[BLOG] Untouchable

[Beate]

Just spent time on hold with Royal Mail (what a stupid company that is) and when some classical hold music came on I had to think of the scene where Driss discusses his knowledge of classical music. "Tom and Jerry!" So funny.

[stuartboy]

I have to wonder if this would be even funnier if it were in our own language(s). I think it loses some of the laugh-out loud humour owing to the fact that we are constantly reading the dialogue, can skip to the punchlines and see what's coming before it is even said. A lot of comedy is in the timing. It is for this reason that we tend not to LOL out loud when we are reading a book. This, however, is not an endorsement of any attempt at a remake! Leave it alone! It's perfect.

[Beate]

Really? I frequently laugh loudly when reading something funny.

[raj101]

occasionally I felt something may have lost its emphasis in translation but subtitles generally worked for me.


I do wish I knew more languages and international events knowledge so that the cultural contexts would develop that emphatic punchline a bit more. You sometimes feel that theres a bit you are missing in the exact meaning when you read translations, but those moments were few in this movie, generally it was just generating laughs a minute.

Its my fault, I know. I tried learning Finnish last.

[McG]

Finnish? what an odd choice! I take it you didn't get very far . . .

[raj101]

no, i didnt!

wierd how you forget it all as anadult learner so fast, but you never forget the french you learned decades ago at school.

i digress sorry.

[stuartboy]

My point was that an element may be lost in having to read the dialogue rather than hearing it as it is delivered. You can see the whole sentence before during and after it is said. I just wondered if fluent French speakers found it funnier than the rest of us because of this.

OK. I also admit to having understood what the chieftain son said in Brave! Ha!

[elski]

I guess I'm used to seeing so many subtitled films that I don't even notice I'm reading them, I'm looking at the action. I didn't notice any problem with the timing of when the subtitles appeared on screen and what was being said.
Unlike putting subtitles on for TV progs where there can be a massive time difference, that I agree can be pretty bad, but for films there's not normally that problem. I still remember that russian film called Day Watch that SFF did screenings for and it had animated subtitles which was a really fun thing to do and added to the dark humour.

[stuartboy]

Maybe just me then. Lol! Still a bloody good film!

[Ms Thrifty]

Finally (well, that's how it feels, even if previews continue tomorrow) caught up with this film today and at a nearby cinema I'd never previously had the occasion to visit, so that was a bonus. As just about everyone else has said, it was outstanding - I could almost see it again, if only I had time - and so funny, which I hadn't expected. The humour created a really good atmosphere even though it was a large (old-style) cinema, with an upstairs and downstairs, and barely half-full, so far as I could see. Definitely one for my "best ever" list.