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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Film Clever Title in English

Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 3:27 PM

Apparently, the DVD release of Let the Right One In has dumbed down the subtitles from the theatrical release.

Someone named RobG at the website Icons of Fright has a collection of screengrabs up (unfortunately, the post seems to be down right now due to excessive web traffic) comparing and contrasting the two editions.

The A.V. Club says:

Illustrating his case with screengrabs, RobG argues that Magnolia has opted for a sloppier, duller translation, losing a lot of the original's dark wit and character-building in the name of making the story—in every way—plainer. Given that much of the appeal of Let The Right One In is in its spooky, washed-out look—which hasn't changed—the movie is still worth a rental. But fans and neophytes who were considering buying the DVD may want to hold out for a while, and see if some other home video company will restore the good translation.

It doesn't really make any sense that a studio would pay to re-write the subtitles for a DVD release, does it? Cinematical guesses that Magnolia is paving the way for the dumbed-down American remake that's apparently on the way. But even that seems weird.

Comments (19) RSS

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The subtitles in that trailer are fine, (I speak Swedish,) but I assume that's the theatrical trailer and hence theatrical subtitles.

Now I wish I'd seen watched in in the theater instead of waiting for the DVD release.

Posted by BrinkleyBoy on March 24, 2009 at 3:39 PM

i received my version via that blockbuster in the mail program and mine didn't have subtitles (much to my boyfriends relief...). it was dubbed with the theatrical translation. why is that?

Posted by whomsRU on March 24, 2009 at 3:52 PM

I don't know.. RobG's post was back up when I clicked the link. I sort of get the "bad bootleg translation" vibe from the screenshots I saw (as in, maybe he just got ahold of a bad bootleg copy). I'm not going to get worked up about it until it's more than a rumor that they've been changed.

Posted by Julie in Eugene on March 24, 2009 at 3:53 PM

How can we evaluate the subtitles without comparing them to the actual original Swedish? Perhaps the "duller" version of the subtitles is actually closer to the Swedish. It's kind of like saying the King James Bible is a terrific translation--until you go through the list of literally hundreds of translation errors it contains that modern, duller-sounding Bibles have corrected. (And, yes, I'm comparing a Swedish slasher movie script to the KJB.)

Posted by Simac on March 24, 2009 at 3:56 PM

Actually I had another thought: notice how the DVD subtitles are quite a bit larger? Could it simply be that the distributor thought they needed "shorter" translations for the subtitles to fit and be properly legible on TVs? I'm not sure why you'd pay for all-new subtitles otherwise.

Posted by Simac on March 24, 2009 at 3:59 PM

I will now go on record stating this film is far superior to the bible.

Posted by paulus on March 24, 2009 at 4:00 PM

Thankfully I saw it in a theater.

Now I'm curious to watch the torrent I grabbed a few months ago and see what those subtitles are.

meow!

Posted by stinkbug on March 24, 2009 at 4:01 PM

My father hates watching subtitled movies on DVD. Why? Because at his age it is too hard to read the small type of the subtitles on his TV. He's fine with it on a large screen in a theater.

This may simply be an attempt to make the subtitles larger and more legible for a small screen, but at the cost of shortening it. Dunno. Just a guess.

Posted by Reverse Polarity on March 24, 2009 at 4:07 PM

Having seen it both in the theater and on dvd I can confirm that the titles were changed somewhat. Not enough to distract me from the movie though. And the title/language/dubbing menu was somewhat confusing so there may have even been two options for subtitles.

Posted by attila the honey on March 24, 2009 at 4:27 PM

There's a subtitled version? Netflix sent me one that was dubbed, and I fucking hate dubbing.

Posted by EmilyP on March 24, 2009 at 4:28 PM

To the folks who got the dubbed version from Netflix or Blockbuster: I thought I did, too, but like many DVDs, there's a set up option, and I was able to choose the original Swedish with English subtitles, but they were the sloppy subtitles. And even though I never saw the theatrical release, I noticed several places where the subtitles seemed odd, somehow. Bizarre syntax, parts of conversations that didn't seem to relate. I just thought it was a problem with someone being too literal in the translation, but the "Eli..." / "I'm trapped!" bit is an obvious screw up.

Posted by spencer on March 24, 2009 at 4:37 PM

I like the all Finnish subtitle version myself.

But it's not as cool as the subtitled version of Cthulhu ... even if watching that in the native tongues will cause your mind to go insane ...

Posted by Will in Seattle on March 24, 2009 at 4:44 PM

Only saw the DVD subtitles and the movie is awesome. My English dub started automatically too, so just go in and change the settings.

Posted by love the ending! on March 24, 2009 at 4:55 PM

Mad Max was dubbed (with American accents) for US release and only sorta recently released in it's native language of, er... Australian. I'm sharing this because I've never known a second language well enough to feel condescended to by sub-titles, but feel like getting in on some rage.

While I'm at it, can we PLEASE get a decent DVD of City of the Lost Children? It's one of the best looking films of all time, a the damn DVD looks like a 4:3-only VHS rip.

Posted by Dougsf on March 24, 2009 at 6:06 PM

In the AV Club comments, there's a link to a guy at digitalbits.com or something like that who contacted the studio, and they're going to be changing the subtitles back to the theatrical release (but no refunds or exchanges to those who bought the crappy version). The good version will say "Subtitles: English (Theatrical)" in the DVD specs. (And the most likely explanation I've seen for the screw-up is that the studio DIDN'T have the rights to use the theatrical subtitles on the DVD, so it was cheaper for them to get a different translation than to buy the DVD rights to the first one.)

I haven't seen the movie, but some of the changes are appallingly stupid for a movie so acclaimed.

Posted by Propaniac on March 25, 2009 at 8:08 AM

It's simple why they would've taken away much of the nuance from the original translation: they want to competewith/have spill-over from the "Twilight" teens.

They make the mistake assuming that teens can't process complexities in drama and relationships, and insultingly, they probably think teens can't read subtitles fast enough...

Posted by Vlad on March 25, 2009 at 5:34 PM

The translations are good. I speak swedish and can tell you that there's nothing wrong with it. Both translations are correct.

Posted by Franz on March 29, 2009 at 10:12 PM

Was the critique on a bootleg copy?! This is so confusing. I'm getting my copy through netflix and will not know which version. I'm still looking forward to seeing it.

Posted by matt on March 30, 2009 at 2:50 PM

Great film. I saw it in the theatre and I got the a copy on blu ray. I love it. Not a hollywood film but maybe because of that it is not generic. I like the story and the tension and all the sfx. Vampire films often are too generic and miss subtleties that could make the genre a lot more interesting. I love how the story develops and the characters interact with each other. I don't wanna spoil it, so see for yourself, it's worth it.

Posted by Sacha on April 1, 2009 at 6:58 PM