American Movies in France

The new Die Hard movie is being advertised heavily over here. Bruce Willis' face is everywhere (which may or may not be a good thing, depending on your point of view).

I find American films in foreign countries interesting because they have a slightly different spin at at times. The title of the film, in this case, is "A Good Day to Die Hard", but in French, that doesn't translate too well, so it's Belle Journée Pour Mourir (Good Day to Die), and I think it's a, ah, nicer title.


What I particularly liked, though was the tagline on today's "20 Minutes" a free newspaper passed out in the Paris Métro. The tagline reads John McClane Demande Aussie Son Passeport Pour La Russie (John McClane also wants his Russian passport), a bit of a dig at Gerard Depardieu, to whom Russian President Putin personally authorized a Russian passport. It's not something that would really make much sense in the US, but here, it's good for a laugh.

If you go to the cinema here, American movies are often advertised as version originale, meaning that they're in English with French sub-titles. Look for the "VO" by the movie name if you want a movie you can watch and understand.