In a recent attempt to be more cultured in order to enhance matrimonial harmony, I have agreed to go to a couple of artsy movie houses that play foreign flicks. There is some major conspiracy going on with the subtitling efforts being provided in foreign movies.

While the characters on screen are rattling off what appear to be deeply emotional life-altering minute-long diatribes at a pace normally found at NASCAR races or on Telemundo's Gigante Sabada (I watch it for the Spanish language immersion), the accompanying subtitle says something like, "I see" or "Yes, my love."

I finally blew a fuse at a recent French-language film in which I clearly heard a reference to "Amer-ee-CAN" (you know the way the French say it), and yet no reference to America, American, or even the Western Hemisphere.

For the love of linguistic integrity, are we been sold a bill of goods by the Movie Subtitle Union?

Watch Narcos.

Sometimes the meaning comes across better when a nearly-word-for-word translation is avoided. Sometimes there are timing considerations. Sometimes the people writing the subtitles don't do a very good job.

One thing I have been wondering: How many visual cues (and just great cinematography in general) does one miss, taking all the time to read the subtitles?

BearBoarBlarney said:

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I finally blew a fuse at a recent French-language film in which I clearly heard a reference to "Amer-ee-CAN" (you know the way the French say it), and yet no reference to America, American, or even the Western Hemisphere.

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I am almost positive this is a simple misunderstanding. The frenchie most probably spat out:

"Amer icone!" = Bitter icon!
or
"Ah! MERDE icone!" = Ah! 5HIT icon!

Was this an iconoclastic flick? Iconoclasm extends beyond our humble hemisphere. That or the frog hates emojis.

BearBoarBlarney said:

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In a recent attempt to be more cultured in order to enhance matrimonial harmony, I have agreed to go to a couple of artsy movie houses that play foreign flicks. There is some major conspiracy going on with the subtitling efforts being provided in foreign movies.

While the characters on screen are rattling off what appear to be deeply emotional life-altering minute-long diatribes at a pace normally found at NASCAR races or on Telemundo's Gigante Sabada (I watch it for the Spanish language immersion), the accompanying subtitle says something like, "I see" or "Yes, my love."

I finally blew a fuse at a recent French-language film in which I clearly heard a reference to "Amer-ee-CAN" (you know the way the French say it), and yet no reference to America, American, or even the Western Hemisphere.

For the love of linguistic integrity, are we been sold a bill of goods by the Movie Subtitle Union?

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I sorta kinda like French films. My favorite actor is a French actor. What was the movie?

Also, I rarely go to movies. And if I was to go to the movies, I would not see a foreign language film. Unless they allow you to pause and rewind.

I love random rants like this!

Subtitles are for intellectuals. Try this...

okaydo said:

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My favorite actor is a French actor.

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Depardieu? Amalric? Kassovitz?

Ah! You must be referring to the latest Franco-russian superstar sensation, monsieur P. P. Dossier.

Interestingly one of our own bear insider posters runs the largest dubbing and subtitling outfit in the world. So this is actually a very appropriate place to post any subtitling and dubbing issues you may have in general....

He spends his day making sure that Sponge Bob is appropriately translated into 104 separate languages for netflix. An entirely manual process (Google translate is not yet good enough).

I saw John Woo's Bullet in the Head at the old UC Theater back in the day. There's a scene where an American is killed while screaming, "Motherf----r!"

The subtitle read "God dammit."

BearBoarBlarney, the question in your decision to enhance marital relations is: Did you include having sex as the return "favor" on this bargain to suffer through these movies? If not, well, you're on the way to marriage hell. If you did, then congratulations. Since there are no intergalatic aliens, laser battles, awesome space ships, etc. really subtitles are completely irrelevant anyway.

BearBoarBlarney said:

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In a recent attempt to be more cultured in order to enhance matrimonial harmony, I have agreed to go to a couple of artsy movie houses that play foreign flicks. There is some major conspiracy going on with the subtitling efforts being provided in foreign movies.

While the characters on screen are rattling off what appear to be deeply emotional life-altering minute-long diatribes at a pace normally found at NASCAR races or on Telemundo's Gigante Sabada (I watch it for the Spanish language immersion), the accompanying subtitle says something like, "I see" or "Yes, my love."

I finally blew a fuse at a recent French-language film in which I clearly heard a reference to "Amer-ee-CAN" (you know the way the French say it), and yet no reference to America, American, or even the Western Hemisphere.

For the love of linguistic integrity, are we been sold a bill of goods by the Movie Subtitle Union?

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C'mon tell us the name of the mom, for cripe's sakes!!!