J’apprends comment on dit “eight-ball” en français
My Netflix is getting a good workout; last night I watched the season finale of season 1 of The Wire. I had my wine, my macaroni and meatballs and all the necessary accoutrements ready. I bought the DVD player less than two months ago and am still discovering what it has to offer me. Last night, I watched about 10 minutes of an episode with the French subtitles on. I haven’t studied or used French in many years, but I got endless pleasure from translations of drug dealers in Baltimore into French:
“My uncle tol’ me to go up dere an give her an eight-ball”
becomes: “Mon oncle m’a dit de lui donner 3.5 grammes”
It’s amazing how French seems much more formal, though there was plenty of slang in the translations. In fact, every instance of “fuck” used as an exclamation was translated as “PUTAIN!” [slut, whore]–and then, of course, there is “go fuck yourself,” which, as I learned in 9th grade, translates to “va te faire foutre“–very faithfully rendered in subtitles.
In February I asked H to buy me Brideshead Revisited for my b-day and started watching it over the weekend. I’ve seen it many times, and always enjoy it, but I was quite disappointed that there are no subtitles/captions included. I was hoping for “Otra visita a Brideshead,” but no.
My Netflix queue is taken up strictly by old TV shows–after the Wire, I have Upstairs Downstairs and Danger UXB. It’ll probably take me until sometime in late May/early June to finish with the Wire and I need to brainstorm more good TV/DVD rentals. Since I pay for cable channels galore, I’m not so interested in renting movies. I want DVDs with good subtitles…maybe I could learn German?
April 10, 2008 at 12:00 pm
To me reading reading french subtitles goes some thing like this “blah, blah, blah, with, blah, blah, blah, road, blah, blah, waiter…” Sad thing is I took French for 3 years in HS.
I don’t think there is a direct translation for the German word “fuck” either…but there is “Geh fick Dich selbst” for “go f… yourself”…thought you might want a headstart in German! lol
April 11, 2008 at 10:47 am
If it’s available, I suggest you rent a copy of Bon Cop, Bad Cop, a Quebec-made Canadian film that is uproariously hilarious, for one thing, and a revelation in Quebec slang and profanity, for another.
April 11, 2008 at 10:53 am
That sounds great–it comes out on DVD in May!