WORKING WITH Trois Hommes et un Couffin and Three Men and a Baby.

Tell students they will analyze in detail one French film " Trois Hommes et un Couffin" and its American remake "Three Men and a Baby" and through the study of those two films, they will try and discover the cultural traits that underlie both versions.

It is up to you to decide how long you want to spend analyzing the films. We suggest two weeks altogether: one to work with the global differences, the other one to focus on specific scenes.

ACTIVITY 1: GLOBAL ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON OF BOTH FILMS :

Tell students they will analyze the differences on a global level. They can choose to focus on:

• the story (the events, the action, etc)
• the characters. This can be divided into two parts: the relationship between the men and their relationship with the baby or the relationship of the men with all other characters (the women/ the friends/the police, etc..

For each of the topics they will have selected, students should be told to think in terms of: what elements have been added/eliminated/changed in the American film in relation to the French film. What is different and why?

Tell your students they need to avoid value judgements such as: the American version is funnier, etc…

Follow-up class activity

1. Have students form groups according to the topic they chose to investigate. If too many students have chosen the same topic, divide them into two groups, so that you don’t have more than 4 students in each group.
2. Have students share with each other the differences they noticed. Tell them to focus their remarks on the most important cultural differences they noticed, as opposed to providing a hodge-podge list of differences. This might lead students to discuss what they see as culturally relevant or not.
3. Have students share their remarks with the rest of the class.
4. Have students share their observations with their transatlantic partners on the on-line forums.

ACTIVITY 2: A SCENE-BY-SCENE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF BOTH FILMS

Scenes to be analyzed:

We suggest that the following scenes be compared:

• the first scene (=the party)
• the discovery of the baby
• Jacques/Jack’s return
• the return of Sylvie/Sylvia
• the final scene

Tip before working on the scene-by-scene analysis:

To help your students do a solid analysis, you might want to work with one scene in class, ahead of time. This will help students to avoid falling into the too easy trap of just making a list of differences, as opposed to making a real analysis.

The scene we suggest is that of Jacques/Jack’s visit with his mother. One of the reasons for choosing this scene is that it is a short one. It therefore does not take too long to watch them both in class before discussing them (a prerequisite). Another reason is that both scenes start and end the same way (Jacques/Jack wanting his mother to take care of his baby and the mother refusing). However, what goes on in between is completely is completely different. To put it succinctly (as one of our students did): la mère de Jacques "veut" mais ne "peut" pas; la mère de Jack "peut" mais ne "veut" pas).The question, of course, is: why?

Suggestions for analyzing the scene between Jacques/Jack and his mother

Show in class both versions, one right after the other (the French version first, of course). Tell students to try and take notes as they go along.

After you have viewed the scenes, have students form groups of 3 or 4 and decide together what differences they have observed. Ask them to:

• compare the American version to the French one, and not vice versa
• focus only on the parts they consider relevant (not on very single detail). Give them approximately 10 minutes.

When students are finished, ask them to tell you what differences they have observed. Write all of their observations on the board, without censoring any of them. This will probably look like a laundry list of sort.

Ask students to then, out of that list, group items according to different categories:

• One category might be the way the American mother looks compared to the French mother (her attire; her hair; her demeanor, etc..).
• Another category would be the general attitude of the American mother towards Jack (the American mother encourages, supports, reassures, while the French mother criticizes her son "Tu ne viens jamais… tu ne téléphones jamais", etc…).
• Another category might be: Jack’s attitude toward his mother (he tries to talk to her into taking care of Mary. Jacques is essentially speechless)

Write what the students tell you on the board. Add if necessary.

• Ask students to look at these different categories and come up with some observations. Put together, what do these differences reveal? What do they show?
• Some possible answers: a much "improved" American mother (as compared to the French one): better dressed, better-looking, acting more responsibly, in general more respectable.
• The question then becomes: why? Why those changes (considering they were deliberate)? Try to have your students come up with some explanations (if they have not given the week before): a much broader American audience targeted, which includes children; a film that puts the emphasis on the preservation of some basic moral values (ex: the good mother).
• One interesting question might be: could the mother be considered a "model" mother and in what way? (she does not criticize her son, she encourages him; she reassures him "You can do it!"; she makes him face his responsibilities as an adult, etc…). Now, does she fit the portrait of the "perfect" American mother? An interesting discussion could follow.
• Finally, you might want to ask students whether they see parallels in the way the French mother and the American mother are portrayed and what they have observed so far through the questionnaires, the forums, the opinion polls, etc..
• Encourage your students to come up with observations which will either confirm or contradict what they think so far.

Before you start with the scenes:

• First make sure you have already made videocassettes of all the individual scenes you want your students to study.
• Ask students to choose one of the scenes you have selected. Ideally, there should be no more than three students (4 maximum) to each group.
• Distribute each corresponding cassette to one member of each group.
• Tell them come to class prepared to do an oral presentation. Tell them to make sure they bring the cassette to class that day.

Tip: Two groups per hour is more than enough.

Recommendations to the students:

Tell them that analyzing does not mean:

• simply enumerating the differences
• and making subjective comparisons such as: the French are more… or less.. than the Americans

Students need to create broad categories of differences within which they will list examples and illustrations.

Follow-up class activity

1. Each group of students shows both scenes. This is important to do, so that the other students don’t work just out of memory and can participate in the discussions afterwards.
2. Each group does their presentation, followed by a class discussion.
3. Ask students to share their observations with their transatlantic partners on the on-line forums