If you like French soap how about some lockdown French TV?

Being a Francophile I am obviously quite partial to a lot of French things – Savon de Marseille, French Rosé, Pain à l’ancienne, Gratin Dauphinoise, Tarte Tatin and French TV shows are amongst my favourites. I thought I would share a few ideas of some good things to watch (all with subtitles of course) during these final (hopefully) lockdown months. If learning French, or even just thinking of learning French, they can help with this too - an excellent added bonus.

Dix pour cent - Call my Agent

One current French series on Netflix well worth a look is Dix Pour Cent (Call my Agent) – this is brilliantly written and amusingly depicts the lives and loves of a Paris talent firm. Agents scramble to keep their star clients happy — and their business afloat. Each episode features a real-life French celebrity playing themselves, there's a whole raft of famous actors and actress including Jean Dujardin, Giles Lelouche, Juliette Binoche and Audrey Fleurot. It’s highly addictive.

‘Family Business’ is a French series on Netflix produced by Netflix that is incredibly good, and very funny. The rising French actor Jonathan Cohen plays the main character, the actresses Julia Piation and Liliane Rovère (the latter also in Call my agent), and the famous Gérard Darmon also star.

Mythomaniaque on Netflix is also worth a look. Burned out and taken for granted, a working mum suspects her partner is cheating, so to win back his attentions, she feigns a serious illness. It’s at once painfully sad, touching and amusing.

We are currently watching Lupin which was released in January 2021 and became the second most watched series on Netflix a week after its release. Omar Sy plays Assane Diop, a con man with a heart of gold who is a master of deception. Lupin is a beautifully shot adaptation of the exploits of Arsène Lupin, master burglar and well-loved French antihero of a series of classic crime novels.

French Crime dramas

We love crime dramas and Engrenages - ‘Spiral’ has been a long time personal favourite. It’s currently on Amazon Prime and stars Fred Bianconi , Caroline Proust , Audrey Fleurot and Philippe Duclos. It’s gritty, dark and thrilling. (Hours of viewing as there are now 8 series). Braquo is also on Prime and is even more dark and gritty, less of a favourite but still worth a watch.

Le Bureau des Légendes - ‘The Bureau’ is currently on Netflix and is a political thriller offering an insight into the secret security service in France. Fortunately, you’ll be able to put in a lot of language practice because ‘The Bureau’ currently has five seasons.

Intouchables

And finally, one of my favourite films starring the great Omar Sy is Intouchables - 'Untouchable', currently available on Amazon Prime or DVD, also staring François Cluzet. This film is based on the true story of the friendship between a millionaire quadriplegic and the street smart ex-con employed to care for him. This film is funny, moving and has a great sound track. I’ve seen it hundreds of times with my school students and probably know it word for word now.

There’s plenty more if you have a good search through Prime and Netflix and we really hope they will keep on providing us with more great French language series and films. Hopefully, lockdown won’t last forever, but we are so happy we have some French TV to keep us going for now.

.... but don't forget the French soap! This one smells gorgeous - Beurre de Karité - 'Shea butter', moisturising, 100% végétal, triple milled and vegan.

#savondemarseille #naturalfrenchsoap #lupin #engrenages #intouchables #dixpourcent