AQA A Level French Paper 2 7652/2 - 19th June 2023 [Exam Chat]

i did the USDB question about the two brothers learning to distrust others, what did everyone else put?
i hope i translated it right aghhh

Which ones did you do

did anyone do l’auberge espagnole or kiffe kiffe demain? i feel like i ****ed kkd cuz i stupidly chose the title question ahhhh

Not gna lie I opened the paper and panicked, the questions were so hard! I do USDB & La haine. Did anyone do the soundtrack question, wtf was that🤣

For the film essay 'is this film still pertinent and interesting to a viewer today' and I talked about the techniques of the director and how he uses humour which is interesting but puts the film in black and white and has barely any special effects which could be boring; and racism and the problem of the estates which are still relevant today - BLM, COVID etc

Then for the book essay 'analyse the elements which show that this book is essentially an autobiography' - I talked about the innocence of the author and therefore how he concentrates on games and having fun whereas a historian would talk about the danger of the nazi occupation for the Jews more, the use of the first person 'les deux je' showing his thoughts at the time and his reflections on his childhood, and the linear structure which shows how he wanted to write the book as a memoir for his kids and how he has forgotten some parts due to them being too painful to remember (last point was abit tenuous lol)

I actually ended up doing the soundtrack one cause I did some practice essay on techniques the other day! I ended up talking about how playing 'burning and looting' over the riot scenes at the start without any sort of background noise separated the violence from the viewer and showed the banalisation of violence, background noise in the banlieues compared to nothing in paris and silences being used in the final scene

Ithought the questions were quite difficult, especially for the film 'Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles'. Didn't even understand one of those questions so I had to do the other which was just so specific, it was like 'to what extent is the theme of war presented objectively', didn't rly know what to put so I just waffled about the techniques he used which meant the war has to be interpreted in a certain way (e.g. choosing camera angles to only show certain things) and then opposed it with some things which could be subjectively interpreted like the motivations of the soldiers.

For SDB I did the one about it being an autobiography and my content was fine but ik the grammar had so many mistakes with my tenses, I tried to put in too many complex ones and I think it's just ended up losing me marks haha. I wrote abt techniques again, so like the different points of view (Jo l'adulte et Jo l'enfant) and the revealing of thoughts and his vivid imagination which would have been hard to make up if it wasn't him who experienced it. I also put abt how realism (l'argot parisienne) showed his real experiences and if it were a made up journey then he would've made it more idealist and not kept such aspects.

What did you write? I did
- Jeans constant fear
- Presence of antisémites and anti-Jewish propaganda
- The dénouement and the techniques used to heighten sympathy in it

Did anyone have Boule de Suif et autres contes de guerre, which question did you pick? I picked the Boule de Suif single one cos I honestly can't talk about the other stories, but was I meant to mention another story anyway??

I also did ARLE and thought the questions were very nice and not complicated so hoping I did well. AND I ACTUALLY FINISHED THE ESSAYS which I don't normally do so I'm glad for that.

I did Boule de Suif, I chose the égoïsme question and just talked about how bds wasn't selfish, the selfishness and hypocrisy of the upper class, and then selfishness and hypocrisy in religion. Then just said the statement isn't true in every case but he uses selfishness to highlight the hypocrisy of society and especially the upperclass.
You don't have to talk about other stories dw.

Would you consider the bonnes soeurs selfish?
Because, yes they're manipulative b*tches + they don't share their saucisson + Maupassant hates organised religion, but they're off to the Havre to save french soldiers, and i think theres a quote in there somewhere about them being used to making sacrafices

You’ve translated it correctly - a student in my class translated it as “lying to others”! I did this question.

Essentially, I put that they learnt to do so from the start - used the quote of “vous etes juifs mais vous ne l’avouez jamais” and then mentioned Jo and Maurice at the hotel excelsior, lying to the Nazis after seeing the realities of the war, and even lying to fellow Jews. In essence, they were face to face with the war.

My counterpoint was they had learnt to trust the goodness in people (bonne volonté) - e.g. the church for the certificates of baptism and the incident on the train at the start. Which is sort of a “deus ex machina” moment and almost ironic given the approach of the catholic church towards Jews at the time. It was impossible for them to avoid everyone and not ask for help.

And then I went into the Manceliers, how Jo and Maurice both relied on them yet had to conceal their identities due to Raoul and Ambroises’ views and the fact they would’ve been arrested if otherwise. But then I also brought up the fact that it’s interesting that Jo, in particular, feels uncomfortable having to hide his identity, yet still decides to hide it because he recognises the necessity in doing so.