when he points out the choir guy to his wife she says "i can't sleep anymore" and he immediately asks her "why "poor boy"?" then they show the choir guy again and she says "don't you know" and whispers something
Are you saying she said, "I can't sleep anymore" in Italian and the subtitles said something different...or the subtitles said, "I can't sleep anymore" and she said something different in Italian?
When he points to the choir boy, she calls him a "poor boy" (that's what I saw in my subtitles), which is why he asks her "why poor boy?".
the subtitles said, "I can't sleep anymore" and she said something different in Italian. after i made this post someone later in the movie uttered the same line
i streamed it on the criterion site so maybe it was some kind of screwup on it http://www.theauteurs.com/
I noticed that too. Incidently, I think what she whispered to him was that the singer was a castrati, and that's why the baron has to find someone else.
shareI thought the same, the boy perhaps was a castrato (pl. castrati) or perhaps Rosalia simply told Fefé anything else that immediately disqualified the "choir boy" as a candidate to be the lover of Fefé's wife.
Another user have mentioned that the last recording from a castrato dates from the 20's. But you know, movies are not documentaries, they can take some liberties, specially comedies such as 'Divorzio all'italiana'.
Anyway we don't know for sure what Rosalia told him. It could have been anything. Is up to you to decide what she could have told to Fefé.
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The Italian says something along these lines:
Fefe' says, "What a beautiful voice he has"
Rosalia: "Yes poor thing..."
Fefe': "Poor thing, why?"
Rosalia: "Don't you know" and whispers something into his ear.
Fefe' understands and says to himself that the singer wouldn't work.
I took this line to mean that the choir guy was gay, hence Fefé saying he wouldn't work.
"I think that silent films got a lot more things right than talkies." — Stanley Kubrick