Very entertaining class with amazing TA's! One of the best classes I've taken so far, very rare to have TA's and Professors who care so much about every single student! (Students in the class tend to be more on the try-hard side). Would recommend 10/10 for diversity GE.

FRENCH 141 was so easy and I loved it! Class mainly consisted of watching movies and going over them. The movies were good, thought-provoking movies and had English subtitles (The Intouchables, La Haine, Chocolat, Pepe Le Moko, etc). Brozgal is very elegant and clear in her lectures, and was a very kind professor. The tests were multiple choice and a piece of cake, concerning basic movie plotlines, film techniques/terms, and analyses/themes that Brozgal made sure we knew. Section was not super hard either, but did require participation. Would highly recommend !

I thought Professor Brozgal was a very good professor, but the class itself was difficult with both multiple choice exams and 2 papers. I had Josh as my TA and he was a very difficult TA and didn't give many people in his sections A's on their papers

Professor Brozgal is amazing! She really cares about her students and it shows. The TA's we had were also very engaging and hosted study session that greatly helped for the midterm and final.

There's a course reader for the class, but she provides the articles on the CCLE website, so if you don't want to shell out $60 for some fancy binding, you can do without it and just print everything yourself (I did this by using up all my free printing at the LGBTQ center, SAC, and the Hill).

Word of advice though, if you were expecting a general French cinema class, this is not it. It is very race oriented, which at first I wasn't too thrilled about, but found it very relevant. Also French racial concepts and their perspective of "the other" is very interesting, which I'm glad I got to explore a little through this class. Some general cinema techniques were covered, and you're required to know them and explain them in your essays, but I would definitely say that race was a bigger aspect of the class (then again, it seemed like 1 TA was really into cinema, and the other was really into French culture, which I had, so that may be the reason for my perspective on this).

The midterm and final is online, and basically everything covered in lecture is fair game. The hardest part were the readings, which were a bit dense sometimes. In terms of it being on the test, just know the name, author, and general gist of it (it would be helpful to go to the professor or TA's if you don't get them).

Brozgal really is a fantastic lecturer, and very very eloquent, but sometimes her lectures got a bit boring, and I felt like she spent too much time trying to set up the "point", but not always hitting the point on it's head. Also, it was after lunch, so I often fell asleep LOL. But the good thing is that everything is podcasted and the movies are online. You could almost do everything by yourself, except that showing up to each lecture counted for your grade.

Overall, Professor Brozgal is really admirable, and this class really opened up a worldview that I personally, barely have any contact with. She also is very friendly, and it genuinely feels like she cares about each and every one of us, which is a rarity sometimes, and something I truly appreciated.

Professor Brozgal was amazing. She made great effort to make the class feel smaller than it was. She tried to learn everyone's name and often gave us time to discuss concepts and topics during lecture. It was a very open environment.

The class grade was broken down into a midterm, 2 response papers, discussion participation/discussion leading, and the final. Response papers are pretty easy, only 1000 words each. The midterm and final were not difficult at all, especially if you went to the review hosted by the TAs where they basically reviewed every question without mentioning them outright. So not too hard to do well in the class.

On top of that the class if very interesting. It's all about race, colonialism, and culture and France, and is very eye-opening. We discussed a lot of interesting things in discussion and lecture and both were very engaging despite the lecture being 2 hours. Professor Brozgal is one of the most eloquent speakers I've heard in my life, I could listen to her talk about anything for days.

Despite how enjoyable this class was in almost all it's aspects (discussion, easiness of work, good/though-provoking films, learning about film techniques for the first time in depth, and the lectures) there were a lot of, I guess to put it as best as I can, pretentious students in the class. It could make discussions in lecture and sometimes discussion uncomfortable. I'm not sure what it was about the class, maybe it was just that quarter. Just beware that's the experience I had with the other students. A lot of them were very nice and brought up amazing discussion points though, so don't let that deter you! Overall a really good GE and a good class to fulfill the Diversity requirement with!

