Thought of the Week #1

Thought I'd start up a 'short' new segment on an interesting issue raised in the world of film during the week. This week's inaugural effort comes courtesy of an insightful commentator on this very site - titles that can get lost in translation.

Our commentator noted that 'Lust, Caution', in translation loses a large amount of symbolic allegory from the Mandarin original and a clever play on words. The Mandarin ('Colour Ring') makes an important symbolic nod to the film's pivotal scene as well as retaining the force of what is implied in the English translation. I also happen to think Lust, Caution is one of the worst titles ever, but that's by the by.

Can anyone think of any other titles which suffer in translation? I'll kick off with two.

1. Indigenes - The Translation, Days of Glory, loses a large amount of the political force implied in the original French and reflected in the political tone and disillusionment of the film, particularly the spectacular last reel. The original French points to the isolation and huge sense of irony felt by the North African soldiers we follow during the film upon the supposed 'integration' of these men, and thousands like them, into French indigenous life following the 2nd World War and the battles over equal rights and respect for non native-born Frenchmen that followed. These men fought and died, like indigenous Frenchmen, for those (supposedly) French values of 'liberte, egalite, fraternite' but the reward for their heroic sacrifices was continuing isolation and inequality, the lot of outsiders. The huge sense of poignancy of the last scene, as the last surviving soldier sits alone, in his small room, at the end of the film is regrettably not reflected in the English translation of the title. A huge shame.

2. Okay, so if we got that one wrong, let me leave you with a spectacular failure by the French to capture the essential essence and frightening terror of one of the greatest films ever made. Jaws is called 'Les Dents de la Mer', 'The Teeth of the Sea', in French. A truly spectacular example of how such an expressive and essential title (in both sense of that word) can be so easily lost.