Thursday, September 29, 2011

Do you know what they call ?Moneyball? in France?

Do you know what they call ?Moneyball? in France?

As a feature in Friday's Los Angeles Times explains, "Moneyball" star Pitt is a huge draw overseas. His movies actually generate more box office in foreign markets ? over there, people actually went to see "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" ? and so it makes sense that "Moneyball" is also being released overseas.

It is not, however, being called "Moneyball" in Europe. �

In marketing American films to international audiences, we all know that translations sometimes have to be made. Titles routinely get lost in translation and they often also result in some extremely amusing substitutes. (For instance, "Boogie Nights" was changed to "His Great Device Makes Him Famous" in China. A bit literal, but it certainly explains the story.)

And that leads us to the posters shown above. In France, there is no "Moneyball." Instead, Brad Pitt is ... "The Strategist!" (Or "Le Stratege.") It actually sounds a bit more like something Matt Damon or George Clooney might star in. The "Ocean's 11" movies probably could've been called "The Strategists," now that I think about it.

France is not a hotbed for baseball, which is probably why they didn't just call the movie "boule d'argent," which is French for "money ball"? (Same goes for Rob Iracane's suggested tagline of "le commentateur Joe Morgan n'aime pas Le Stratege.")

Unfortunately, Google Translate can only tell us so much as I'm not sure how to use it to translate Japanese. However, lighting Brad Pitt up like the heavenly figure that he is for their "Moneyball" poster probably tells us all we really need to know.

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