OUR DEBT to FRANCE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 663, 21 March 1952, Page 7

OUR DEBT to FRANCE

any woman- what France means to her and ‘she’s pretty sure to answer in terms of clothes or fashion. Whatever is being done by designers within sight of the Eiffel Tower is going to affect women in. many parts of ‘the world, and New Zealand women, certainly not immune, should be interested in the talk on French costume which Mary Troup will give in a new series Our Debt to France, to start from 3YA next week. "In the matter of tlothes, " says Mrs. Troup, "I think we must admit a tremendous debt to France." And not only, it turns out, in the matter of® women’s clothes, for (as an example) the baggy trousers Frenchmen_once wore, which gave rise to the joke about "Toulon and Toulouse," fathered the Englishmen’s a any woman-well, almost

Oxford mio the middle twentiesand have ‘influenced our trousers ever since. Once on the staff of the Marlborough Express, Mary Troup has a particular interest in both French life and modern British costume. Her talk ranges widely, but she finds time to say something on that vital question: Have Englishwomen after their long interest in French fashion managed to acquire the innate chic of the Frenchwoman? Though our debt to France for costume is unquestioned, it isn’t our only debt, and a few others will be acknowledged earlier in this series. Has it ever occurred to you that the French element in, our everyday speech includes countless words that we couldn’t possibly do without? These words, says Professor Arnold * Wall, discussing our debt to the French language, are so familiar to all of us

that many people are surprised to learn that they are not. actually English | words. From language it’s a natural step to literature, and here the French contribution will be summed up by Dr. John Moffat, a master at Christchurch Boys’ High School, who was awardéd his Ph.D. at Bristol University for a thesis on

the French writer Marcel Proust, and who (like Professor Wall) has travelled widely in France. Starting with Chaucer ("probably of French descent") and Malory.(who based his Morte d’ Arthur on two French romances), he goes on to the influence of Montaigne and Pascal in the past and Proust and Gide today. He says: "It seems to be in contact

with the French moralists that our own writers first discover their true selves. . ." It’s another short stop from literature to the theatre. Neta Neale, who teaches drama and elocution in Christchurch, and has studied these and related sub-. jects in France, England and the United States, says that the French have always been willing to experiment in literature and drama. Realism, Romanticism, Surrealism, Subjectivism and Existentialism were all conceived in France and have in most cases influenced (and frequently enriched) the theatre in Britain. Besides, don’t. forget that Moliére and Racine belonged to France. Meredith Money, who knows most parts of France and studied in Paris at the Institut Phonétique (he now teaches at Avonside Girls’ High School, Christchurch), is one of the many who come away from France,,with an admiration for the French attitude to food and drink. In his talk he refers (among other. things) to the- effects of French chefs on English restaurant food-and he explains why a French worker will start work earlier and finish later so that he can have two hours for his midday meal. Pasteur, "the founder of the practice of preventive medicine" (though not himself a doctor of medicine), Claude Bernard, who made a big, contribution

‘oO fundamental pnysiology, and Jean Charcot, who "created the greatest neurological clinic of modern times," are among the great figures of French medicine. A picture of their work is given by a doctor who speaks in the series, C. Foster Browne, who should be known to all listeners, shows how France helped England at a critical period of her musical history and spread an important influence far and wide; and though he thinks French music has _ not directly influenced our style of composition very much in the last two centuries, he says there’s no doubt that an indirect influence has been felt fromi Debussy onwardsand is being felt increasingly. The French have "led the world of art for many hundreds of years," John Oakley claimed in a talk on French painting. Mr. Oakley, who has studied painting in Paris and other parts of France and now teaches at the Can-

terbury University College School of Art, thinks it would be impossible to imagine the world without the great artistic treasures France has given it. M. K. Joseph, senior lecturer in English at Auckland University College, and a member of the 1YA panel The Critics, ends the series with a talk on the French cinema, and especially the French cinema since its rebirth in the middle thirties. He thinks we see too few French films but that much good has been done by their general influence, and that films like The Third Man and The Asphalt Jungle probably owe more to the French than to anyone else. Throughout Our Debt to Pearce listeners will hear also the voice of Gordon Troup, who speaks a prologue and an epilogue to each talk and in some cases additional dialogue, Gordon Troup, liaison officer and lecturer in French at Canterbury University College, was recently awarded the Palmes Academiques by the President of the French Republic for services to Anglo-French mea 2 ing. Our Debt to France will start trom 3YA at 7.15 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26, with the talk by Professor Wall on our debt to the French language, and it will be heard weekly after that on the same day at the same time.