Amelie - subtitle errors (1 Viewer)

[Bob Movies]

Hi Everyone,

I own the Canadian (Alliance) version of Amelie. I was watching the commentary track tonight, and I noticed two major subtitle errors:

1:10:04
The woman at the ghost train says
"He doesn't get in till 7:00", but it should say
"He doesn't get off till 7:00"

Since Nino is already there! I saw this five times in the theatre, and I know it's been changed.

The second error is even more unforgivable:

1:16:34

Amelie says to Nino on the phone
"Page St", when she really means
"Page 51" because her picture is on page 51! This is an absolutely unforgiveable error.

Are these errors in the US DVD? There are some other changes near the start, such as the "Bluebottle fly" being called the "Blue fly" on the DVD, but I was listening to the commentary so I wasn't paying full attention. I'll try to compile a full list when I get the chance.

Does anyone know who I can contact at Alliance to complain? If the U.S. disc has been done properly, I want to exchange it. If not, then there should be a recall / repressing.

Alliance is good for nothing. These errors are in addition to the inferior cover and disc art, along with subtitles that can't be turned off!

Bob

 

[Doug R]

Wow.. I checked the US release and.. sadly, these errors are present.

Amazing.

As this was one of my favorite movies from last year, I'm highly disappointed.

 

[David Ely]

Bob,

Those two errors were definately present in the print I saw at the theater, twice. I noticed them right away and pointed it out to my friends. I'm guessing that the DVD must have been made with this 'defective' print.

 

[Bob Movies]

I can't believe these errors were present in some of the theatrical screenings too. Who do they pay to do these things? Is there no quality control?

The Nino error is terrible, because someone seeing the movie for the first time might assume he's not at the Ghost Train yet. They then might not know that it's Nino who says "Woooo" in Amelie's ear.

Any word of a recall / second pressing to correct these errors? Has anyone noticed any other errors?

I wish I hadn't got rid of my academy screener.

Bob

 

[Colin-H]

Yeah. I was kind of confused by the whole Page St thing (didn't know what it was supposed to be until now, actually). And I was thinking, "if Nino doesn't get in until 7, why the hell is he there in that stupid skeleton costume?"

 

[Derek Miner]

Somehow the 7:00 error in the subtitles never affected my understanding the two times I saw this in the theater. As for there being errors in the first place, I would really expect them and be glad there weren't more.

I remember reading Robert Rodriquez' Rebel Without A Crew about the making of El Mariachi. When the studio that bought the rights wanted subtitles, they paid some outrageous amount of money to a service and then got back a transcript which was given to Rodriquez for approval. He was horrified with all the errors and did the subtitle translations himself for free.

 

[Colin-H]

I think the point is, if so many of us caught the error on the DVD, why did no one at the studio catch it?

The "in/off" thing could've been a mistranslation, but the "Page St/51" thing is a typo and I consider that as unprofessional as a boom mic coming into frame.

This might belong in the pet peeves thread, but dammit people, PROOFREAD. PROOFREAD. You can't just skim and expect to catch errors. Read every damned word.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Silly errors don't bother me, it is when things are actively mistranslated altering the meaning and tenor of whole scenes that I get mad. This was much more prevalent in older films than it is these days. A lot of stuff during the production code days was deliberately mistranslated to make it more morally acceptable.
A VERY egregious example of the opposite was an Eric Rohmer (I think Le Rayon Vert (Summer) or Full Moon in Paris) where 'zut' was translated as 'fuck' multiple times. 'Zut' for those of you who don't speak French is the mildest possible expression of dismay, the equivalent of 'shoot' or 'golly'. The distributor was apparently horrified of getting a 'G' rating for what was being marketed as saucy, sophisticated French comedy and bet correctly that the MPAA morons would give it an 'R' based on the subtitles rather than what was actually being said, as opposed to giving it a 'G' and telling the distrib. to fix the wrong subtitles...
Ted

 

[Sal Orlando]

I'm actually having a problem jumping to Chapter 11;
it just kind of stutters a bit and then jumps ahead
to Chapter 12. Even rewinding from Chapter 12
doesn't work, it also gets 'hung up'

This is on a Sony S-7000. Can anyone else verify this problem?

 

[Carlo_M]

Yeah, having taken 4 years of French in college helped me a little bit, and I noticed those errors too.
But it wasn't as bad as the error on Criterion's The Killer DVD which butchered my favorite line.
It should have read:
"It only takes one bullet..."
but instead said:
"I only takes one bullet..."
Do companies no longer spend money on proofreaders?

 

[Corey * C]

Oh boy - now I get why Nino looks to page 51.....I was so confused by Page St.!!!!!

 

[Steve Tannehill]

I believe that "Page St." refers to the location of the photo booth. He keeps track of the torn photos by the location he found them. So a reference to Page St. would clue him into going to the page where the other photos from Page St. were taken.

As for "He doesn't get in till 7:00," maybe she got there early? Maybe he had not arrived at work yet? Maybe she came back later for the ride?

- Steve

 

[Bob Movies]

Steve,

I speak / read French, and it's supposed to be Page 51. That's also the way it was on the prints that I've seen in the theatre. The same goes for "He doesn't get in".

Does anyone have an Alliance / Miramax contact to see about a correction the next time these are printed?

Bob

 

[JeffMuller]

I'm glad I read this.

I finally watched Amelie last night, and I knew what was going on! I was actually able to explain it to my wife, too.

 

[Sal Orlando]

Can anyone confirm that they can jump to chapter 11 without it skipping ahead to 12? thanks

 

[Tino]

Thanks Bob. I was glad to read about these errors but IMO, these are minor mistakes and I doubt very much that they will ever be fixed. Anyone agree with me?

 

[Bill McCamy]

I agree. Just another reason to work on my French (and Spanish and German) when I retire. Hell, the way my retirement fund is going, I probably shouldn't wait that long. I might never gain fluency.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

I just checked and was shocked to find that both of those lines are subtitled correctly on my region 3 version from Hong Kong. Usually, Honk Kong discs are pretty bad with translation errors.

Jeff

 

[Dmitry]

Just out of curiosity I have checked the Spanish subtitles on the disc. The "Page St" error is not there -- it says "Pagina 51", but the other error is there all right: "No entra hasta las 7:00".

 

[Rob Willey]

I noticed another translation error. When the concierge lady tells Amelie that her husband took off for "The Pampas" in South America, it is translated as "Panama". Hardly the same thing... :rolleyes
Rob