Ivygirl has fallen in love with French class, and is suitably proud of her good grades. Her teacher has said she needs to work on her accent (duh) and her spelling. She’s suggested renting French movies, and I suggested e-mailing the teacher with her translations of sentences from Le Monde, and so far, she’s been pretty close.
What French movies would be appropriate for a 14-year-old girl? Any other ideas?
The Cyrano de Bergerac from the 90s, starring Gerard Depardieu. Very well done, and the French is clearly enunciated without being pedantically so.
Another Gérard Depardieu piece, *Le Comte de Monte Cristo *
This one is a mini series on two disks. My wife and I and my eight-year-old daughter all love it.
Be careful ordering it though because there is a dubbed version.
Diabolo Menthe is a charming coming-of-age story set in Paris in the 1960s. Should appeal to your daughter’s demographic. (If you’re uptight about that sort of thing, there is one scene where one of the actresses is briefly topless - but if your daughter’s in love with things French, then she’d better get used to nudity…)
Les Visiteurs is a slapstick time travel comedy. I didn’t find it that funny, but I’d bet a 14-year-old would.
And Amélie is a sweet, funny, innocent movie that few could dislike.
If you both have the time, see if there is a French club in the area – not an academic one, but a community one. Check with the local community center, for starters. You might need to go to the meetings with her (since she’s only 14), but you could just bring a book and sit off the side or something. They usually welcome people who are learning French at any level. 
Although she should definitely check out French movies, she doesn’t necessarily even have to go that far afield. The majority of DVDs of American movies have French language tracks, because they are sold in Canada as well. In my experience, you’ll find even more French language tracks than Spanish. So just get her a movie she already knows well in English, preferably a kids movie so that the dialogue won’t be too difficult, and have her watch it with the french dub and either the French or English subtitles. Voila! I’ll do that with DVDs of the Simpsons sometimes when I’m bored and want to try to pick up some French by osmosis.
I should add that I don’t know if the French used in most of those dubbings is Canadian-accented or not, or if it would even matter.
That doesn’t bother me. She loves Titanic. I just don’t want any graphic sex or gatuitous violence.
I didn’t think about the French club…I’m off to Google…
What do we think of Chocolat? I loved it, and it was more “sensual” than sexual. It’s rated PG-13, and I don’t remember anything particularly worrisome, but maybe someone else does. It has grown-ups being silly, and it’s a sweet little romance that also has Jonny Depp.
La Gloire de mon père is a very sweet coming-of-age story, G-rated. For some odd reason, Amazon has it listed as German, but that’s wrong.
One other thing to do is to turn on the French subtitles to the American DVDs you already own. Won’t help with pronounciation, but will most definitely help with spelling and just sort of internalizng written French.
*Amelie *is rated R for sexual content, just so’s you’re aware. Me, I’d be fine with my 13 year old seeing it, but I’m rather progressive like that. I would not show it to a friend’s kid unless their parent had seen it first, because it’s a borderline one and depends on your values and your kid, IMHO. (Comparitively, I wouldn’t bother asking about *Titanic *before showing it.)
Another vote for Amélie. Weird and charming. I loved that movie. And it made me even more want to learn French.
I want to see Les Visiteurs… it was referenced in my French books.
This might be outside her demographic or interests, but there’s a live-action Astérix movie with I believe Gérard Depardieu. I haven’t seen it though; it’s really hard to find in the English-speaking world. I think it was released in Québec but not in the rest of North America.
Check to see whether there’s an Alliance Française or a good public or university library nearby with French videos to borrow. Maybe Netflix would have them as well.
Have you tried watching DVDs of English-language movies that you and she already like, with the French soundtrack turned on? I found that was quite helpful. (Do US DVDs get French as well as Spanish soundtracks?)
This is also a good excuse to visit Montréal.
But she’s meant to be improving her accent… 
I recommended the collected works of Pepe Le Pew and Batroc ze Leapair.
<dewy-eyed innocence>Help your 14 year old daughter with her French what?</dewy-eyed innocence>
It’s also in English.
Yeah - it’s in a totally incidental context - she’s just having a bath.
I’m surprised Amélie is an ‘R’. I don’t remember anything particularly sexual in it. Selective memory maybe.
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about MUZZY! 
MUZZY is the BBC language course for children – it’s like a PBS cartoon, only in a foreign language. When I was studying French as a prerequisite for my graduate program, our teacher showed us MUZZY DVDs every now and then. They are repetitive and somewhat juvenile (they are designed for young children), but I was 33 at the time and found them to be amusing ways to learn/reinforce some basics. If you’re interested, you can request a free trial via the above link.
Is it? Really? huh.
[Emily Litella]Never mind![/Emily Litella] 
…Whacks Bosda upside the head with a baguette…
Another thing just occurred to me: podcasts and streaming audio of French radio and TV.
La Société Radio-Canada (the French arm of the CBC) has excellent stuff, starting with their main site, but I especially recommend their Espace Musique channel. I listen to it on FM on Saturday nuights and it has excellent excellent world/alternative rock music. All in French. And you can go to the website and get the streaming audio and see what the last few songs were. I believe they’re also on Sirius satellite radio, even for US subscribers.
Also check out their Youth ()Jeunesse site. Bandeàpart.fm also has good stuff.
You may have a local community tv station that broadcasts programmes from TV5 in France. Check the link to see if any stations near you have their shows. Ours has the news only, with english subtitles.
Le Maître de musique. Get a bit of a music education, too.
(I saw this in high school French. Then I went to college, switched to music, became an opera singer, and familiarized myself with the likes of José van Dam. Then I wander into this thread, google this movie, and realize than van Dam played the title role. Never made that connection until now.)