Apparently at the La Versiliana cultural festival in Tuscany it is considered bad form to speak in a language other than Italian. Catherine Deneuve was at the festival to read lines from George Perec's book Je Me Souviens. She was accompanied on stage by the Italian actor Michele Placido. Michele spoke all of his lines in Italian but Catherine read all of hers in French.
As soon as she started speaking in French the crowd started booing and they didn't stop except when Michele was reading. If the booing wasn't enough the crowd then started chanting, "Thieves, we want our money back."
After the performance Catherine refused to talk about the incident but Michele went ahead and threw Catherine under a bus by admitting it was a mistake for Catherine to speak in French. The organizers of the event gave the audience members free tickets for another event to appease their anger. I still love her though.
L'unico italiano che conosco mi sarebbe gettato in carcere, perché ho imparato da guardare porno italiano. Mi chiedo che cosa la gente avrebbe detto se avessi cominciato a dire, "Wow avete enormi seni."
Hahahaha, love the last part!
ReplyDeleteIf she was asked to read lines, they would have either expressed the desire that she speak Italian OR she would have told them she would be speaking French.
ReplyDeleteHe response to the boos should have been Je suis Catherine fucking Deneuve.
Hey Enty, prison Italian is still Italian! Ti amo; because you bring the lols.
ReplyDeleteLOL@ Cheryl.
ReplyDeleteApparently the Italians are becoming the new French. Speak our language or we'll boo you.
PS: Damn, she still looks great for however old she is. They should have just stood up and applauded because she just exudes class.
ReplyDeleteAnd Enty, loved your little last part. I am wondering though, what enormous "seni" you might be referring to. And whose?
Gladys I was going to same something along those lines. The French are always such snobs about their language so she should understand the sentiment. She is a beautiful lady though!
ReplyDeleteper babelfish, the last part translates as "L' only Italian that I know would be thrown me in jail, because I have learned to watch porno Italian. I ask what people would have said if you had begun to say, " Wow you have enormous seni."
ReplyDeleteI have no idea how that is part of the story. Anyone?
No parlo italiano. My experience in Italy was that if you made an attempt to speak italian, even if it was the typical "ce qualcuno che parle inglese?" (sorry, bad spelling), the people were happy you at least made the effort.
ReplyDeleteShe doesn't have an excuse. Per her imdb, she speaks fluent Italian.
sunnyside, I think Enty was editorializing that part. But I have no idea what "seni" is.
ReplyDelete@ Sunnyside:
ReplyDeleteThe only Italian I know would have me thrown in jail, because I've learned it from watching Italian porn. I wonder what people would say if I started saying "Wow, you have huge tits."
Paraphrasing, of course.
I don't know why we Americans have such a problem with aging. I'll happily wait until I'm her age if I'm promised I can look that fabulous!
ReplyDeleteA French woman read a French book in its native tongue of French.
ReplyDeleteFuckin' idiot audience. I can't stand any group of people who get all bent out of shape because someone won't play by their ridiculous only-we-matter rules.
Catherine Deneuve could say 'fuck off' to everyone and it still wouldn't change my unwavering love for her.
ReplyDeleteHaha i'm italian and I love the last part. I know my family appreciates people speaking Italian but booing people that don't speak it, now thats a new thing.
ReplyDeleteAnybody dissing Catherine should have spent the night in jail. What an outrage.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Perec usually much better to read in the original if you can because of the difficulty of his language?
ReplyDeleteWhat is ridiculous about this is that before RAI started airing in standard Italian, most people would only learn local dialect until they went to school. After grammar school, they would reverted to the local dialects. There wasn't a national common language outside the elites, in Italy before TV.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder they have language inferiority complexes.
She should have pulled a Roseanne... grabbed her crotch, hawked a lugie and then called them pigs - and walked off the stage head held high.
ReplyDeleteI mean for God's sakes, it's Deneuve!
Book is in French. She is French. Reads her part in French. OK, that works with me :) She's still a knockout.
ReplyDeleteWho cares what she read in whatever language.
ReplyDeleteIf she read THE CAT IN THE HAT in ancient Aramaic, The bastards should be glad she graced their stage.
Does anyone know what coma stugats means? I'm sure it's spelled wrong.
ReplyDelete"Stugatz" is slang for very stupid. When you say it a sentence, it's meant to be very demeaning. Re "coma", not sure if you're thinking of "come" which translates to How/like etc.
ReplyDeleteHope this helps.
Count me in the adoration for this beautiful woman. I can only hope to look as good as she does when I am her age.
She was for a time married to one of my favorite Italian actors, Marcello Mastroianni. Not sure why she decided to speak in French since she knows Italian well..
Wow. Can you imagine an event in France booing Sophia Loren?
ReplyDeleteI would guess the root of the incident is not the person but a Nationality issue.
Friends who have recently been home to (6) EU countries have told me their families are pretty freaked out about their economy. Especially since we tanked, So to speak. So maybe it's a blame game like we have with China and Mexico. Just speculating. I know many Danish products began to be produced in Germany due to cost. Germany went to Latvia.. and so on.
If it's bad form to speak anything but Italian, why have someone French booked as a speaker. Whatever form, it was rude to do to anyone never mind a cultural icon.
ReplyDeleteYou know fewer international stars are going to the Rome and Venice Film Festivals, at this rate they may have almost no one outside of Italy showing up. Way to marginalize yourselves.
Then the organizers should have known this and not had her do the reading. Du-uh. No skin off her nose.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry Catherine was booed, but she speaks Italian fluently. Don't understand why she chose not to at this event.
ReplyDeleteheh heh
ReplyDeleteheh heh
he said titties in italian
heh heh
:D
i have a love/hate thing for La Deneuve. i love her and then she does stupid shit like this. i mean, for grocks sake, she banged mastroianni and spawned with him. she's fluent in italian.
and it's fucking annoying to have to listen to a performance in two languages. she wasnt in Paris, she was in Tuscany ... NOT EVEN FRIGGIN' ROME.
she ought to have known better :P
The woman time forgot.
ReplyDelete