I really can't guess how this film will be subtitled or dubbed abroad... Even we French people can't understand the whole of it, then, what about non French speaking people ? Because of this, I'm not sure it'll be a hit outside French speaking countries... Anyway, extremly pleasant film.
shareThe subtitles were very well done, with the accents and mispronunciations translated in a way that is understood. I don't understand a lot of French, but I couldn't stop laughing. I don't think there will be problems.
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ain't i clean/bad machine/super cool/super mean
Whoever did the English subtitles had a v. good grasp of how to translate the word play and strange pronunciations. In one scene, the Ch'ti guy keeps saying "kien" for "chien." The subtitler didn't try to make a play on the word dog, but changed it around a bit so the Ch'ti guy kept saying "fishka" and the other guy kept saying "fish?" Also, the ch'ti use of "ch" for "s" and "ce" sounds works very well in English, giving everything a lisping quality -- "She's ashleep." "Does the shun shine in shummer?"
The bit where the manager is saying "tell him this" and the postman is saying "I'll tell him that," but it sounds like, "I'll tell him what?" worked esp well, because the scene came off like the old American comedy routine "Who's on first?" With such clever subtitles, and so much of the comedy being physical, I think it will play well if it's released in the U.S.
Susannah 2k
I'm an American who is studying in Grenoble, France for a semester and while I can speak French, I am by no means fluent. I saw this film today and while I understood most of it (and enjoyed all of it), I was wondering, too, how they would dub/translate it.
shareThis came out in the UK this week and having seen it, I found it mildly amusing (the UK comedy from the 1980s, 'Allo, 'Allo, springs to mind). My French is limited, but it was quite a challenge to keep up with the subtitles and try to take in what is essentially made up words, especially in the wordplay scenes.
I appreciate that it seems targeted for a specific audience, but I agree with the OP about it's success outside France and its universal appeal. Apparently it's going to be remade with English speaking audiences in mind, but I'm not sure where they could set it, because to me, it seems to be set in a specific location and taking the mickey out of what is essentially the Belgians.
it seems to be set in a specific location and taking the mickey out of what is essentially the Belgians.
Get your facts straight. There is a historical link between the North of France and Belgium, but that is with the Flemish speaking part of Belgium (Nord-pas de Calais --> French Flanders), not the French speaking part. Some old people still speak a Dutch dialect over there.
Bottom line: they never intend to make a fool of the Belgians in this film...
Btw, why is it that UK citizens seem to react differently to this movie? Different sense of humour I guess?
I stand corrected. Lol.
shareCould work fine with English speaking audiences - dialects get very different, especially between countries. And when you figure in slang it's like another language altogether. I'm reminded of a time my partner and I, both American, hailed a cab in Sydney. While we both knew the cabbie was speaking English, we had absolutely no idea what he was saying... another time, we had to repeat our destination to a native brit London cabbie about a dozen times before he figured out where we were going. So yeah, it could be done, and done well.
shareI am Dutch, but lived in France for 4 years (in the South) and understand and speak French pretty good. I had hardly any problems with understanding the film, of course, some dialect Ch'ti I didn't understand but I guess some French have trouble too understanding for example Antoine's mother at some point.
Translating it will be hard, since mostly people who are already interested in these kind of films (outside France) will have "something" with France, some of them might speak a little French, subtitles for them will probably be irritating because it is hard to translate the language jokes.
Sometimes, you just have to let a film be as it is. If you wanna see it? Learn French!
Why does every remotely succesful thing have to be remade, an American version of Ch'tis? Probably just as boring and stupid as The Office, US.
Make Your Own Kind Of Music
I really enjoyed the film, but since I am not 100% sure of my French, I used the English subtitles. But actually I did find them rather irritating. Since I know a lot of French they rather confused my reading and listening (especially since the subtitles are Americanized, and bear no resemblance to how normal French is spoken). I watched it again without the subtitles, and could appreciate it much more. I wondered about the dubbed German version, it makes sense that they used a fake dialect, but it would have been very good if they'd used Schweizerduutsch! I doubt this film could have a remake!
shareI saw the film yesterday, and I found the differences between the French dialog and the English subtitles annoying. This happens a lot, though all the more so where the sub-titler has to make sense of word-play in the dialog.
Great film all the same, though.
Here is a link to the trailer with english subtitles (UK english).
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x58kh6_trailer-english-sub-bienvenue-chez_shortfilms
I like what they did with the chiens/siens scene, for instance.
"You go to certain death.
- All death is certain!"
I'm not sure why "minus 40" (temperature) in French was subtitled as "minus 60" in English...
shareI gotta say, that i don't really understand french, but i saw the movie yesterday with german subtitles, and it was really funny... i'd say the subtitles fit really good, cause they used really strange words for german language :D
but yeah, would be funnier if i'd understood french :>
i saw it yesterday with german subtitles. they did a pretty good job i thought, using similar wordplays and using a lot of swiss german slang that is only used in spoken language. still - sepaking a bit of french - i think i would have to see the movie twice, just concentrating on the french the 2nd time around.
shareAs mentioned elsewhere, they aren't an exact match but he's done an excellent job of finding culturally compatible versions. It's one of the best subtitling jobs I've seen in a long time.
"Life flash before your eyes? Cup of tea, cup of tea, almost got a shag, cup of tea."
I saw the film tonight with English subtitles and they translation was excellent.
I had seen the trailer a couple of times and thought it wouldn't work but it did brilliantly. Great subtitling work.