This morning on the C train, I ran into a bunch of French tourists on a chasse au trésor (scavenger hunt).
They were looking for someone who could write down the words to the national anthem — pas de problème, Christine! Then they asked me to teach them how to sing it (not easy in about 8 minutes on a subway train, but I tried). The last thing I had to do, was to spell “anticonstitutionelle”. C’est jeu d’enfant!
In return, I asked them to sing their national anthem, La Marseillaise. Like the Star-Spangled Banner, it’s a war song, and parts are pretty gory. They wanted me to sing along, but I only knew the “money” verse; you know, the one where Ingrid Bergman gives a big ‘gulp’, gazing at Paul Henreid in Casablanca.
Aux armes, citoyens, | To arms, citizens, |
Formez vos bataillons, | Form your battalions, |
Marchons, marchons! | March, march! |
Qu’un sang impur abreuve nos sillons |
Let impure blood water our furrows |
By the way, Conard Veidt, (General Strasser), was in fact virulently anti-Hitler, and left Germany (where he was its highest-paid film star) with his Jewish wife, when the Nazis came to power in 1933. Veidt became a citizen of the UK and helped his friend Henreid, who was Austrian, avoid deportation from England at the outset of the war.
Semi-unrelated note: I find interesting in this scene, one of the most emotionally-charged of the film, is director Michael Curtiz's decision to add a close-up of Ilsa showing an almost mawkish admiration for her husband.
You can see in the long take, Bergman gives a much more realistic, and touching reaction.. the realization that the man she loves has to do what he does, even if it will get him killed.
Casablanca is still perfect, but without that gratuitous shot, it would have been a little more perfect.
You speak French?
Posted by: zoe | April 28, 2011 at 10:25 PM