Truly French?

[deleted]

Do yourself a favour: travel, and specially to France since the culture entrusts you, because it's impossible to know a population through books, it's ridiculous, and what you say about the french not liking to talk about their job is absolute nonsense. I'm french, and i guarantee you that the french talk about everything, sex, their job, politics, culture etc, just as much as your average englishman or Italian. Wait for the dollar to reemerge and come and see us.

Your comment was posted a long time ago but I wish to contribute to clarify it for you. The film is based on an the actual story of a man Jean-Claude Romand who killed his family and parents after years of deceit. Now I take that films don't necessarily reflect the culture of a country accurately. So are the books especially the ones written by foreigners who usually have lived on the bright side of the field while in France.

So to answer your question, French people do talk about their jobs (but it's really basic human conversation!) What they'll usually be reticent to talk about is how much they earn. That's commonly known as a cultural trait. Vincent is reluctant to talk about it because he's an impostor. But no one in France will feel offended if you ask questions about their jobs!

In France we talk and debate A LOT about politics and other various social subjects and practically at any age. I remember endless political arguments among my classmates when I was 15. Nothing odd here.

So as much as books are often a good source of knowledge, you can only understand a culture if you go and live with the people of a particular country. And even this way, you'll only have a partial knowledge as they are also many variations depending which part of the country you go and also the sort of people you come across.