Man: Are you interested in music?
Woman: I am. Piano. The piano among other things.
Man: Symphonies? Concertos?
Woman: Most symphonies. Some concertos.Conrad Veidt and Joan Crawford in A Woman’s Face (1941, dir. George Cukor)Homme: La musique vous intéresse?
Femme: Oui. Le piano. Le piano parmi d’autres.
Homme: Les symphonies? Les concertos?
Femme: La plupart des symphonies. Certains concertos.
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Joan Crawford’s character’s line about her musical preferences, uttered in George Cukor’s 1941 film A Woman’s Face, remained long in my memory as an hilarious expression of someone who professes to be fond of classical music but doesn’t really know much about it. In context, it is perhaps not really so ridiculous. Still, the idea tickles me of a person fond of “music” in such a way as to be partial to just about any symphony but reserved about a form just a tiny bit more recondite.
The real-life Joan Crawford, meanwhile, is said to have favored 20th-century popular forms of music.
Analysis. 1) This bit of dialogue illustrates something about the French definite article. You use it when you want to refer to a concept in the abstract, or (alternatively) virtually every concrete instance of the concept. “I like music” = J’aime la musique. “I like piano” = J’aime le piano. “I like symphonies” = J’aime les symphonies. See the French language topic, French Definnite Articles. 2) Joan’s character wavers between broad and narrow. “Yes, I like music…Well, I like piano; I like piano music…Among other things…” Plus: most symphonies…some concertos. 3) The most common translation of “among other things” would be entre entre choses; parmi d’autres choses is a slightly higher stylistic register. Leaving off the word choses is perhaps slightly higher still. Also, I think the very omission of choses underlines the wackiness of the formulation “The piano. Among other things.” Among what other things? Other instruments? Other…??? 4) On the “indefinite” use of certains, see here. I chose certains here instead of quelques to translate “some”: certains suggests an element of election, whereas quelques would imply something more random.
Tres interesent!
Miss Crawford teaches us French, perhaps without knowing a stitch of it, herself.