Do you also sometimes see ridiculous translated movie titles to your native language ? I do and thought it could be fun with a thread with lame translations.
"Planes, Trains & Automobiles" is on danish called "Røvtur på 1. klasse" which in english means something like "arsetrip on first class" "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" is on danish called "Øl, fis and rockmusik" which in english means something like "Beer, row and rockmusic"
I will be updating this thread frequently when I find some funny translations... Please give some examples from lame translations of movie titles :D
In France "Shawshank Redemption" is "les évadés" (the escapers ?) which pretty much blows the end of the movie because you know what will happen when you buy the ticket :p
I have some more here: Orig.: Red Heat, danish: En russer rydder op i Chicago, translated: A Russin cleans up in Chicago Orig.: Bird on a Wire, danish: Du skyder jeg smiler, translated: You shoot, I smile
In Germany they tend to add stupid long subtitles to english movie titles like "Severance - Ein blutiger Betriebsausflug" ("a bloody firm's outing") or "Alien - Das unheimliche Wesen aus einer fremden Welt" (roughly translated: "the eerie creature of an alien world") I hate that. But the german magazine SPIEGEL had an article ( http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/0,1518,655050,00.html ) about the problem of english phrases and words in Germany (often used in commercials these days). Many people don't understand them correctly and give them totally different meanings. So it might be good to help them with those subtitles.
I just remembered another one: The Graduate is "A Primeira noite de um homem", it would be "A man's first night" in English. I hate when they spoil the movie like this.
The Party is with the danish title in english called "Come and be my elephant" :D... After "the Sixth Sense" was made in Denmark the movie "Stir of Echoes" was renamed to "The Secret Sense", what a pity :P !
@ Lachinator, yeah I hate it when they "translate" the title, but actually just keep it in the same language and give it a new name, like "bend it like Beckham" -> "kick it like Beckham" I do understand why they have to do it though, like Deviant pointed out, as the average person has to understand the title... I still don't like it though. ^^
I like "Asphalt jungle" which is called "Quand la ville dort" in France, while "While the city sleeps" is tranlated into "La cinquième victime". Same spirit: "The philadelphia story" is called "Indiscrétions" and "Indiscreet" "Indiscret".
We have also "Beyond a reasonable doubt" translated as "L'invraissemblable vérité" and "The unbelievable truth" kept as is. And both "High sierra" and "The great escape" translated as "La grande évasion".
Usually, since 20 years, the english titles are not translated most of the time but there are weird exceptions where english titles are translated into "french-english" titles : "Wild things" translated into "Sexcrime", "The man who wasn't there" becoming "The barber", "Bolt" as "Volt".
"The green mile" in brazilian portuguese is "A espera de um milagre", something like "waiting for a miracle"!!! and "Shawshank Redemption" is "Um Sonho de Liberdade", something like "A Dream of Freedom"
It's because the film studio's think most people are stupid and need some kind of explanation via the title. They are actually right in a lot of cases.
I know that Lars von Triers "Riget" (Danish title), rather correctly translated as "the Kingdom" in English, was not titled "Das Reich" in Germany, because they thought people might have unwanted associations.....
The German title, btw, was "Geister" or, for the VHS, "Hospital der Geister" which translates as (hospital of) Ghosts.
In Brasil, "Annie Hall" is "Noivo Neurótico, Noiva Nervosa", which means "Neurotic Groom, Nervous Bride", the worst one in my opinion. And "Funny Face" is "Cinderela em Paris", which means "Cinderella in Paris". "Becoming Jane" is "Amor e Inocência" which is "Love and Innocence". "Dead Ringer" is "Alguém Morreu no Meu Lugar" which is something like "Someone Died In My Place"
There are several other ones, most movies get weird translations here.
Some more german ones: "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" -> "Nie wieder Sex mit der Ex" (Never again sex with the ex) This makes the movie seem like a bad straight to dvd comedy IMO.
"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" -> "Vergiss mein nicht!" (Don't forget me!) A Vergissmeinnicht is also the name of a plant, but I just hate the title, especially with the exclamation mark (I hate exclamation marks, 90% of the time it just seems inappropriate or like one is shouting :P).
"Deep Rising" -> "Octalus" Not that the movie is any good, but I'm guessing with that title they really wanted to attract the "B-horror-movie" audience some more, it just sounds so corny. ^^
Lucia y el sexo is Sex and Lucia in english, ok it is almost the same except the importance is given to the sex first and not Lucia which is quite important in my opinion when you know the movie Les valseuses is "Going places" in english. Very bad title especially when you know that the original french title is a metaphore for the testicules :) "Let the right one in'' is "Morse" in French, again the original meaning of the title is totally lost :( and there are so many more In general I really hate the translations of titles, they should just stay the same period! and if it is not possible to translate them literally, then why translating them at all? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind remained Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in France and many other non english spoken country I believe, didn't create any problem...
Chrisy, you would like it here in Switzerland. Titles usually are not translated. They stay as they are. This holds for English movies as well as for French or Spanish ones. It goes without saying that the movies usually aren't dubbed either.
Nice Fungus. Same here in Holland, nothing is re-titled and nothing is dubbed (except a few movies for kids) . When you come from France, this is a big difference. I cannot even imagine watching a dubbed movie now, it is just horrible and I think a lot of the acting is lost.