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the local

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WE’VE COLLECTED 21 OF THE MOST BIZARRE, SEXIEST, AND CRAZIEST EXAMPLES OF WHEN THE FRENCH HAVE RENAMED ENGLISH MOVIE TITLES… IN ENGLISH. BUT WHY DO THEY DO IT?
The French have a strange habit of changing English-language movie names to different English-language titles.

So, for example, The Hangover became Very Bad Trip for its France release:

hangover bradley cooper very bad trip ed helms zach galifinakis frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles

Strange, sure. But far from the strangest.

So Euro Trip, for example, became Sex Trip.

In fact, we noticed that the French translation team seems to have an unusual affinity for the word “sex”.

eurotrip movie road trip old school sex trip frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles

Wild Things, meanwhile, became Sex Crimes.

Sometimes the translators didn’t even really try…

not another teen movie sex academy chris evans jaime pressley spoof frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles

… at all.

out cold snow sex and sun frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles

But it’s not just “sex”. The French movie re-namers also seem to love the word “crazy”, as seen below.

mozart and the whale josh hartnett radha mitchell crazy in love frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles

And Trainwreck became Crazy Amy…

frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles crazy amy trainwreck amy schumer bill hader

Sometimes it goes a step further and brings in full-blown orgies.

frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles orgie movie meet the spartans spartacus spoof

So why are the French doing this?

Our theory is that many of the renamed films are destined to be Z-list flops, and that the French teams are desperate to “sex them up” to improve the sales.
French film expert Judith Prescott, who runs the site French Cinema Review, says she thinks the new titles are there to tell the French market “what to expect in three words or less”.
“Sex sells and so it’s not surprising that so many movies include ‘sex’ in the title,” she tells The Local.
“In the same way, putting the word ‘crazy’ in the title signals to French audiences a madcap, fun, romp of a movie, likewise the word ‘very’ suggests cool, funny, buddy movie like Very Bad Trip for The Hangover or Very Bad Cop for The Other Guys.
“It’s a form of cinematic shorthand, but the French should shy away from reinforcing national stereotypes n’est-ce pas?”
Indeed.
no strings attached natalie portman ashton kutcher sex comedy frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles
Manon Kerjean, meanwhile, who runs the Lost in Frenchlation movie screenings in Paris, says the changed titles reflect French people’s approach to the English language.
“I think it’s funny although it proves that the French are a little bit lazy with English and with languages in general,” she tells The Local.
“I think it’s good if it makes French people identify more easily with the film and if as a result they go to the cinema more.
“But I think it’s also a little bit embarrassing in the sense that they need to modify the language to be able to understand it instead of opening up to the English culture and learning the language more thoroughly.”
Explain it however you like, but there’s no denying that there is a strong tendency to get sex in movie titles.
Like this one:
frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles the in crowd

Or this…

step up channing tatum jenna dewan dance movie break frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles

Even the cover image of the film below got extremely sex-ified.

frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles bad biology frank hennenlotter

And why call a movie “Shortcut to Happiness” when you can call it “Sexy Devil”?

frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles anthony hopkins alec baldwin jennifer love hewitt

Sometimes it seems the French just take out words to add “sex” instead.

to do list aubrey plaza sex list frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles

The film below went for “Sexy Therapy” instead of the more predictable “Sex Therapy”…

frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles a short history of decay bryan greenberg emmanuelle chriqui sexy therapy

But that’s only because Sex Therapy existed…

frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles sex therapy thanks for sharing gwenyth paltrow mark ruffalo

Anyway, as we said, it’s not all sex and craziness. Sometimes the French have just picked some interesting choices for new film names. Here are a few favorites:

frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles all about albert julia louis dreyfus james gandolfini
frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles american bluff jennifer lawrence bradley cooper christian bale amy adams david o russell
frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles morgan spurlock
frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles pain and gain mark whalberg dwayne johnson

But who are we kidding? The best ones are the ones with a random “sex” in the title.

frenchlation cinema paris expat english subtitles fired up movie

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