Super easy and interesting GE!!!! I highly recommend! If you like watching and writing about movies you will love this class. If you're not a fan, maybe this isn't the bEST class for you, but honestly we also learn a lot about French culture and race relations that it makes discussion alone SUPER interesting. I went into this class not knowing what to expect, but I most definitely enjoyed it! I got an A! The midterm is easy, the short paper are SUPER easy, and the final is fine.

I took French 41 during Winter 2015.

She is an absolutely incredible professor. Coming from the Engineering School, she is the reason why I believe that UCLA has a stronger Humanities professors than Engineering professors. Very articulate, top-notch French (though classes are never given in French if that's a concern), all around great person. I unfortunately could not go to her OH because it conflicted with a class but I'm sure it would have been a blast if I did go.

The class went like every week a movie and then a lecture on the next day of class. So, 10 movies in 10 weeks (yes!) and a lecture following each one. Also, each film we saw had some thematic discussion of race.

Lectures were well organized and presented valuable information. She does go into a "lecture voice" i.e. droning voice, but if you are interested in the subject matter you won't find yourself lost in her arguments. She definitely made insightful analysis that made the films much more easier to understand and made me appreciate the film much more.

TA Discussion sessions were alright. My TA was a History student so not sure if he offers the best filmic insights to the films (but good insight into the history behind it). I think most students preferred the other TA but I'm not sure if she will be TAing for future classes as she got her PhD at the end of our quarter. With my TA, I was lucky to have some pretty insightful classmates talking about the readings and film. Each week, someone led a discussion with the reading but the TA frequently "intervened" to get the discussion going (we were a pretty quiet bunch). Overall, a very welcoming environment so always speak up no matter what your ideas are!!

The movie choices were also amazing. The Intouchables was the first one we saw and it's a brilliantly made fun film. I lot of people liked La Haine as well but I was alright with it (not particularly hyped about it). Excluding The Intouchables, my personal favourites were the one about a teacher in a school, the French colony documentary, Welcome to the Sticks, and Welcome. You won't have trouble finding a film that you will enjoy.

My only complaint about the class was that I hoped to learn more filmic techniques, specifically French film techniques as I adore the French style of films, and because the course title included "French cinema." I wasn't expecting a quarter discussing race in France.

Tests were a bit tricky. You had to memorize a lot of film techniques and be able to visually identify them. What made the MC test challenging was that that you can't easily identify the correct solution unless if you "became the word." As a result, I didn't do too hot on the tests. Thankfully, they were not the big proportion of the class.

Regarding the essays, there were 3 (?) essays we had to write. 2 were on selected films and the last one was any film we saw. I was very scared on writing them because I never understood how to write a good analysis essay in high school. But I guess my TA likes my style of analysis so I got A's on all my essays. Given how my writing generally lacks the "pop," I'm pretty sure most students got A's as well. Another thing about the leniency of grading is that I wrote my last essay the night before it was due and the others were written MAX 3 nights before. Ended up with an A- in the class (I think my final weighted percentage was an 89%)

In summary, awesome class, great professor, GPA booster GE, learn a lot about France, learn cool things about films, and have a great time. French 41 is THE class for the cultural analysis GE (thank gosh I didn't take the Ling GEs, would have missed out on this golden class).

I LOVED Prof Brozgal. I didn't actually attend Office hours but I loved her lectures, her choice of films and her insights on each of them. I absolutely loves The Intouchables and La Haine. There was only one film in the class that was sort of boring. I learnt a LOT about film and French culture. This was an AMAZING GE!

The French Cinema class was a really fun GE. Prof Brozgal is nothing short of amazing. We watched a film every tuesday and she gave a lecture about it on thursday. The readings were long and rather complex but she broke it all down to the basics. It was easy to follow. I learnt A LOT and I loved the selection of films too.

Professor Brozgal is very knowledgeable and concerned. In french 41, we watch the films on Tuesday and have lecture about the film on Thursday.

Grade breakdown:
15% attendance
10% participation
15% 3 response paper (5% each)
25% midterm
30% final
5% leading discussion

I got an A- in the class because I didn't study the slides when preparing for the midterm. Nevertheless, I learnt a lot in this class and really enjoy it!