Listening
exercise
NPR Music: France Says Vive Édith
Piaf, One More Time
by Anita Elash
Go to this
page for the audio link
Vocabulary:
(Links
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Song:
Padam...padam...
(lyrics) YouTube
just in case...
to recognize
voice
Édith Piaf
diminutive
dramatic
stage presence
legend
abandoned
to spend
childhood
grandmother
brothel
Normandy
(Normandie)
serious
car accident
mid-30s
addicted to
morphine
end of her life
cancer
to enjoy a huge following
older generations
thanks to...
entire country
to swoon on
nostalgia
there's nothing like
sing-along
to get one's heart racing
Théâtre
Marigny
packed to the rafters
Natalie Lhermitte
lead
Piaf:
A life in pink and black (Piaf une vie en rose et noir)
surprise
audience
Céline Grangeux (?)
My Legionnaire (Mon
Légionnaire (lyrics) audio
YouTube)
to adore
French
Foreign Legion
symbol
to sing along
background
La Môme
(= little sparrow, kid)
reaction |
to
struggle
production
to play to packed houses
old-fashioned
film
to put s.o. at the top
à la mode = fashionable
Song: Milord
(lyrics) YouTube
Marion Cotillard
to undergo an amazing transformation
teenage
Montmartre
the worn-out shell
to portray
in all its tragic glory
myth
ill-fated
love affairs
production
Olivier
Dahan
to get backing from
Hollywood
bankable
to rake it in
at the box office
play
to attract
movie-goers
cinema
Les Halles district
downtown
Paris
cultural heritage
for all these years
Song: La
Vie en Rose ("Life through rose-colored glasses") English
audio
YouTube
fans
plenty more
tributes
biographies
comic book
lyrics
perfume
Jean-Dominique Brierre
romantic
dimension
North American audiences
to get one's chance
to swoon over
to open
Recommended: Non
je ne regrette rien lyrics
English
("No, I regret nothing")
|
Listening comprehension questions:
1. a. What does "Vive Édith
Piaf" in the title of this report mean? b.
What does "to rake it in" mean?
2. What kind of childhood did
Piaf have?
3. When and how did she die, and
at what age?
4. How did some people feel about
Édith Piaf before the movie "La Môme" came out, and how
did they feel after it came out, according to Natalie Lhermitte, lead in the
play "Piaf: A life in pink and black"?
5. Why do you think Hollywood
felt Édith Piaf wasn't "bankable"?
6. Besides the movie "La
Môme", what other recent tributes are there to Édith Piaf?
7. How do you feel about Piaf's
music, based on what you've heard in this report?
8. What is it about lives like
Piaf's, do you think, that fascinates so many people?
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