【英语听和读】我最好的朋友

 Amber¹: Hello, I’m Amber and this is bbclearningenglish.com.

In Entertainment today, we listen to two very different views of a new French

film called My Best Friend. And by the end of the programme, you’ll have

heard several ways of expressing like and dislike when talking about films or

books or plays.

 

My Best Friend is the latest film from Patrice Laconte, the director of Ridicule²

and The Hairdresser’s Husband. It’s a comedy in which an antiques dealer³

called Francois sets out to win a bet he’s made with his business partner – that

he can’t make a real friend by the end of the month. Francois thinks it will be

very easy to find a friend but he soon discovers that although he has lots of

contacts in his address book, he’s never spent much time with anyone.

Here’s critic Michael Goldfarb describing the plot of My Best Friend. He says

that Francois ‘seems to have everything of bourgeois⁴ comfort’, he has a

comfortable, middle-class life, but he is challenged, he’s ‘confronted’, by a

‘profound absence’, a great want. Then, ‘through the mechanics of the story’,

or the workings of the plot, Francois successfully loses his ‘snobbery⁵’, the

attitude of looking down on other people, to become ‘a better person’.

As you listen, try to catch any of the expressions Michael uses to praise the

film. 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

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bbclearningenglish.com

Michael Goldfarb

‘Someone who seems to have everything of bourgeois comfort is confronted by some more

profound absence and through the mechanics of the story overcomes his snobbery and learns

to be a better person. It’s incredibly adult. It’s paced particularly well and, for me, it was a

pleasure from the start to the finish.’

Amber: Michael says he thought the film was ‘incredibly adult’ – in other words, it was

amazingly mature, thoughtful and wise. He also thought it went at a welljudged

speed, or ‘pace’. He says: It’s paced particularly well. And he says it

pleased him all the way through – ‘it was a pleasure from the start to the finish’.

Listen again and notice how Michael stresses his point of view by using the

words ‘for me …’

Michael Goldfarb

‘Someone who seems to have everything of bourgeois comfort is confronted by some more

profound absence and through the mechanics of the story overcomes his snobbery and learns

to be a better person. It’s incredibly adult. It’s paced particularly well and, for me, it was a

pleasure from the start to the finish.’

Amber: Now here’s BBC Diplomatic Correspondent Bridget Kendall. She agrees with

critics who say that My Best Friend is a very French film – in other words, it

focuses on relationships and people’s feelings. But does she like the film? Try

to catch her point of view.

Bridget Kendall

‘I agree that’s immediately what I thought: a film about relationships, analysing feelings, but,

for me, it just didn’t work. It fell flat for me. I didn’t feel the characters were credible⁶. Maybe

it’s a fairy story, but they still have to be characters you care about, and sitting there in the

cinema, half-way through, I thought: do I care about these characters? I thought: no!’ 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

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bbclearningenglish.com

Amber: Bridget does not like the film – she says ‘it just didn’t work, it fell flat for me’.

She didn’t believe in the characters, they didn’t seem real, or ‘credible’, to her,

and she didn’t care what happened to them. Notice she also uses the words ‘for

me’ to stress that she is giving her personal opinion and this is a polite way of

stressing your views.

Bridget Kendall

‘I agree that’s immediately what I thought: a film about relationships, analysing feelings, but,

for me, it just didn’t work. It fell flat for me. I didn’t feel the characters were credible. Maybe

it’s a fairy story, but they still have to be characters you care about, and sitting there in the

cinema, half-way through, I thought: do I care about these characters? I thought: no!’

Amber: Now here’s a list of the language we focussed on in the programme today.

 

to be confronted by a profound absence – to be challenged by a great want

the mechanics of the story – the workings of the plot

snobbery – looking down on other people

adult – mature, thoughtful and wise

If you really enjoyed the whole film you can say it was ‘a pleasure from the

start to the finish’

If you didn’t like the film and it did not hold your attention you can say it

‘didn’t work, it fell flat for me’

And if you didn’t believe in the characters, you can say, they weren’t ‘credible’

And a polite way to stress that you are giving your personal opinion is to say

‘for me …’ 

1 amber   

n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的

参考例句：

• Would you like an amber necklace for your birthday?你过生日想要一条琥珀项链吗？
• This is a piece of little amber stones.这是一块小小的琥珀化石。

2 ridicule   

v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄

参考例句：

• You mustn't ridicule unfortunate people.你不该嘲笑不幸的人。
• Silly mistakes and queer clothes often arouse ridicule.荒谬的错误和古怪的服装常会引起人们的讪笑。

3 dealer   

n.商人，贩子

参考例句：

• The dealer spent hours bargaining for the painting.那个商人为购买那幅画花了几个小时讨价还价。
• The dealer reduced the price for cash down.这家商店对付现金的人减价优惠。

4 bourgeois   

adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子

参考例句：

• He's accusing them of having a bourgeois and limited vision.他指责他们像中产阶级一样目光狭隘。
• The French Revolution was inspired by the bourgeois.法国革命受到中产阶级的鼓励。

5 snobbery   

n. 充绅士气派, 俗不可耐的性格

参考例句：

• Jocelyn accused Dexter of snobbery. 乔斯琳指责德克斯特势力。
• Snobbery is not so common in English today as it was said fifty years ago. 如今＂Snobbery＂在英语中已不象50年前那么普遍使用。

6 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？