Friday, February 28, 2025

Les Pennac(s), Pilot

Les Pennac(s), "Un air de famille" (A Family Resemblance), pilot, runtime 1:35:52
Subtitles download link


Last year I was happy to find the one and only season of Les Pennac(s) on a link aggregator, and enjoyed the six episodes. The pilot wasn't available at the time, but last week it was online, so I am finally able to see it and create a translation.

The differences are noticeable right away. Where Episode 1 started off with Annabelle almost joyfully making time during a foot pursuit to talk to Louis on the phone about school, the pilot begins on a downbeat note: Views of Annabelle's OCD closet, glum Hannibal, glum Annabelle getting ready for work.

Christian Rauth (L) as Hannibal, and Julie-Anne Roth as Annabelle

Monday, February 17, 2025

Astrid et Raphaëlle, S05E08

Astrid et Raphaëlle, S05E08 "Un mariage et quatre enterrements" (A Wedding and Four Funerals), runtime 58:03
Subtitles download link

The fifth season concludes. Tetsuo is back in France and they're getting ready for the wedding. Astrid briefs him on her search for Denis Chartreux, the equestrian center monitor from hell.

Raph couldn't be more excited, because the squad has been called to a movie studio. A famous actor was shot to death, during a take, with a prop gun that was supposed to be loaded with blanks. Prior to that we see, Columbo-like, the SPOILER methodically set up his alibi and go through the steps to swap real bullets for blanks. But it turns out this 'great artist' didn't have the imagination to devise the plot on his own, but had to bring in a 'murder script doctor.' Astrid and Raph have to unmask the real architect of the crime.

Mortensen and Dewaere, with Alex Goulde as Paul Gérard


NOTES

Et on tourne pause apr'?, 'And we shoot break after?' (1'54") includes a contraction (I'm assuming the apostrophe) of aprés. I'm making it 'What do we shoot after the break.'

2'47": That took 6 minutes?

Two more instances of Astrid being called 'Lt Nielsen' (7'44", 8'33").

People who rewrite scripts (10'44") in addition to script doctors are called script consultants in Hollywood.

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Astrid et Raphaëlle, S05E07

Astrid et Raphaëlle S05E07, "On achève bien les jockeys" (Finishing Off The Jockeys), runtime 47:10
Subtitles download link

The wedding looks like it's a go, with Astrid planning to wear her regular clothes for a by-the-book (the Civil Code) administrative ceremony with Tetsuo at town hall-- but her newly minted witness Raph is determined to make it the wedding of the century. Nico and Patricia butt heads.

Meanwhile, Astrid, Raph, and Nico are called to a high class horse farm where the murder of thoroughbred "Fibonacci 2" requires solving. For Astrid this brings back memories, good and bad, of the stables where she and Sami interned as teenagers. But then the horse's jockey is found dead.

Teenage Astrid (Sylvie Filloux) meets teenage Samy (Romain Baele).


NOTES

I would've thought Roman numerals would be used in Fibonacci's name (2'21"), but the Arabic numeral is used in print later. The l'Esterel are mountains west of Nice. The withers is the highest point of a horse's back at the base of the neck.

Gêné (5'40") usually means 'embarrassed,' but here it means 'bothered' or 'uncomfortable.'

The lip-flapping sound horses make (5'51") really is called a 'blow.' A cross between a whinny and a gurgle is a 'nicker.'

A farrier (6'08") is a person who shoes horses and trims hooves. Ironically, the actor portraying the stable groom (palefrenière) is named Ferrier.

The Grand Steeple-chase at the Auteuil racecourse (6'44") is known officially as the "Grand Steeple-chase de Paris."

Google Lens says that ساهيب وا ماليك انتوني اليكساندير
(11'39") is in the Malay Jawi language and does indeed mean 'Sahib Wa Malik [lord and possessor]- Antoni Aleksander.' The general's full name is Antoni Aleksander Ilinski, he was a Pole who was in the Ottoman army in the mid-19th century.

