How France translates movie titles from English to … English is a very funny read
Here’s a very funny thread from Paris-based designer and writer @juanbuis who has been highlighting how the French love to badly translate English movie titles to … English.
And very enlightening it is too. See if you can spot the trend!
1.
for some *ridiculous* reason the french love to translate movie titles from english to… english
here's a thread with my all-time favorites, starting with "the hangover"
…i mean VERY BAD TRIP pic.twitter.com/YoPzIb0pq1
— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023
2.
"the other guys" should work for a french audience, right?
france: non. VERY BAD COPS pic.twitter.com/TMMn36J2eJ
— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023
3.
"not another teen movie" is pretty simple english, right?
france: non. SEX ACADEMY pic.twitter.com/RjueQCAQvz
— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023
4.
"step up 2" would be easy to understand by the french, right?
france: non. SEXY DANCE 2 pic.twitter.com/9xk3mcZF5G
— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023
5.
"eurotrip" should work in france, right? they're european after all!
france: non. SEX TRIP pic.twitter.com/3LNPsvGSVM
— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023
6.
"no strings attached" could be a nice, subtle title for this romantic comedy?
france: non. SEX FRIENDS pic.twitter.com/65aDGj7nEw
— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023
7.
"what's your number?" works well for this cute romcom, right?
france: non. SEX LIST pic.twitter.com/DmSJnOeXrc
— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023
8.
"cocaine bear" can't possibly be misunderstood by a french audience, right?
france: non. CRAZY BEAR pic.twitter.com/rUIrDm1PiE
— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023
9.
this one's just incredible
"a short history of decay" looks like a slow, moody movie… how could we make it work for a french audience?
france: SEXY THERAPY pic.twitter.com/8DFwVli3Hq
— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023
10.
"tangled" is a mysterious thriller! how do we keep the same vibe in french?
france: SEX TROUBLE pic.twitter.com/XHUlj9kUGH
— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023
11.
starting to see a pattern? here’s the full list of movies where they decided the french title needed more… you knowhttps://t.co/I305W5zsfb
— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023
Here are just a few of the many things people said in response.
My personal favorite: pic.twitter.com/h9lJ76u2pI
— Anna (@gnocci_fc) March 9, 2023
This one is… well. pic.twitter.com/Qr3DODzVT9
— Katsuhono (@Katsuhono) March 8, 2023
My favourite is the Swedish film “Force Majeure” everywhere in the world; in France “snow therapy” 🤷🏻♀️ For once the original total was in French
— Lucie Larboulette (@L_Larboulette) March 8, 2023
Here’s one from Denmark pic.twitter.com/bP8TdipQiU
— Rasmus Anker (@anker2000) March 8, 2023
French born and raised here. Original titles are usually meaningless to the average French guy. "Hangover" for instance, doesn't mean anything to a French person even with a basic knowledge of English. "Very bad trip" however is clear because it uses simple words everyone knows
— iDownloadBlog (@iDownloadBlog) March 8, 2023
makes total sense! some of them are still funny though 🙂
— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023
And you can find @juanbuis on Twitter here!
Source Twitter @juanbuis
