Just saw this movie for the first time and I thought it was great, especially the first half. But I have a question, which may be just revealing my ignorance, anyway here goes:
Before driving the car off the bridge, Catherine shouts to Jules, "Watch us, Jim!" Shouldn't she be saying "Watch us, Jules!"?
No, thats right. Its just that she was trying to get back at jim maybe? Like "look what we can do"
shareWhat I didn't understand is that Jim is in the car with her, but she seems to shout to Jules (who's outside the car and safe) "Watch us, Jim!" If she's talking to Jim, who's "us"?
shareit could be meant in the sense of "hey, check us out, Jim! we bad!"
or, maybe she got confused which bloke was which after a while.
the original french would be useful to examine.
does anyone know what the original phrase was?
Hmm...I think your copy might have a subtitle typo. I just checked the film and she says, "Jules! Regarde-nous bien!" which I think translates to "Jules! Watch us well"--or more idiomatically, "Watch us real good" or "Really watch us." My copy's subtitle reads "Watch us, Jules."
In any case, she does seem to address Jules, and not Jim in the version I have (I think it's the Fox Lorber "World Class Cinema" DVD). Weird...
Well, I saw it in a theatre, so maybe it was just a bad translation. I hope the Criterion edition clears this up. Thanks!
shareHi, i talk spanish that is more similar to french than english to french. I also just checked the film and she says: "Jules! Regarde-nous bien!" witch (i am %100 sure) means "Watch us, Jules!". It is an error of yours version.
Another anecdote of "subtitles errors": In the spanish DVD version of "The 400 Blows" when Antoine talks to the psychologist, even trought you can clearly tell than in french he is talking about when he almost lose his virginity with a prostitute and that his mother wanted an abortion. The subtitles reads nonsenses about that he was dating diferent girls, that he didn´t like having to always invite them and that he almost get serius with one of them but she leave him for an older guy (al this because the psychologist ask him "have you ever had a girlfriend?" instead of the original "have you sleep with a girl?"). Also instead of saying the word abortion, it´s only subtly implied and the sentence is more ambiguos ("she was single when she have me, (...) she didn´t wish me to be born but my grandmother was determinated"). Now in this case it looks more to censorship than a simple error but ¿why only the subs?.
In Spain movies are dubbed by law, "ergo" people is not used to see movies in their original foreign languages and because of that ,belive it or not, they like more the dubbed version. So every DVD made in Spain brings you the original version and the spanish dub. The law is pretty old so even movies from 59 have their dubbed versión. It would too expensive (and stupid) to dubbed them again so they use the old copies spanish audio. For sure most of the people who bought the same DVD that me (DeAPlaneta Edition,in the "ElCorteIngles" and the "FNAC") will watch the dubbed version. The problem is that in 59 Spain was under Franco´s dictatorship and censorship was a really common thing. So just because of that the "postcensorship era" DVD editions of the "The 400 blows" have inherit the "old era" censorship.
So the lesson is: NEVER TRUST DUBBED VERSIONS. Even when subtitles aren´t %100 faithfull to the original audio in general you can tell that there is a diference.
Bye
PD: Sorry for my english, i know. it sucks but al least it´s understandable
dubbing also sucks cause you are losing a large part of the acting, their voices, which is replaced by some really bad actor who speaks the right language. I saw Fanny and Alexander dubbed and it ruined it for me. Swedish movie, but one guy has a John Wayne accent. You think its funny, but for me, its really frustrating.
Did you ever want to be anyone else?...I never wanted to be anyone else.
For the first time I saw 'J&J' with English subtitles (English is not my native language, I learnt it rather late) and all my energie was sucked by the reading. So, I wasn't impressed. I even didn't notice that it had wonderful music. The second time I saw it after two years. I saw it twice then, so the third time I could watch the movie without subtitles. I saw it again and again, and every time it was new for me. Now I think that 'J&J' is one of the best films I have ever seen.
shareThis is spot on. Catherine says Jules!"Regardez-nous bien!" Jules! Watch us well! or "Watch us good!"
My subtitles were off, as well. What surprises me is all the people on the message board referring to this as a surprise ending. I knew as soon as he had to jump out of the window after Catherine locked the door and pointed the gun, that the next encounter would be no better. I felt like the people watching the movie JAWS, when he got inside the car. In the theater during Jaws folks were yelling "Girl...Don't be taking no dip!" I am thinking "Jim...don't get in that car!" (smile)
Right on.
share