Film-Zitate von Hollywood
I'm a big fan of movie quotations -- those great lines that great writers put in the mouths of great actors. Some movie quotes are well-known classics ("It was beauty killed the beast."), while others are just funny: "Who are those guys?". (Can you name the films those quotes come from?)
Hollywood movies are dubbed into German or subtitled for German-speaking audiences. It can be both amusing and instructive to learn how Humphrey Bogart said "Here's lookin' at you, kid." in German, or how many other classic lines were translated into German -- sometimes cleverly, sometimes poorly.
Below you'll find a few examples with comments. For more film quotes in English and German see the related links below.
The 1941 film noir The Maltese Falcon is known as "Die Spur des Falken" in German. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sidney Greenstreet, and the Austrian-American Peter Lorre, this Warner Brothers film is a source of many classic lines. Here's one of my favorite verbal exchanges from that picture:
Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre): You always have a very smooth explanation ready, huh?
Sam Spade (Bogart): What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?
Remember the challenges facing the dubbing translator. First, the German can't be shorter or longer than the English. Otherwise the sound and picture won't match. Secondly, the lip movements and rhythm ideally shouldn't be too far off of what seems normal. So translating for the movies is more restrictive than for, say, a book. But this exchange between the small-time hood Joel Cairo and private eye Sam Spade is well done:
Joel Cairo: Bewunderungswürdig, wie Ihnen das so glatt von der Zunge geht.
Sam Spade: Soll ich vielleicht Ihretwegen stottern lernen?
The meaning and humor come through without using the literal translation of "explanation" (die Erklärung) or "always" (immer, stets). The only English words actually translated in the two sentences are "stutter" (stottern) and "smooth(ly)" (glatt), but the overall meaning is there. The entire phrase "what do you want me to do" is conveyed by one word: "Ihretwegen" (on your account, for you). You'll note similar techniques in many of the quotes. Translation is as much an art as it is a science.
Another example, this time more literal, comes from the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997, Morgen stirbt nie):
James Bond (Pierce Brosnan): It won't look like a suicide if you shoot me from over there.
Dr. Kaufman (Vincent Schiavelli): I am a professor of forensic medicine. Believe me, Mr. Bond, I could shoot you from Stuttgart und still create ze proper effect.
The German can take a more literal course here because in this case, the two languages work about the same way.
James Bond: Es wird nicht wie Selbstmord aussehen, wenn Sie mich von da drüben erschießen.
Dr. Kaufman: Ich bin Professor für forensische Medizin. Glauben Sie mir, Mr. Bond, ich könnte Sie von Stuttgart aus erschießen, und ich würde trotzdem die richtige Wirkung erzielen.
Notice that the German says "professor for" rather than "professor of." That's the kind of thing you can learn from these quotations. If you enjoy movie quotes as much as I do, you'll find many more on the next page.
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