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rfmcdonaldLanguage Hat linked to a very interesting article in the online journal Reconstruction authored by Heather Macdougall, "Facing off: French and English in Bon Cop, Bad Cop". Bon Cop, Bad Cop, for those of you who are unfamiliar with this Canadian cultural product, is a 2006 "comedy-thriller buddy cop" film that gained particular fame for being bilingual, filmed with dialogue in both English and French. Yes, I liked it, light and fun as it was.
In her article, Macdougall notes that the film achieved success at least partly because of its reflection of the Canadian ideal of English/French bilingualism. There are also more than a few observations suggesting that the French language doesn't achieve the equality one might expect from this film's presentation of a bilingual ideal.
And:
This all demonstrates a point I've made before on multiple occasions: notwithstanding official English/French bilingualism in Canada, the French language still has a lower status in Canada than English. This has been noted at the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, with the simple fact that 43.4% of Francophones speak English but only 9% of Anglophones are fluent in French, with 20% of those whose native language is neither English or French being bilingual. (Odd, that.) I noted the consequences of this in 2008 at Demography Matters, where I observed that the scale of language shift among Francophones to English outside of Québec, New Brunswick, and parts of eastern Ontario is such that Francophone minorities will disappear. Anglophones in Québec are facing no such existential crisis. Especially given how Francophones in Canada are outnumbered three-to-one by Anglophones, even if the French language continues to gain in status in its Canadian heartland, in a Canadian context it's still going to be disadvantaged.
Goiung back to Bon Cop, Bad Cop, definitive proof of this can be found in Wikipedia's observation about the film's box office success, more precisely about the ways in which it succeeded at the box office.
The strength of American popular culture in English Canada is certainly a factor, but that doesn't explain everything. A fun film shot in Canada's two official languages reflecting English Canadians normative ideal just wasn't a film that English Canadian audiences cared about. In actual fact, Canada is not the bilingual country we might like to imagine; the actions of English Canadians proves this.
In her article, Macdougall notes that the film achieved success at least partly because of its reflection of the Canadian ideal of English/French bilingualism. There are also more than a few observations suggesting that the French language doesn't achieve the equality one might expect from this film's presentation of a bilingual ideal.
The issue of subtitling was dealt with in Canada by making available two versions: one print that subtitled the English dialogue in French, and a second that subtitled the French in English. Interestingly, no version was struck to include subtitles in both languages thereby allowing the film to be seen by monolinguals from both communities in the same theatre. (While it was not possible in theatrical screenings, the DVD version allows bilingual viewers to switch off the subtitles completely, but again there is no option to have both languages appear in the subtitles). Separate advertising materials were also prepared in the two official languages. Both theatrical trailers emphasized the linguistic subject matter of the film, although there is a notable difference in the approach of the two versions. The English trailer, which ran under the tagline “Shoot first, translate later,” contained scenes of David speaking French-accented English and only one, clearly facetious, line of subtitled French dialogue. It would be possible, then—and perhaps this was the goal of the trailer editors—for English audiences to assume that the film would be about French Canadians without actually being in French. By contrast, the French trailer contains an almost equal number of lines in French and English, and included the slightly more conciliatory tag line “Pour une fois, les deux solitudes vont se parler … peut-être”. The marketing strategy hints at a greater acceptance of bilingualism among the French-speaking population than among the Anglophone community; this difference between the two groups is also supported within the text of the film, albeit in a more nuanced way.
And:
[W]hen there is contact between speakers from the two language groups, it is assumed that English will dominate the conversation. The beginning of this scene, in fact, mirrors a previous scene in which the two detectives first meet; after each of them state their names, Martin greets David with a polite “Enchanté,” in response to which David turns to his Quebecois colleagues and jokes in a strong mock-English accent “An-chan-tay! On a tombé sur le gas qui peut par-lay le Fran-sezz!” The Quebecois officer then proceeds to converse with Martin in English.
The fact that Martin speaks fluent French is not revealed until the scene transcribed above, and this is in itself important: the audience and the characters are all supposed to be surprised that a police officer from Toronto would speak French. Martin has to explain his knowledge of French through both formal education and residency in a French milieu (significantly, however, in France rather than in Quebec). David’s bilingualism, by contrast, never needs to be explained. It appears to be a surprise to David’s boss, however, which is in keeping with the representation throughout the film of Quebeckers as monolingual (or near-monolingual) Francophones. The police chief, for example, clearly has only a modest productive ability in his second language (although his receptive ability is demonstrated by his accurate translations). In a later scene, David’s ex-wife Suzie asks Martin for dinner and he accepts; Suzie replies with an English “Fantastic,” which David immediately ridicules. Voicing her mockingly, he says, “Fantastic?! C’est quoi là, tout a coup t’es rendu bilingue?” He thereby indicates that his own bilingualism is something of an anomaly, and therefore it is strange that his special linguistic skills are not explained within the story in a similar fashion to Martin’s.
Finally, it is interesting that the only character in this scene who is completely unilingual is the one who in real life would most assuredly be bilingual: the chief of the Ontario Provincial Police. With a sizeable Francophone population and no nationalist language laws like those of Quebec, the Ontario police force would surely choose a chief who is able to communicate with all of his constituents. Yet, in the film, Brian MacDuff is completely ignorant of the French language. All of his dealings with the Sûreté depend on Capt LeBoeuf’s fractured English, and he is never heard to speak a word of French in the entire film. He apparently has no receptive knowledge of French either: when he suggests that David would “burn down the Empire State building and blow up Times Square” if he were sent to New York, David notes to Martin, “ça c’est un prejugé, ça!” MacDuff demands of Martin, “What did he say?” – a request that Martin dismisses with “Just ignore him.”
This all demonstrates a point I've made before on multiple occasions: notwithstanding official English/French bilingualism in Canada, the French language still has a lower status in Canada than English. This has been noted at the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, with the simple fact that 43.4% of Francophones speak English but only 9% of Anglophones are fluent in French, with 20% of those whose native language is neither English or French being bilingual. (Odd, that.) I noted the consequences of this in 2008 at Demography Matters, where I observed that the scale of language shift among Francophones to English outside of Québec, New Brunswick, and parts of eastern Ontario is such that Francophone minorities will disappear. Anglophones in Québec are facing no such existential crisis. Especially given how Francophones in Canada are outnumbered three-to-one by Anglophones, even if the French language continues to gain in status in its Canadian heartland, in a Canadian context it's still going to be disadvantaged.
Goiung back to Bon Cop, Bad Cop, definitive proof of this can be found in Wikipedia's observation about the film's box office success, more precisely about the ways in which it succeeded at the box office.
The film opened in Quebec on August 4, 2006 (and Canada-wide on August 18) and, as of December 17, 2006, had grossed $12,665,721 US$ ($12,578,327 CAD), making it one of the highest-grossing Canadian films of all time domestically. While the film has only generated only $1.3 million outside of Quebec, its success is significant given the difficulties that Canadian films normally face at the box office in English Canada.
The strength of American popular culture in English Canada is certainly a factor, but that doesn't explain everything. A fun film shot in Canada's two official languages reflecting English Canadians normative ideal just wasn't a film that English Canadian audiences cared about. In actual fact, Canada is not the bilingual country we might like to imagine; the actions of English Canadians proves this.
