For my students. This will be incomprehensible to anyone else.

1. 99 Francs
a presentation by Nathan Horowitz
based on a film by Jan Kounen
based on a novel by
FrédéricBeigbeder

2. I’m creating this PowerPoint
presentation in order to introduce an
assignment to my FH St Pölten
students and fulfill a challenge set for
me by one of my FH bfi students.

3. First, FHSP.

4. The FHSP assignment is that for the
individual presentations, I’m setting a
special task related to the film
“99 Francs.”

5. The task is that I want each of you to
make a PowerPoint presentation
whose topic is a five or six minute
section of the film.

6. Each person will be assigned a
particular section of the film. All
together, the whole film will be
covered.

7. On presentation day, the whole story
of the film will be told through a series
of presentations by the whole class.

8. As far as I know, this has never been
done before.

9. You can find the video at
vimeo.com/40175950
or just google
99 Francs vimeo.

10. I’ll post a link on e-campus, too.

11. So you’ll watch the whole film, then
focus on your segment of it. You’ll try
to figure out what the characters are
saying. That might not be easy. The
film is in French with Spanish subtitles.
You’ll translate as much as you can
into English.

12. For the translations, use whatever
tools you need—online dictionaries,
Google Translate, whatever.
If you get stuck and don’t understand
something, ask me or your Spanish
teacher or your Facebook friend from
Barcelona.

13. I must confess there were a few things
I couldn’t understand or translate,
myself. But not many.

14. And you’ll take screen shots that show
what’s happening in the scene or
scenes in your segment of the film.
Analyze the characters. Analyze the
action and the words and the body
language and the surroundings and
the political dimensions and the colors
and the music and and and….

15. And then make a really smart
presentation that will fit into a series
of presentations that together analyze
and tell the story of the whole movie.

16. Why did I pick this movie? Because it’s
about advertising, and because I think
it’s a pretty good movie. Not perfect,
but pretty good.

17. I wish there were less sex and drugs in
it, but I think it reflects, fairly
accurately, a certain segment of the
advertising world, and so the sex and
drugs in the film are justified.

18. (A documentary about the 2008
banking crash argues that one of the
causes of the crash was bankers’ abuse
of cocaine … drug abuse is a real topic
in the world, and it’s one thing that
educated people need to know about.)

19. If you feel like the sex and drugs are
really too much for you, write me an
email and I can give you a different
assignment.

20. Next: the FH bfi challenge. What is it?

21. The FHbfi challenge is that I should
make a PowerPoint presentation of
myself giving a PowerPoint
presentation and then give the second
presentation without speaking;
everything should be understandable
without my saying anything.

22. That’s why I’ve asked to be
photographed: the photos of me
performing the FHSP presentation will
become the basis for the Fhbfi
presentation.

23. I realize this is confusing. But I really
can’t make it any clearer. Life is
confusing. We accept it.
The next words you read will not be
those of your teacher, but of the main
character in the film.
Ciao for now. N.

24. “Everything is for sale: love, art,
Planet Earth, you, me … especially me.

25. “Man is a product like any other, with
an expiration date.

27. “I’m an advertiser. One of those
people who make you dream about
things you’ll never have.

29. “A permanently blue sky, women who
are never ugly, perfect happiness
retouched by Photoshop.

30. Do you think I make the world a better
place? Wrong. I make it worse.

37. “I’m the one who decides what you’re
going to want tomorrow.

39. Deforestation by soya farmers in Brazil.
Photo by Greenpeace, 2004.

40. “Idrugyouwithnovelty.

41. “I spend my life manipulating you for
11,400 euros per month.

42. “I make sure you’re always frustrated.

44. “I’m the one who penetrates your
brain….

45. “…and ejaculates in your right
hemisphere.

46. “Your desires are no longer your own.

47. “I impose mine on you.”

63. 99 Francs.
Thanks for your attention.