Saturday, January 2, 2010

Marketing Mystery

So just how did this



become this?



I knew it was about roller derby and couldn't figure out why on earth it would be called "Bliss." The logical explanation? That's the main character's name. Still, it seems strangely bland compared to the original title.

7 comments:

David in Setouchi said...

Well, roller derby is totally unknown in France, "whip it" is not translatable in marketable terms in French and Ellen Page is pretty much the only thing that could attract a French audience to this film...

Remember, movie posters (and title translations) are not about art or not even the actual film, but about making people wanting to go see the film.

Starman said...

I agree with David, and the same is true of foreign films being touted in the US (also other countries, I would guess).

jonnifer said...

Changing the title is one thing but I find it interesting that they chose such a sedate image. They're selling it as a completely different movie.

Laids Livres said...

There is a lot to say about the French version of American movie titles. The worst is probably what they did with the first few Appatow movies.

Can it get anything worst than En cloque mode d’emploi ?

And let’s not talk about Quebec (Supermalades?)…

David in Setouchi said...

If you think that's the worst, you haven't seen anything.

Think about movie titles "translated" into another title IN ENGLISH but with the word "sex" in it.
And "Wild Things" became "Sex Crimes", "Not another teen movie" became "Sex Academy" and a few more that I'm forgetting.

Anonymous said...

So funny. When I was living in France a few months ago, my boyfriend and I were trying to figure out why they renamed 500 Days of Summer "500 Jours Ensemble" instead of just keeping the same title.

croissant au beurre said...

I was waiting at the bus stop in Rennes one day when a bus went by with an ad for a movie called "SEXY DANCE". I started laughing to myself (scaring the people around me I'm sure) when I realized that was the French title for "Step Up" (this was back in 2006).

I dare you to say "Sexy Dance" in a thick French accent and NOT laugh :)

By the way, Anne I just found your blog today and I've really been enjoying the snippets of life in Paris! This post really made me laugh, it's so interesting to see how American movies are re-packaged abroad.

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