Sunday, August 21, 2016

Found in translation

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Last night we walked the 135 steps to the movie theatre. It would have been 70 had we used the front door.

The movie was L'aigle et l'enfant, almost a documentary of a young boy in the Austrian Alps trying to save a young eagle, deal with a suffering father and being encouraged by a helpful ranger (Jean Reno). The scenery was breath taking, the plot touching.
It reminded me of a film I saw many years ago, L'Enfant et le renard, only with a girl and the Jura mountains, equally beautiful.

As soon as I was home I looked up the film on www.imdb.com and they said it was in English and narrated by Jean Reno.

Hmmm -- sure sounded like French to me and there was conversation more than narration.

Then I realized. In the Anglo world the title had been translated to Brothers in the Wind.

Changes in titles from country to county is nothing new for me. 
The first time it happened was in the 80s. Llara was living in Germany and raved about a film Out of Rosenheim. "You have to find it Mutti," she said phoning me in Boston from Munich.

A few months later, I saw Baghdad Café and told her in another overseas call (expensive then) that she had to see it.

As we discussed the obese German woman in a dessert town that changed both her as she changed the ambience of the place and those that lived in it, we discovered it was the same film.

A few years later and living in Geneva, Switzerland, I loved a new medical TV show, Urgence, about an American hospital emergency room. Appreciated one of the handsome actors, too.

Only after about six months, when I was reading about new hit American TV shows, did I realize that Urgence and ER were the same program. Even in reruns I think of it as Urgence not ER.

In other words, a lot has been found in translation.

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