Sunday, February 27, 2011

"On m'a dit que vous aviez du cran."

Well, Charles, I guess that settles it: the French are indeed translating "grit" as "cran." (For those not in on the conversation, see the comment thread following this review of "True Grit.") It looks as if the French are keeping the English title, however.

For "grit as cran" in context, see this French-dubbed movie trailer, and listen at around 0:17 for the word that means guts, nerve, or even grit.


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2 comments:

Charles said...

Good call.

Can't say the same for my title prognostication, though. After waiting forever for True Grit to come out here, I finally learned the other day that it's already out under the title "더 브레이브." So they decided to go against the current tide, but at the same time didn't go the 사랑과 영혼 route and instead just made up another English title that they then Hangeulized. Color me confused.

I'll be interested in seeing how they translate "grit" when it appears in the film, though (we're going to see it tomorrow evening). My money is still on 배짱, but I can't say I'm all that confident in my choice.

Kevin Kim said...

For what it's worth, I wasn't confident about "cran," mainly because I felt it wasn't in quite the same semantic field as "grit." But maybe "grit" has such a specifically American valence that it'd be silly to expect any non-English word to correspond to it. A bit like "nunchi" in Korean: I consider nunchi a human trait, not a uniquely Korean one, but the concept seems very culturally specific, if that makes sense.

As for retitling "True Grit" as "The Brave"... damn, that is weird, though it's reminiscent of some French retitling, like "Piège de cristal" ("Crystal Trap," a reference to the Nakatomi Building) for "Die Hard." Or the reverse: Luc Besson's "Léon" was retitled "The Professional" in the States. (A French actioner starring Jean-Paul Belmondo was already titled "Le professionnel.")

I'm sure, though, that "배짱" will appear where it's supposed to in the dialogue. You'll have the pleasure of seeing it in print, as a subtitle. (I dare you to take a shot of the subtitle with your cell phone when it appears.)

Hey, come to think of it: is the Korean version of the preview trailer available online somewhere? I'm sure the "grit/배짱" issue can be resolved right now.

Ah-- found it. And yes: 배짱!

We both win! I don't know what we win, but we've won something. Gotta savor the small triumphs.