MovieChat Forums > Les diaboliques (1955) Discussion > What did that one boy find under the div...

What did that one boy find under the diving board?


I got confused at the end. One of the schoolboys told the detective that he found "it" under the diving board, then the detective asked if there was a wicker basket around. One of the guys working at the school then says something is starting to smell.

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I was also a little confused. The lighter, maybe?

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Christina had told the detective that the lighter had been in the water for 24 hours...he then asked the boy who found the lighter exactly where he had found it ( the boy had found it a few days before when he had dived into the pool to get Nicole's keys , which she had thrown in there on purpose ). He then asks the boys if there is a wicker basket because again, Christina had told the detective in the previous scene that they had transported the body in it from Paris.

As for the next bit - One of the guys working at the school then says something is starting to smell - well, I'm afraid it's a simple case of very poor translation work by whoever did the subs.
Yes , the teacher says -
" ca commence a sentir terriblement mauvais tous ca..."

which , when translated word for word , comes out as " it's beginning to smell really bad"

However , in French, it's a bit of a saying....it's like we say in English " something smells fishy " , it doesn't literally mean that there's a smell of cod or tuna in the air , just that something is definitely not right...and that is how they should have translated it in the subs

" I'm just gonna go find a cash machine..."

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Oh, I see. Thanks!!

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*Spoilers*


For me, the 'poor translation' kind of heightened the tension - at that point I was still unsure about what was going on, and that sentence led me to think that the male teachers were somehow in on it.

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