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 Ridicule

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

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 bourgeois 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 ‘snobbery’, 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

Page 2 of 3

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 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!’ 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

Page 3 of 3

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 …’