MovieChat Forums > Le chagrin et la pitié (1972) Discussion > Translation errors in the subtitles?

Translation errors in the subtitles?

posted 17 years ago by jg1972
9 replies | jump to latest

Did anyone catch any mistakes in the translation for the subtitles?

I think I caught one glaring mistake. According to the subtitles, Christian de la Mazière said that German soliders had to take their oath between two chains ("deux chaînes" in French). I think he actually said that they had to take their oath between two oaks ("deux chênes" in French). This would make sense since the oak is the German national tree and had particular importance under the hypernationalist, mythology-loving Nazi regime. However, maybe there was a reason to take their oath between two chains. Any ideas?

Additionally, much of what various people said was simplified or condensed for the subtitles. This was especially true for the former German soldier Helmut Tausend. There were also a couple of typos in the subtitles.

[–] megadeth-3 17 years ago

Hello,

I do not own the R1 release, I have the french DVD. And you're absolutely right. Christian de la Mazière is speaking of taking their oath between two oaks. This is related to german mythology. You perfectly understood what he meant.

The subtitles are also condensed on the R2 release. However, I have not seen any typos.

I will get a R1 DVD copy of this film soon.

[–] william-elliott-martin 14 years ago

Wow, that's a terrible mistake-- when I watched the film I had a vivid image of the men taking an oath with a heavy chain around their necks to symbolize being bound by the oath. I stand corrected.

[–] aaltoilu 16 years ago

Subtitles almost always have to be condensed. The screen would be filled with text if you wrote down every single thing. You know? Did you mean something more serious than this?

[–] jmpoli 15 years ago

This is a very interesting line of thought. Unfortunately I do not speak French so I would be very curious to get access to more complete translations which you guys have been speaking about. Is there a transcript to the documentary?

Regards,

[–] LCShackley 13 years ago

The French translations are pretty good. What is strange is how much of the German dialogue is left untranslated. I don't speak German, so that was annoying.

[–] pierre-albertini3 12 years ago

You are absolutely right. For instance, when a German officer tells Ophuls that the Alsacians were strongly in favour of Germany, he says "they all spoke perfect German". This doesn't appear in the French subtitles.

[–] sillyhat 13 years ago

I don't know if it qualifies as a mistake, but I didn't care for how some French places' names were translated when they usually aren't. For instance, the Gare de L'Est in Paris was referred to as "East Station."

[–] hawaiianshirt79 12 years ago

The whole film is badly translated; in the original French, it's actually a documentary about ice cream flavours. Many of the participants have no idea to this day about what the English-language release entailed...

[–] pierre-albertini3 12 years ago

You are right. "Un serment entre deux chênes" is "an oath between two oaks".