Thursday, February 26, 2009

Adam The Ressurected Slumdog From Mumbai

I'm sure I've complained about this before, but the people who translate the names of movies into Hebrew need to be poked at with sticks. Last Saturday night we met some friends for dinner and a movie (We're grown-ups and we go out - it's true). We planned all this in advance, and knew that "Slumdog Millionaire" would be busy, seeing as it was nominated for a million Oscars, so we set bwo to booking tickets over the phone. She tried the internet, but it seems the concept of booking online, is only for those with windoze. So she called the automated line. She wasn't all certain of the name, but there was one that had something to do with a dog (kelev) and so she booked the tickets and all was good.

We had a good time at dinner and the four of us arrived at Cinema City in time to pick up our seats. While bwo stood at the machine, I looked at the posters and was somewhat bothered when I saw that the Hebrew name for the movie had nothing to do with a dog (it's actually, "Quiz kid from Mumbai" in Hebrew). It quickly became dreadfully clear that we had tickets to a movie called Adam Resurrected ("Adam dog boy" or "Adam son of a dog" in Hebrew). So bwo got back in line. I was certain we were done for, but bwo turned on the charm. She smiled and laughed with the cashier (Oh! aren't we silly, we bought tickets to the wrong movie because of the Hebrew, Ha Ha Ha), and believe it or not they changed the tickets. True we got to sit in the second row, but we saw "Slumdog Millionaire". It's a nice movie, but certainly not worth eight Oscars. I wonder if Adam Resurrected is any better?

What's with these names? Bwo rightly pointed out she had no idea the movie had anything to do with a quiz or Mumbai when she booked, and in what world does the word resurrected translate into "dog boy"? 80 percent? - not even close.

6 comments:

oliviao said...

I agree with you - I enjoyed Slumdog, but not 8 Oscars worth! I thought "The Reader" was much more thought provoking and better acting.

Anonymous said...

They do the same silly naming stuff in Italy. I don't get it. Maybe the real name just doesn't sound good in the translated language.

joch said...

Not that I have anything positive to say about Hebrew translations of film names, but the "Adam Resurrected" film is based on a book written in Hebrew by an Israeli author, and the book's name in Hebrew has nothing to do with resurrection. It's actually called "Man, son of a dog". The English translation of the book is called, indeed, "Adam Resurrected". So in this case, I think the made the right choice in the film name translation.

The "Slumdog Millionaire" film is also based on a book, which is actually called "Q&A". The book's translation to Hebrew is called "Quiz kid from Mumbai". So I don't think they've done such a bad job in translating this film's name either.

Anonymous said...

Joch you are right as always.

blackpetero said...

Of course he's always right. Who am I to argue. "Slumdog Millionaire" is a lame name and I am sure the only reason they got all those Oscars is because Hollywood (like the rest of the world) is relying on China and India to bail us out of the crap we are in.

Jozie said...

ok. I have decided that the elusive comment poster "anonymous" has to be Stevadore Bernicus- The House Boy Nephew From Houston.