It's a relief to find out that SPOILER isn't responsible for Astrid's PTSD/amnesia.

Matador (24'28") in this case is a brand name.

Binôme de choc! (35'10") is great! 'Dynamic duo' or 'power couple.'

A pas faire tout un plat, 'don't make a whole dish either' (36'02"), means 'Let's not make a big deal about it.'

Montrouge (43'11") is an area on the southern edge of central Paris. The 150-acre Bagneux Cemetery exists in real life.

Nico's Pléiades (43'33") appears to refer to Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, annotated, leather-bound pocket versions of classic literature, first published in the 1930s and still to this day.

C'est un peu soupe au lait, 'He's a little milk soup' (44'56"), means 'He's got a bit of a temper.'


Friday, February 7, 2025

Astrid et Raphaëlle S05E06

Astrid and Raphaëlle S05E06, "Loup y es-tu?" (Wolf, Are You There?), runtime 54:30 Subtitles download link


Hey, it's the first anniversary of Translation Notes!

The squad is called to the murder of a jogger. It's the fifth in a series of killings with the same MO: torn-up face and upper body, the wounds bearing all the hallmarks of a werewolf attack. In fact The Werewolf is what the media is calling the perpetrator. Other squads have failed to solve the previous four crimes, so the prosecutor has handed the case to Commissioner Carl and the Astrid/Raphaëlle brigade. A criminal profiler, Delphine, has also been assigned-- but Raph hates profilers.  Raph and her mom finally talk, a little.  Astrid has studied the marriage laws.

Charlotte Gaccio as Delphine

NOTES

The episode title refers to a children's rhyme which is also a game. Captain Marleau recites a portion of it in the cold open of “La Der des Der.”

Je suis de la maison, 'I'm from home' (5'31"), means 'I'm one of you,' ie 'I'm a cop too.'

Rue des Thermopyles (8'39") is a narrow and quiet mid-block residential street in the 14th, not far from the Montparnasse Cemetery.

The '9 points riddle' (8'50') is the puzzle of how to connect 9 dots with 4 straight lines, but without lifting pen from paper.

Names and terms from voodoo: Erzulie Dantor (14'49") is a Haitian goddess portrayed as a black Madonna with child; Loa (15'01", 17'13") are spirits, a term originating in Haiti; vévé (17'09") is an African symbol for spirits; Papa Legba (17'34") is 'the gatekeeper' deity in Haitian voodoo.

Rougarou (15'43") is a werewolf-like creature that appears in legends across French-speaking places around the world, such as Louisiana. The name comes from loup-garou, 'werewolf.'

Therese calls Nico vous Oyinbo (16'39"), Oyinbo being a word from Nigeria meaning 'white people.'

I honestly didn't catch where they first identified the jogger as Bizet, the name is suddenly dropped at 18'49".

Doudou Masta is 'David' on HPI.

Oswaldo (Doudou Masta) gives Nico (Benoit Michel) the Evil Eye

25'35": Media have reported on 'hyena men' in Nigeria who keep hyenas as pets and for performances.

Enchainer les passes (33'45") means 'string together moves.' Since it's a prostitution ring, I'm translating it as 'turning tricks.'

What does Zaïnab say at 38'21"? Your guess is as good as mine.

Makoko (40'13") is a real city (pop. over 85,000) in Lagos, Nigeria. Partly built on stilts over a lagoon, the community has been called 'the Venice of Africa.'

As Raph is mixing margaritas, Delphine suggests on pourrait peut-être se tutoyer, 'maybe we could use the informal form' (49'49"). Recall that as a Romance language, the French for 'you' has a formal form vous used with people you don't know well, and an informal form, tu, for family and friendsDelphine wants to be friends (unlike Nico and Oswaldo at 32'10") .

I thought 'context' would be a better translation of le cadre (51'59") than 'framework.'