I am always in search of videos on the Internet to help my clients improve their French listening comprehension and increase their vocabulary.
Since an hour lesson is too short to watch a movie and work on it, I particularly favor anything short. Thus, I spend countless hours surfing on the web and watching videos to select the best.
Here is a selection of my favorite sites.
1- Short films
Les Courts Métrages
One of the most comprehensive sites of short film, “les courts métrages” offers a wide range. Some of the animated movies (les films d’animation) are silent which can be very useful to make the learner talk about what he/she sees on the screen. For example Holy Sheep and this short film of about 5 minutes with english subtitles titles Cahuetes Choco.
Mouviz
Another great site for short films and web series.
Arte
The web presence of the well-known TV channel Arte is a great source of countless videos.
2 – Trailers and Short Sequences
Extrait de Film
This site features many snippets from movies classified by theme (action, drama, etc) as well as documentaries.
Watch this documentary titled “le pouvoir de l’eau”.
Allo Cine
On this site you can watch trailers and also talk shows like “les émissions d’Allociné”.
For example, “la Minute” features interviews with actors.
3 – Videos
United States of Paris
This is a great blog with videos which portray expats living in Paris. Watch these two: Un américain à Paris and Une argentine à Paris.
Micro Trottoir
There is a great series of videos, Micro trottoir, that can be found on YouTube: just type “micro trottoir” and you will see a few of them.
Une oeuvre à la loupe
For those of my clients who like art, I found this: “une oeuvre à la loupe” on the Télérama site. As an example, watch this interview about a Monet painting “Bassins aux nymphéas “.
J’en crois pas mes yeux
On Yahoo.fr, there is a very interesting series of videos called “j’en crois pas mes yeux”. They come with french subtitles. Watch this one: J’m’y connais.
7 millards d’Autres
On this site, select the category ‘short films’ or ‘podcasts’, then a theme and listen to short interviews. You will have to look for the ones in French.
These 3 sites are well-known and full of listening resources: TV5, Culturebox and ina.fr.
Watch this interview of french writer Françoise Sagan’s son and this one on ina.fr in which Bernard Pivot (french journalist and member of the Académie Goncourt) asks his guests what particular french word they hate.
4- Commercials
Commercials are an awesome way to learn new expressions. Two great sites are Culture Pub and ina.fr. Here is a commercial for the french car Renault Megane.
5- Songs
Finally, we cannot learn french without the wide and wonderful repertoire of french songs. There are many websites available and you just have to google to easily find them. I will just mention one of my favorite on Le Figaro site.