MovieChat Forums > Baise-moi (2000) Discussion > French usage questions

French usage questions


I've got two questions about French usage in this movie for anyone who's either a native French speaker, or an advanced student of French as a second language.

First, I would have translated the title of this movie as "Kiss me," which I see is given as one of the possible translations. Is this a case of a word that has a harmless literal meaning acquiring a nasty slang meaning along the way somewhere, as is the case with many English words wiith nasty double meanings?

Second, if I understood the French properly, it sounds like the French word "chat" has the same double-meaning as a certain English synonym for "cat." I'm referring to the exchange immediately after the rape scene, in which Manu says that when she parls her car in the projects, she never keeps anything of value in it because she knows it'll be broken into, and so also never keeps anything of value in her ... I noticed, however, that when she says the word "chat," she annunciates the "T" very strongly, whereas the pronunciation I learned deliberate;y drops it (unless it's needed for clarity). Is that difference a matter of different dialects among different classes of people, or is it what determines whether the word is being used to mean "cat" or you-know-what?

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For lack of a real native speaker I'll try to answer this one, being an "advanced student of French" as you so aptly put it...

"baiser" means "to kiss", but it usually ALSO means "to do something more than kissing" i.e. "to *beep* as far as my dictionary goes, it's somewhat of a literal translation of that particular English word. SO, Baise-moi literally means "Kiss me", but also *beep* me (really hard and/or nasty in all sorts of postitions)", but since the English language is not up to such a double meaning, the best solution was to just keep the title that way. Adding to the mystery surrounding expicit French movies, of course.

Concerning the chat sequence, the fact that she pronounces the T sharply usually implies that it would be "chatTE" instead of "chat", and SURPRISE! "chatte" does indeed mean "female cat" or, for that matter "p*s*y". Just Google it... you'll like the links provided ;-). So that's where she keeps her non-valuables...

Hope all this checks out!

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