BS: Unsuitably translated film titles

Subject: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 19 Mar 10 - 07:58 AM

Unsuitably translated film titles ~~

In the course of researching background to put an entry on the recent up-there thread as to whether it was bluebells or strawberries which grew in the salt sea, I was reminded of the title of one of Ingmar Bergman's most famous films, whose English title was Wild Strawberries. I had never understood the point of this title; but I then discovered in Wiki that
"The original Swedish title is Smultronstället, which literally means "the wild strawberry patch", but idiomatically means an underrated gem of a place (often with personal or sentimental value)."

So at last the title made sense to me; but I cannot help feeling the English language distributors could have found a more meaningful title, as the phrase "wild strawberries" has no idiomatic significance in English at all, so that the name was merely puzzling.

Another example of a similar misjudgment relates to Truffaut's Les Quatre Cents Coups, which is always called in English The 400 Blows, which means sod-all. But in French, the idiom 'faire les quatre cents coups' [the number of hundreds may vary] means to create a dust-up, kick up a fuss, 'paint the town red'... Couldn't they have found a more meaningful title for the Anglo-American distribution, rather than this boring and meaningless literal translation?

Any other examples?

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 19 Mar 10 - 09:15 AM

At least the Amozon adverts are pertinent here, offering both the named films!

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Mar 10 - 09:46 AM

The German version of the film "Dune" was titled "Die Wüstenplanet", i.e. "The Desert Planet". Which suggested that German filmgoers were too boneheadedly literal-minded to get the concept of metonymy.

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 19 Mar 10 - 10:49 AM

Assuming you mean the Stephanie de Laurentis version of "Dune" it was a truly abysmal version of a remarkable and admirable book, but I don't immediately see what was wrong with German title. The concept in the book of the plan to make the desert boom again, but the Messiah buggering it up was (like most of the rest of the book) missing in the film.

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: Will Fly
Date: 19 Mar 10 - 11:52 AM

Marcel Carnés wonderful "Les Enfants du Paradis" was released with the English version of the title as ""Children of Paradise". What's missing from this is the notion that "le paradis" in French theatre is the equivalent of "the gods" in the English theatre - i.e. the cheap seats at the very back and top of the auditorium.

So "Children of the Gods" might have been a more pertinent rendering of the title. Particularly as one of the themes in the film is the part that low and high theatre played in the poor and rich parts of the society of the time.

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 19 Mar 10 - 01:01 PM

"Children of the Gods" might have been a more pertinent rendering of the title

And that title would have meant "sod all" in the U.S.; and "Children of the Peanut Gallery" doesn't have the same ring to it, somehow...! :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 Mar 10 - 03:11 AM

Well, then, DD, the Americans could have had a different title for their distribution. I find on further search that the original US subtitler wanted to call Les 400 Coups by the much more reasonable title of Wild Oats; but the distributors didn't like it for some reason, leaving it in the daft situation that now obtains both here & there of making this subtle study of pre-adolescent angst sound like a bit of fladgie-porn.

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: Raedwulf
Date: 20 Mar 10 - 07:24 AM

Can't add to the film titles, I just popped in to disagree with Richard about Dune. I thought it was an excellent film, moreover as good a rendition of the book as is ever likely to be filmed (given the nature of the book), and Frank Herbert was heavily involved with the production of it. One presumes he was happy with the result & he ought to have been best placed to make judgements about the content! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 20 Mar 10 - 08:32 AM

There is supposed to be a Japanese version of The Grapes of Wrath which translates back into English as Angry Raisins, but I think that's the book rather than the film.

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: Paul Burke
Date: 20 Mar 10 - 07:04 PM

It's said (and I don't know by whom) that "Chariots of Fire" was issued in France as "Chariots de feu", which apparently means "Blazing Supermarket Trolleys".

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: Monique
Date: 20 Mar 10 - 07:36 PM

The Fr. word "chariot" meant "chariot" long before it also came to mean "supermarket trolley". So "Chariots de feu" means "Chariots of fire". "Blazing Supermarket Trolleys" would be "Chariots en feu".

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 03 Oct 17 - 10:11 AM

Not translation as such, but I'm sure no English (as opposed to American) speaker was involved in naming the new Robert Redford / Jane Fonda film "Our souls at night".


A film about nocturnal 'mooning'?

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: meself
Date: 03 Oct 17 - 11:00 AM

Re: Grapes of Wrath. Don't know about the film, but my Chinese SO tells me that the title of the novel in Chinese would translate back as 'Angry Grapes' ... !

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: Mr Red
Date: 03 Oct 17 - 11:24 AM

Sometimes the bad translation makes an interesting title. And yer cognoscenti know the intent in the original anyway. (wouldn't "Bitter Grapes" have served better?)

Even in the days some of these films were issued, a consistent UK/US title was desirable. But not always chosen. Now it is more relevant with marketing worldwide.

Not film, but an Ad for (remember?)

"Renault Fuego - many are chosen".

just invited the Anglicised repost "but few go".

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: Donuel
Date: 03 Oct 17 - 08:04 PM

Remembrance of things past; Proust
should be translated
Crap I recall

Subject: RE: BS: Unsuitably translated film titles
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 04 Oct 17 - 04:37 AM

Dob't know about film titles bu I recently saw a German translation of Liam O'Flaherty's great Irish classic, 'Famine. - entitled "Hungersnot" - pick of the year, no doubt
Jim Carroll