New Yorker Film Release is not a bad address. As a matter of fact, a legion of fundamental European were made known to the American public during decades solely by this company, and we have all reasons to be grateful to them for their video-releases. With the DVD-releases, however, they seem to have not the same good hand. The edition of L'Atalante, uncontroversially one of the milestones of film history, comes in horrible edition. But I do not speak about the film and sound quality. What I mean are the translations on the one side and the commentaries in the specials on the other hand.
It is true: Michel Simon's mumbling which he could do so well and which he also used, e.g. in "Boudu", is very hard to understand even for French native speakers. A special that came in addition, in his case, was his 1934 still audible Swiss accent, including at least one Swiss syntactic construction which I heard: "Ca Va Avec Moi" = "This goes (is fine) with me". However, whoever translated this movie, is far away from being a native speaker. Whole passages are simply wrongly translated. Only a nice pardonable little detail is there when the captain, Dasté, cries out: Hercule! - The translator heard "Père Jules" - Simon's character in the movie. Especially catastrophic are the translation of the "Language Parlé", for which the translator could have used one the first editions of Henri Bauche's standard work - but he didn't. Actually, for linguists, L'Atalante is an Eldorado for "vulgar" and "Argotic" words and expressions (which are practically all not known anymore today).
For Annette Insdorf, professor of film at the famous Columbia university, L'Atalante is an early talkie. As a matter of fact, it is silent movie which was post-dubbed. Jean Vigo started the filming already in 1929, but, due to his illness that lead finally to his death with 29 years, he was unable to finish it until 1934. Absence of sound does not make a movie silent - as presence of sound does not make a talking. For the latter case take Murnau's last movie "Tabu" which is a silent talkie (while L'Atalante is a talking silent movie). Murnau threw the sound-track out because he decided it would not fit to the movie's pictures. About the post-dubbed silent movies, there are many, cf. e.g. Dreyer's "Vampyr". This was done mainly in order to sell these movies better, and we are grateful that in this way we have the voices of persons which otherwise would be lost (cf. Greta Garbo). About the rest of the commentary I do not have the space here to show all the mistakes. I have no idea why Mrs. Insdorf shows up everywhere as an expert for early European film history. Simply the fact that she mispronounces all German names shows that she actually never heard them pronounced correctly. Mistakes for which in other places students would be kicked out of their first semesters.
I strongly suggest that L'Atalante, a groundbreaking highlight and milestone of film history, can go over to Criterion, simply the qualitatively best film series around the globe. May they exchange the translations and substitute the specials, and in this way we can hopefully soon throw the present US edition where is belongs: into the dumpster.
It is true: Michel Simon's mumbling which he could do so well and which he also used, e.g. in "Boudu", is very hard to understand even for French native speakers. A special that came in addition, in his case, was his 1934 still audible Swiss accent, including at least one Swiss syntactic construction which I heard: "Ca Va Avec Moi" = "This goes (is fine) with me". However, whoever translated this movie, is far away from being a native speaker. Whole passages are simply wrongly translated. Only a nice pardonable little detail is there when the captain, Dasté, cries out: Hercule! - The translator heard "Père Jules" - Simon's character in the movie. Especially catastrophic are the translation of the "Language Parlé", for which the translator could have used one the first editions of Henri Bauche's standard work - but he didn't. Actually, for linguists, L'Atalante is an Eldorado for "vulgar" and "Argotic" words and expressions (which are practically all not known anymore today).
For Annette Insdorf, professor of film at the famous Columbia university, L'Atalante is an early talkie. As a matter of fact, it is silent movie which was post-dubbed. Jean Vigo started the filming already in 1929, but, due to his illness that lead finally to his death with 29 years, he was unable to finish it until 1934. Absence of sound does not make a movie silent - as presence of sound does not make a talking. For the latter case take Murnau's last movie "Tabu" which is a silent talkie (while L'Atalante is a talking silent movie). Murnau threw the sound-track out because he decided it would not fit to the movie's pictures. About the post-dubbed silent movies, there are many, cf. e.g. Dreyer's "Vampyr". This was done mainly in order to sell these movies better, and we are grateful that in this way we have the voices of persons which otherwise would be lost (cf. Greta Garbo). About the rest of the commentary I do not have the space here to show all the mistakes. I have no idea why Mrs. Insdorf shows up everywhere as an expert for early European film history. Simply the fact that she mispronounces all German names shows that she actually never heard them pronounced correctly. Mistakes for which in other places students would be kicked out of their first semesters.
I strongly suggest that L'Atalante, a groundbreaking highlight and milestone of film history, can go over to Criterion, simply the qualitatively best film series around the globe. May they exchange the translations and substitute the specials, and in this way we can hopefully soon throw the present US edition where is belongs: into the dumpster.