Ridiculous Movie Title Translations

[Morsoth]

Speed (1994) was translated as Clanches! in Canadian French (meaning 'trigger' or 'start', like in an automobile starter), but the ridiculous thing is: it is a typo!

The way we say it, phonetically, it works, but it should be written as Clenches. When it got released in theater, and later in VHS, I remember that this title was ridiculed everywhere.

When the sequel came out, they corrected their mistake and titled it Ça va clencher!.

[pikeman1]

in Vietnam, Interstellar (2014) is called Black Hole of Death
I totally thought it's a horror movie until I saw the original title next to it

[apricissimus]

Originally Posted by TajSamKojiJesam

American Beauty was for some reason translated as Vrtlog života in Croatian, which means The Vortex of Life.

I actually like this title. Think about the plastic bag blowing around in the breeze.

[damien bayser]

[lesco]

Here's an old Film Threat article that's tailor-made for this thread. Enjoy!

https://filmthreat.com/uncategorized...tle-every-day/

[ophone]

Originally Posted by Morsoth

The way we say it, phonetically, it works, but it should be written as Clenches. When it got released in theater, and later in VHS, I remember that this title was ridiculed everywhere.

Clenche means door handle in Belgian French. (And is very closely related to the Luxembourgish Klensch, which means the same and also a beer glass with a handle.)

Most prominent case for me is the French title of The Hangover: "Very Bad Trip" and to top it off it's in English not Voyage très mauvais.

There are many German and French versions of films in English language that keep their title in English, but eventual initial definite articles are dropped, like for instance The Hangover becoming Hangover in German.
For Intouchables it was the other way around, becoming The Intouchables in many parts of the English speaking world.