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Thursday, October 8, 2009

4 Indians, a Spanish movie, Dutch subtitles

Well, the title literally gives it away. The university has a small theater/cafe called the 'Zwarte Doos' or the black box which plays a movie three days a week. The movies played are mostly foreign and are generally not the main stream hits like in regular theaters. You have to watch out in their Dutch website to see what movie is played and in which language.

It was completely my idea and as I checked the website, it said the movie was in two languages - English/Spanish. Somehow I just assumed that the movie was in English with sprinkles of Spanish in between. So off we all went to watch Che-part 1, a biography on the Argentina born Cuban revolutionary.



The movie started and for the first 5 minutes everything was in Spanish. While my friends gave me the weird looks and mumbled a few curses under their breath, I was confident that the language would switch soon. Ah! Steven Soderbergh, the director was trying to give an authentic feeling to the film. As it turned out the movie was entirely in Spanish, sprinkled with some English.
And as one would expect the subtitles were in Dutch (The Dutch never dub foreign films, just subtitles). I did suspect something when the ticket counter guy gave us the odd looks.

While I desperately tried to figure out the subtitles, I really really wished I had payed more attention in my Dutch class. The movie was dead serious and the one or two times the audience laughed, I joined in just to blend in. hahaha!!! I seriously thought at least one of my friends was going to walk out soon. But we managed through the 2 hour movie. I must say quite an accomplishment. And to think that we were thinking of buying tickets for Che - part 2 for a back to back view!

The only good thing was that I realized my Dutch even though not any where close to being decent has vastly improved in the nine months that I have been here.

P.S - Ernesto Che Guevara! What a man, what a revolutionary! Not having learnt a whole lot while watching the movie, I came home and read quite a bit about him. Will probably try watching Che - part 2 with English subtitles.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Ohhhh, dear! I could've told you that the film was Spanish-spoken for I saw it just a few days ago... I also had expected it'd be in English with some Spanish interspersed, by the way.
Anyway, I see that some good came out of it: your realising that your understanding of Dutch has improved and that now you know more about Che.
Another positive consequence of having watched this film will be revealed soon, in my blog.... but shhhhh!! ;)
Cheers!!

thamarai said...

Aledys, what a co-incidence!!..well, I will keep my eyes open..is it a close up review on Che or something? Btw, I hope it is not inappropriate to say this, but Che was a such a good looking man! :)

karthik said...

this reminds me of a time while at coimbatore as a student i'd gone to a hindi movie, kabhi kushi kabhi gham with me mates. Being true blooded tamilians none of us knew hindi except for one guy who claimed to know some. he translated the movie for us religiously, only that we found out after the movie from a north indian friend of ours that our translator had spun his own story :-)

Unknown said...

thamarai,
Yes, visit my blog in the next few weeks and you'll see... :) (cheap way to promote my blog, by the way lol!)
Do you mean that the real Che was good-looking or are you referring to Benicio del Toro?

thamarai said...

Karthik, Lol!! that is so funny...kabhi khushi kanhi gam was as it a really slow, melodramtic movie, on top of that your friend's commentary..:D..that too his own version...

Aledys, the surprise makes it even more interesting..:)..Oh I meant the actual man! And to think that he was so well educated, with no money problems and he yet decided to fight for some other country's freedom!

Droomvla said...

Must have been quite a challenge! I'm glad you survived it. LOL This happened to me long time ago. It was film festival week in the university theater, and we went there to watch an Akira Kurosawa film... It was in Japanese and no subtitles. Quite a challenge for us! LOL

thamarai said...

Droomvla, Indeed the movie will be a lasting memory...haha..but in your case, no subtitles!! phew that must have been even harder..:)..

~ Lopa said...

cool ;)
See now with Dutch, you are learning Sapnish too ;)

Btw keeping busy to post any movie reviews but a one-line review for you to avoid kaminey ;) lol
Do not watch Dance flick and Do Knot Disturb... its really no-brain movie and yes also Final Destination 3D if you cant see much brutality and blood !

And did you watch the rebound, ugly truth and wake up sid?
I likes all 3 of them as nice one time watch and time pass... :)

thamarai said...

Lopaaaa!!! Spanish is faaaaaaar fetched! :D..And thanks a lot for the tips...that is sooo sweet of you! Everybody is talking about 'wake up Sid! Will watch it for sure..will give ugly truth and rebound a try...:)

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