MovieChat Forums > Mourir à tue-tête Discussion > What does 'Mourir a tue tete' mean?

What does 'Mourir a tue tete' mean?

posted 20 years ago by jack324
4 replies | jump to latest

I was wondering if anyone knew what the title of this film means. I know that mourir means to die in french, and i also know tete means head. Can anyone help me out?

[–] equalizer5150 19 years ago

According to http://babelfish.altavista.com translation it means, 'To die in kill-head'.
At http://ets.freetranslation.com/ it translates to 'To die has kills tete'

Google's tranlation aslo report it to mean, 'To die in kill-head'.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.festival-cannes.fr/films/fiche_film.php%3Flangue%3D6001%26id_film%3D1936&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dtue-t%25C3%25AAte%2B%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG

Weird huh?

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] coulombe-1 11 years ago

I'm from Québec, and here's my understanding of the meaning " Mourir à Tue-tête ":

Crier à Tue-tête means "Sceaming out loud" in french. Mourir means "Die". So it's the juxtaposition of these two sentences that makes the movie title.

[–] feodoric 10 years ago

The last post is right. I'll just chime in to clarify. The title is nowhere near anything a French speaker would use in usual language. Instead, it uses an ellipse, a form of poetic or literary license to convey a feeling that is virtually impossible to express in just a few words. Thus, instead of saying: "To be raped is feeling as though one would be dying while her own body and soul would scream out loud, both literally and symbolically", it condenses this complex idea in a concise, expressive and shocking formula that would literally translate as "dying out loud". At its face value, it does not make any more sense either in French or in English. Here, we're talking about poetry.

Hoping it helps to understand the meaning of this title. The movie marked a turning point in the history of feminism in Quebec.