parlez vous francais?

[denise]

When Josette first arrived at Collinwood she greeted Angelique in French, what did they say?

[Gerard]

I'm pretty sure somebody once did post it on here; check the search feature (maybe wait until Midnite gives the all-clear to make sure it's working OK).  I also recall TLATKLS once saying that at first they wanted Josette and Angelique to not only converse more in French, but to use French accents, but the PTB decided after just a coupla episodes to jettison the Fran-says (and any attempt at an accent) to just having them yack in a good, ol' Yankee manner.  But it was nice to see the Countess still toss out some irregular grammatical verbiage in that fer'n tongue every once in awhile during the storyline.  Let's just be grateful that Josette's last name wasn't Von Fleckenstaterhopstgeleiter.  It just wouldn't seem very gothically romantic to hear her saying:  "Acht du Lieber!  Herr Barnabas, du bist einen Bluttrinken!"

Gerard

[Midnite]

Well, the archived posts haven't been restored yet.  I can search through my backup files, but to be honest, though I remember who posted the translation (scary, no?) I'm not sure if she did so in this incarnation of the forum or if it was on one of the deleted VantageNet boards.  I'll have to get back to you on that.

Acht du Lieber???

[Midnite]

No need to search-- the answer disappeared with the lost VNet boards.  Gerard, what you may be remembering is that denise previously asked the same question when we were posting on eboards4all (the temp forum that preceded this one).  All of those posts were transferred here as indicated by the 2 dates per post, but unfortunately, no one was able to provide the answer then--


question|denise|email hidden|02/26/02 at 12:12:52|Guest|
Originally posted by denise on the Dark Shadows: General Discussion Forum on February 24, 2002 at 12:14:39:
when josette and angelique first meet what is the exact translation from french that they are saying also if they are french don't you think they should be speaking throughout with at least a slight french accent i thought that it would have presented a challenge to their acting abilities
Re: question|Gerard|email hidden|02/26/02 at 12:14:06|Guest|
Posted by Gerard on February 24, 2002 at 15:46:44:
In Reply to: question posted by denise on February 24, 2002 at 12:14:39:
I can't help with the French translation. My last year in undergrad college I took beginner French as a "fun-filler" course, thinking it would be a breeze and at least I'd have some understanding of the language. It was the only C I got in college, and I had to fight for that.

As for the "accent", TLATKLS stated in one of her books that they did attempt a few lines with a French accent, but it sounded so......well, so bad, that they dumped it faster than she dumped the original blond wig as Maggie.

Gerard
Re: question|Josette|email hidden|02/26/02 at 12:15:07|Guest|
Posted by Josette on February 24, 2002 at 22:09:16:
In Reply to: Re: question posted by Gerard on February 24, 2002 at 15:46:44:
That was one thing I liked about the new version. Angelique definitely put on a French accent and it was rather adorable.

Josette
Re: question|arashi|email hidden|02/26/02 at 12:16:03|Guest|
Posted by arashi on February 25, 2002 at 13:52:03:
In Reply to: question posted by denise on February 24, 2002 at 12:14:39:
I wish I had taped today's episode! I could've helped you out! Anyone got a transcript? I can translate.

~Arashi
(Who tooks six years of French in school, the last two only because her father made her (Japanese is so much more fun!))

[ProfStokes]

All that I can remember is Angelique saying what sounds like, "Ils ont achete," (they have bought) but I could never decipher the rest of it. Sorry.  I do have the translation for the first seance though (phoenix storyline 1967) if anyone needs that.

ProfStokes

[tripwire]

Yeah, i remember that scene, and if i am not mistaken, it went something like this.

 A:  This is one strange family you got mixed up with Josette, 60 year old woman that has a son 45 and a daughter thats 10, and that Joshua is a weirdo!!

 J: yeah i know, Barnabas tells me he is 26, but he 43 if he is a day, thats ok though, they have $$$$$.

[ProfStokes]

LOL, tripwire!

ProfStokes

[Midnite]

LOL, tripwire!

Ditto!

[Gothick]

Wow, the Boards are back!  ga-roovy!

I remember this scene very well, having played it several times.  What I remember of the dialogue is that Angelique and Josette greet one another, and Angelique complains about how cold it is at Collinwood.

It's really not that much.  The actresses only had a couple of hours to work on the scene, obviously, so they didn't give them a whole lot.

I did think that the way KLS spoke as Josette had a certain lilt that suggested English was not her native language.  It's subtle, but it's there.  Grayson spoke French fluently but also opted to speak with a slightly unusual emphasis that suggested hauteur rather than the specifics of the French language.

The disastrousness of trying to get thesps to do the accent is shown very plainly in the unspeakable awfulness of Lysette Anthony's vocalizing as Angelique in the 1990 mounting of the series.  I mean, honestly, how seriously can you take a curse that starts out "EAR me, BAH-rr-na-bas!"  To be fair, Anthony was competing with Barbara Steele, who could do a French accent and make it sound like the most natural thing in the world.  Rather like racing a clapped-out nag against a thoroughbred mare in her prime.

G.

[Luciaphile]

Going off of memory here, but IIRC, someone posted that it was along the lines of "Oh, mademoiselle, it is so cold here." Something about the wind. Very generic, badly pronounced conversational French.

Not, as I would myself have articulated, "These people are crazy. Let's blow this popsicle stand and get out of Dodge. There have to be better men back in Martinique." 

[Julia99]

Not, as I would myself have articulated, "These people are crazy. Let's blow this popsicle stand and get out of Dodge. There have to be better men back in Martinique." 

Lucia--we should REwrite the scene then and a few others. . .