seven men looking for the artifacts.  There were some 400 people looking for over five million pieces of cultural items that were stolen from the Jews, museums, churches, etc.  Their mission was to find the pieces and return them to where they belonged.

It was thanks to these men and women that we still can view many of these pieces today.

They couldn’t save them all, because unfortunately the Nazis destroyed many priceless pieces as they retreated.  These are items that are gone forever.  {Imagine the Van Goghs, Klimts and Picassos destroyed.} For more, see 10 of the Most Infamous Art Destructions of World War II.

Thanks to these men and women, they were able to save our culture for after the war.  The world owes their thanks to them that we are still able to view the Cezannes, Renoirs, da Vincis and even Michelangelo’s only statue he ever created (Madonna of Bruges).  Imagine a world where the Mona Lisa was destroyed by the hands of the Nazis.

We are all fortunate that over 500 years after da Vinci created this masterpiece, she still hangs in the Louvre in Paris.  Imagine if Leonardo’s wonder was destroyed by the army of a failed art student (Hitler) just because he sucked at art and wanted to own it all in his new world order.  Instead, she survives.

Watching The Monuments Men, I cringed in disbelief as Hitler’s men destroyed our history…our culture.  It even added to the disbelief when the men discovered a barrel of gold teeth.  Seeing the atrocity done to man and culture at the same time…I’m just thankful the Allies won.

If it wasn’t for the Monuments Men, what would our culture be?  Many thanks to those brave men and women for saving the culture of humanity.  It was prolific how they were thinking of our world after the war and where we would be if we didn’t have culture.  Without our culture, who would we be?

When I want to learn or brush up on a language, I immerse myself in foreign language films.  When I was studying Russian, I was always watching the Day Watch films (a vampire gore film).  I picked up on Russian very quickly, especially hearing the repetitiveness of certain words.

I didn’t realize how out of practice my French has been until I started watching Amélie last night.  I had a feeling the last time I was in Paris, my French had become Americanized (i.e. it means I’ve been speaking French horribly).

I speak three languages at home: English, French and Italian.  My Italian is far better than my French these days.  That was evidenced while I was in Italy a couple of years ago, speaking as fluently as an Italian.  French is my second language, English is my first.  I’ve been speaking French since I was a teenager.  Italian…I took one semester of it in college, got yelled at by the professor because she swore I was a native speaker and took the class for an easy-A.  My Russian professor said the same thing.  Go figure.

Last night, watching Amélie, I started repeating a lot of the lines, listening to my pronounciation and noticed how ‘Americanized’ my French was.  Talk about atrocious!  So I’m set on fixing that problem by watching more French films.

One thing I hate about foreign language films are the subtitles.  The way I understand French is not the same when I read the English translation.  I get caught reading the subtitles and thinking…that’s not what she said!  I have to keep reminding myself to stop reading the subtitles and focus on listening to the language and learning to speak it that way.  If there’s a word I don’t recognize, I’ll read the subtitles.

When you’re trying to learn any language, or want to brush up on the language, films are a great way to practice listening to the words and understanding the context of the conversations.  If you’re watching at home, you can even practice sounding out the words the way the actor/actress sounds out the words.

Being that I read a lot about hockey and fashion in French (merci, Montreal et Vogue France), I keep up with reading French via Twitter and news articles I find there.  [It also helps those hockey writers who know French to keep ahead of the other reporters that don’t.]

If you’re looking to speak better French, I highly recommend going to the cinema and watching French films.  You can watch French films online, on DVD and even on cable.

Amélie is one of my favorite French films.  I love Audrey Tautou!  I also loved her in Coco Before Chanel (also in French).

Danish star Mads Mikkelsen has also appeared in a lot of French films.  One of my favorites is Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky.  If you’re a Hannibal fan, you’ll find that there is always some sort of mention to Stravinsky every season.  In the first season, Hannibal played four notes on the piano…I knew immediately it was Sacre du Printemps by Stravinsky he was playing.  In the second season, he mentions Stravinsky’s theory at the start of an episode about music.  Coco & Igor is very important in the Hannibal world, because references are made every single season…all the way down to Hannibal/Stravinsky’s weird perfectionist thing with straightening their pens.

Mads has a new French/German film out now in select theatres called Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas.  It’s definitely on my list of movies to see.

As for watching Amélie last night…it was a little bit ironic.  Most of the movie is based in Montmartre and around Sacre Coeur.  The irony in this is that last Saturday, I posted up my photos from Sacre Coeur only to watch a movie based in Montmartre a few days later.  It was interesting seeing how much that area has not changed since the movie was filmed (2001).  Then again, why would we ever want Paris to change?  It’s perfect just the way it is.