Interesting quote (possible spoiler??)
I really found it powerful when Olivier looks into the camera and mentions something about I think I've gone too far. Great double meaning. Great film.
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MovieChat Forums > Le fils (2002) Discussion > Interesting quote (possible spoiler??)
I don't recall that. Could you be a little more specific about the context of the quote? Thanks.
mf
Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future.
It is after he insists that Francis admits to strangling his son. He realizes he drove to far and has to stare into the camera for several seconds as he backs up the car.
shareThat is a really amazing observation, Maynard. I have watched Le Fils several times and picked it as my Best Film of the Naughties, but I never got the import of that one simple sentence until you pointed it out.
Thanks.
mf
"I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody." -Franny
I dont know if you watched it with subtitles. I do not, cause French is my first language, and in French, that quote doesnt have that double meaning.
shareI was very curious about this in terms of its french translation -- at the time I heard the french equivalent to "I passed it" (some root word that sounded like passed, I don't know french) but the subtitles said "I went too far" which was a much more portentous phrase with an obvious double meaning especially given that intense lookin Oliver's eyes as he turns to back up and looks almost right into the camera.
So my question is this -- are the subtitlers just taking it upon themselves and playing up a double meaning not intended originally, are they taking some artistic license here as all translations in literature have done before, or do the Dardennes give their approval to each line in the translations?
In any case, it was a pretty 'heavy handed' commentary in English, perhaps not as fraught with meaning in the original French.
In French, he says "j'ai dépassé", which lacks an object ("j'ai dépassé les limites" = I crossed the boundaries, I went too far, etc). It's not something you would say naturally to say you've been too far in what you said (you would say "je suis allé trop loin" = I went too far, which could be used in the context of driving too, but less so than "j'ai dépassé" in my opinion). Now they speak Belgian French which slightly different than my mother language, so it might be more idiomatic there.
Bottom line, it does have a connotation/double-meaning of going too far in what you said or did, although less transparently so than the subtitles. I think the translator made a very good choice of words.