The series “The Night Laurier Gaudreault Woke Up” by Quebec director Xavier Dolan, available on Canal +, is subtitled in French. The Quebec press is moved and denounces a negation of Francophonie, and I quote “an insult to French spoken in Quebec”. This isn’t the first time that many Quebec films have been subtitled what’s called “French of France,” filtering out Quebec’s poetry and distinctive vocabulary. We asked Myriam D’Arcy what she thinks of these subtitles.
The meaning of work
“To fully understand a work, one must understand its language and its particular accents. In the language of Xavier Dolan, the dialogues are central to his work and are a character as such; They are brilliant and effective. So, of course, when subtitles don’t say quite the same thing, we lose the delicacy of the work, its color. “ Myriam D’Arcy
According to Myriam D’Arcy, the subtitles therefore lead to a discrepancy with the work that sometimes borders on nonsense, for example in a scene with translated insults. In addition, Xavier Dolan’s language says a lot about the social and cultural conditions of his characters, which contributes to a fuller understanding of the work.
The problem, according to the representative of the Lionel Groulx Foundation, is that this choice of subtitles in Xavier Dolan’s work has no precedent and is in no way a standard in broadcasting. Quebec Movies.
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For language diversity
This polemic makes it possible to determine the direction of the prejudice according to which there is a French language that can be used as a norm and to which a multitude of peripheral existences can be attributed. The French language, as Myriam D’Arcy reminds us, is an extremely diverse language that does not exist outside of its use. Just as there is an abundance of accents and dictions in French territory, there is the same diversity in Quebec.
“In Gaspésie, the accent is different than in Saguenay Lac-Saint-Jean or Montreal. Of course there are subtleties, but we understand each other. We should all understand each other everywhere in Francophonie.” Myriam D’Arcy
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Xavier Dolan’s series The Night Laurier Gaudreault Woke Up
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