MovieChat Forums > L'instinct de mort (2008) Discussion > Small FYI on English subtitles

Small FYI on English subtitles


This is probably fairly typical, I don't typically watch a lot of French cinema. The subtitles were rather frustrating as they regularly cut stuff out entirely from the dialogue. While I natively speak English, I do understand a lot of French. It seemed like half the time the subs were just a quick summary of what they were trying to say and often re-wrote or left dialogue out entirely. Not much you can do with this info, I guess, but I thought it needed mentioning as it really pissed me off at times, especially when they re-wrote or added dialogue that was never there. I realize that the subtle nuances of French language can be difficult to translate but IMO it was often unnecessarily sloppy.

Again, not much for anyone to do with this info. Watch and enjoy!

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I noticed that, too, but it's impossible to capture all the dialog in subtitles without taking up the entire screen. Also, the more subtle meanings in any language are hard to translate, especially in subtitles.

It's hard to watch a subtitled movie when you speak the original language fairly well but not fluently, isn't it? I kept trying to follow the French but had to look back and forth to the subtitles often, too. It was enough to make me seasick! Like many non-native speakers, I can read French better than I can understand it spoken. The DVD I have did not come with closed captioning in French; that would have been most helpful (although CC also has to leave out some dialog if the scene is very wordy).

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Yeah.. I'm currently trying to brush up my French in preparation for an upcoming vacation, so I popped in this movie last night and chose the original soundtrack.

The DVD does have a dubbed (German) dialogue-track, and the subs appear to be largely based on that dubbed track. But they too are pretty disappointing and rather too "condensed".

Problem is (I guess) that they only have two lines available at any time for the subs, so longer, more complicated sentences have to be cut down a bit.

What really bothers me though is the fact that this particular DVD doesn't come with French subs which would help tremendously in understanding the original dialogue. Having to simultaneously listen to one language and read another one really is distracting and doesn't help when you're trying to get back into understanding the language that's being spoken.

All that said, this little experiment made me realize how much my French has deteriorated over that past 10 years. Most characters speak incredibly quickly or use a ton of argot (slang). And don't even get me started on the French Canadians - I thought myself lucky whenever I caught a complete sentence of what these guys were saying.. ;)


S.

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