This week on The Sound Kitchen you’ll hear the answer to the quiz about the first woman to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. You’ll hear about Pakistan’s “Ten Billion Tree Tsunami” initiative, as well as music chosen by The Sound Kitchen’s sound engineer, musician Erwan Rome. Of course, there’s the new quiz question, too. Just click on the “Audio” arrow above and enjoy!
Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner's names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.
I am busy cooking up special shows with your musical requests, so get them in! Send your musical requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!
Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!
In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, rfienglish.com, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts which will leave you hungry for more.
There’s Paris Perspective, Africa Calling, Spotlight on France, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have a bilingual series - an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.
As you see, sound is still part of the RFI English service! Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our excellent staff of journalists.
To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website and click on the three horizontal bars on the top right, choose "Listen to RFI / Podcasts", and you’ve got ‘em! You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.
To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show.
Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below.
Another idea for your students: my beloved music teacher from St Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, Br Gerald Muller, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English - that’s how I worked on my French, reading books which were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it’s a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald’s free books, click here.
RFI Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to them so that I know what is going on, too. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!
And don't forget, there is a Facebook page just for you, the RFI English Clubs. Only members of RFI English Clubs can belong to this group page, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven’t yet asked to join the group, and you are a member of an independent, officially recognised RFI English Club, go to the Facebook link above and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! (if you do not answer the questions, I click “decline”).
There’s a Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club, too. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don’t like to do!
We have a new RFI Listeners Club member to welcome: Rifat Jamil Eusufzai from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Welcome, Rifat! So glad you have joined us!
You too can be a member of the RFI Listeners Club – just write to me at english.service@rfi.fr and tell me you want to join, and I’ll send you a membership number. It’s that easy. When you win a Sound Kitchen quiz as an RFI Listeners Club member, you receive a premium prize, AND, you can join our Facebook page, the RFI Listeners Club page. You must ask to join the group, you must furnish your RFI Listeners Club membership number, I’ll approve you, and then off you go! Rifat, be sure you join us!
This week’s quiz: On the 17th of July, I asked you a question about the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, which my colleague Ollia Horton covered for you in her daily “Postcard from Cannes” articles.
In her Postcard No 8, Ollia wrote about gender equality at the festival, which is not exactly glorious.
At Cannes, there has never been a woman at the head of the jury, and – when Ollia wrote her article - only one woman director had ever won the Palme d’Or, the Golden Palm, Cannes’ highest honor. And that was your question: you were to send me the name of – until this year – the only woman director who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, as well as the name of her film and the year she won.
The answer is: New Zealander Jane Campion, for her film The Piano, in 1993. Did you see it? It starred Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, and Anna Paquin, and was set in the mid-19th century. It is about a psychologically mute Scottish woman who travels to a remote part of New Zealand with her young daughter after her arranged marriage to a frontiersman, and it is a rude frontier – and he’s not exactly a loving husband, either. Holly Hunter’s character, Ada McGrath, is a pianist and brings her piano with her from Scotland, but her husband refuses to bring the piano to his house and leaves it on the beach. Not a very good start for the relationship, and of course, it only gets worse. I won’t tell you more, but I will tell you it is the first and only time I have ever shouted at a movie screen in public, much to my own surprise. During a terribly dramatic moment, I spontaneously shouted “no!”, and practically stood up - my girlfriend was yanking me by the arm to sit down and “be quiet!” As you can tell, I was quite moved by the film, and I highly recommend it!
I’m not the only movie-goer who liked it … in addition to the Cannes Palme d’Or, Campion’s The Piano won three U-S Academy Awards in 1994: Best Actress for Hunter, Best Supporting Actress for Paquin, and Best Original Screenplay for Campion.
This year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes went to a woman, so now there are two. The award went to Julia Ducournau, the 37-year-old French director of Titane.
The winners are: RFI Listeners Club members Solomon Fessahahzion from Asmara, Eritrea; Michael Cunningham from Brisbane, Australia; Samir Mukhopadhyay from Kolkata, India, and Tazrin Ahmed Toma from Narayanganj, Bangladesh. Last but certainly not the least, faithful RFI English listener Miss Arundhati Mukherjee from Barrackpore, India.
Congratulations winners!
Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Tarantella” by Gioachino Rossini, performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Richard Bonynge; “The Heart Asks Pleasure First / The Promise” from The Piano, composed by Michael Nyman; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and the traditional “Cantata Tarantella”, performed by Nino Triolo.
Do you have a musical request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr
This week’s question ... You'll have to listen to the show to participate. You have until the 20th of September to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the September 25th podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address in with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.
Send your answers to:
english.service@rfi.fr
or
Susan Owensby
RFI – The Sound Kitchen
80, rue Camille Desmoulins
92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux
France
or
By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then 33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.
To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here
To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or to form your own official RFI Club, click here
