- Airplane --> Die unglaubliche Reise in einem verrückten Flugzeug (The Unbelievable Trip in the Mad Airplane)
- Bidget Jone's Diary --> Schokolade zum Frühstrück (Chocolate for Breakfast)
- Boys on the Side -->Kaffee, Milch und Zucker (Coffee, Milk and Sugar)
- Billy Elliot --> I Will Dance [Why on earth did they change it from a name to something in English? That's one I can't figure out.]
- The Cable Guy --> Die Nervensäge (The Nuisance)
- Die Hard --> Stirb langsam (Die Slowly)
- Dodgeball --> Voll auf die Nuesse (Full of the Nuts)
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High --> Ich glaub' ich steh' im Wald (I Believe I'll Stay Here in the Wild)
- Girl, Interrupted -->Durchgeknallt (Cuckoo)
- Joy Luck Club --> Töchter des Himmels (Daughter of the Heaven)
- The Man Who Know Too Little --> Agent Null Null Nix — Bill Murray in hirnloser Mission (Agent Zero, Zero, Nothing — Bill Murray in a Brainless Mission)
- Miss Congeniality --> Miss Undercover (Why not use the German word for congeniality?)
- Planes, Trains, and Automobiles --Ticket für zwei (Ticket for Two)
- Pump Up The Volume --> Hart auf Sendung (Cruel Broadcasting)
- Rebel Without a Cause --> ...denn sie wissen nicht, was sie tun (.
..Then You Don't Know What You Do)(Thanks to Snooker in Berlin, I now know the correct title is "Because They Don't Know What to Do") - Six Degrees of Separation --> Das Leben – ein Sechserpack (Life — A Six Pack)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Movie Titles: Lost in Translation
Last night I had a conversation about German translations of American movie titles. Sometimes the title is translated exactly, but other times the Germans put a whole different spin on the movie. This morning I Googled "German translations of American Movies." The following is a list of some of the stranger examples I found.
Posts
3 comments:
Now my DVD collection is about half American titles, half German. Imagine my irritation when I go searching for "Two Weeks Notice" with Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock. Now I have to look for "ein Chef zum Verlieben" (A Boss to Fall in Love With), or "Denn Sie wissen nicht was Sie tun" (because they don't know what to do) which is actually "Rebel Without a Cause".
Adding insult to injury is the fact that the German books and DVD bindings are backwards. Um, how to explain... Normally you put a book on the shelf with the front of the book facing to the right. Then the title words on the edge of the book are easily read by turning your head to the right. German "norm" is the opposite, so if you put the book/DVD on the shelf facing to the right, the title words on the edge are upside down from the American versions.
"A Boss to Fall in Love With," that's ridiculous!
speaking of lost in translation:
Voll auf die Nüsse - Totally on the nuts; Ich glaub ich steh im Wald - I think I'm standing in the forest; Hart auf Sendung - mmmh, that's a tough one, but I wouldn't call it "cruel broadcasting. All of these are German colloquialisms that are hard to translate and don't make much sense when translated directly. "Ich glaub ich steh im Wald" people will say for example when they think everyone one around them has gone nuts. "Voll auf die Nüsse" some people will use to express that something is really annoying. I really wish they would stop "translating" movie titles.
Post a Comment