One thing that always bothered me about the title of this movie, though, is that the adjective fabuleux "fabulous" is in the wrong place to be grammatically correct. See, in French the adjective usually goes after the noun (the noun here being destin), except in very specific circumstances. Mainly, there are about 10 adjectives that go before the noun, and then about 6 more that change meaning depending on whether you put them before or after the noun (confusing, right? Tell that to the French.). And darnit, fabuleux isn't in either of these categories.
So what's up, Jean-Paul Jeunet? This is the question I have been plagued with for a couple years. This isn't just a stupid grammatical thing like a missing apostrophe or something; this is like the equivalent of a fluent English speaker messing up the order of their words and then thinking normal it is.
AND THEN I LEARNED SOMETHING TODAY.
In my French class, someone accidentally said "la triste vie" (literal: the sad life) instead of "la vie triste" (The life sad), like is correct in French. And my professor corrected him, and then made this offhand comment that actually, this weird phenomenon that happens in French poetry and eloquent speech is that putting the adjective on the opposite side of the noun that it's supposed to go adds emphasis. So "la triste vie," should technically be "la vie triste," but if someone switches it on purpose, it means that life is extra sad.
So, what this all adds up to is that in Le Fabeleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain the writer wasn't being dumb, he was being poetic. And as you know if you've seen this movie, Amélie's destiny is indeed extra fabulous.
Neato! We do that in English sometimes, too. For example, in the Christmas favorite, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear"
ReplyDeleteMr. Poe uses it too! "'Twas once upon a midnight dreary, as I pondered weak and weary..."
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't sound that weird to us English speakers at all. It's not something we do in our everyday speech, but it's definitely not uncommon for it to be used in a dramatic or poetic way. I imagine it's very much the same in French :)
It seems a little bit different to me, but maybe I'm just splitting hairs, haha. Both of those examples are in songs or verse, and it looks like they're there to make it rhyme or fit the tune, not to add emphasis. It could certainly be argued that it ALSO adds emphasis, though.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting even though I don't speak French! It does make me want to know what is SO fabulous about Amelie's life that she can justify putting the adjective in front for emphasis. I better get the movie.
ReplyDeleteIt's a fantastic movie! Highly recommended by us :)
ReplyDeleteDory, that's actually a good point. I can't think of any examples of the adjective coming after the noun in something other than a poem or song, not even a title. But now that I'm thinking about it, I'll keep you posted if I do find anything, haha.
Aha! I've got one: "The Life Aquatic" :D
ReplyDelete(or... "The Life Eccentric," hmm?)
haha, there we go! In English it seems to be more of a quirky thing. :)
ReplyDelete