Apologies for my absence in the past few weeks, dear readers. Two back-to-back festival makes up a daunting task, when it involves over fifty write-ups. Anyway, eager to jump back into The Film Experience. To ease the way a curious trifle. As I was browsing through Twitter, I came across a curious conundrum in the form of a new French poster for this year's Palme d'Or winner, and the title splashed across its badly Photoshopped self. While Ruben Östlund's latest is called Triangle of Sadness or a direct translation in nearly every territory, those French distributors had another idea. In the land where it won the Croisette's highest honor, the film is known as Sans Filtre…
Wacky French titles for imports are nothing new if you've ever perused the darkest recessed of IMDB – Silver Linings Playbook was rebaptized as Happiness Therapy, for example. Still, considering its premiere at France's most prestigious celebration of cinema, wouldn't it be logical to have its naturalized title be as close to the original as possible? Apparently not. Indeed, going down the list of Palme d'Or winners, one finds a few other quirky variations. Here are some examples:
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- Triangle of Sadness - Sans filtre (Without Filter)
- Shoplifters - Une affaire de famille (A Family Story)
- The Piano – La leçon de piano (The Piano Lesson)
- Wild at Heart – Sailor & Lula
- Kagemusha – L'ombre du Guerrier (The Shadow of the Warrior)
- All That Jazz – Que le spectacle commence... (Let the Show Begin…)
- The Hireling – La méprise (The Misunderstanding)
- Friendly Persuasion – La loi du Seigneur (The Lord's Law)
- The Lost Weekend – Le poison (The Poison)
- Union Pacific – Pacific Express
Because I'm Portuguese and couldn't diminish my curiosity, I also decided to look at what titles those honored films have worn when screening at Portugal's finest cinemas. Some of these are even weirder than the French ones. Take a look:
- Shoplifters – Uma Família de Pequenos Ladrões (A Family of Little Thieves)
- The Wind That Shakes the Barley – Brisa de Mudança (Breese of Change)
- All That Jazz – O Espetáculo Vai Começar (The Show is About to Start)
- The Conversation – O Vigilante (The Vigilante)
- The Hireling – A Lady e o Motorista (The Lady and the Driver)
- Blow Up – História de um Fotógrafo (Story of a Photographer)
- The Knack…and How to Get It – Lições de Sedução (Seduction Lessons)
- Friendly Persuasion – Sublime Tentação (Sublime Temptation)
- Miss Julie – Vertigem (Vertigo)
- The Lost Weekend – Farrapo Humano (Human Rag)
- Union Pacific – Aliança de Aço (Steel Alliance)
For those whose curiosity has been piqued by Miss Julie's Hitchcockian new title, you'll be glad to know that Vertigo also suffered a substantial transformation as it arrived in Portuguese theaters. Here, the film was called A Mulher Que Viveu Duas Vezes, meaning 'The Woman Who Lived Twice'. It's a spoilery alternative, but one wouldn't want it to be confused with that Scandinavian Palme d'Or winner.
What do you think of these alternative titles? Do you prefer any of them to the original?