Pratchett at the Movies

[tealin]

Random neurons firing today brought up these ancient questions:

1. Anyone seen Ever After? Does she actually call herself the Comtesse Nicole de Lancre? A quick Google search seems to say so but IMDb spells it 'Lancret.' Does anyone know the official spelling?

2. The train Bruce Willis' character (very much the watchman) gets onto at the beginning of Unbreakable is #177. Is this an actual train number that goes between Philadelphia and ... wotsit ... New York? Is it a coincidence?
(Possibly also a coincidence is that the Pasadena Rapit Transit bus that goes to the Jet Propulsion Lab is #177 ... then again, it is full of science nerds, so this may not be a coincidence...)

Comments

[beckychan.livejournal.com]

I... shoot! I have no idea what the official spelling is! I love that movie, though! Next time I watch it, I'll see if it says anything in the credits.

[nazgul-number-7.livejournal.com]

I think, due to the nature of French pronunciation and the way it's said in the movie, that it would have to spelled Lancret. Lancre would have a weird swallowed r sound at the end if it were spelled like that and actually pronounced properly.

But I've only got a year of French to go on, so it's possible that I'm wrong.

[timba.livejournal.com]

I agree with you.

(I have 3 years of French, but it is slowly being erased by Arabic for what that's worth.)

[aspectabund.livejournal.com]

I have no idea about how it's pronounced in the movie, since I have not seen it, but to futher illuminate the pronunciation:

Lancre: sounds a bit like "lawn-cruh," but.. yes, I think "a weird swallowed" sound on the second syllabel is an appropriate descriptor.

Lancret: sounds like "lawn-cray." Course, it could always be Lancré, which has the same pronunciation as Lancret. :B

There seems to be some sort of competition here, so 11 years of French. Yay for Canada and mandatory learning of French until grade 9, although I took it till 11. Now a francophone must step in here to defeat us all. 8D

Also, nazgul, that is an amusing icon. Mythbusters ftw.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

O that I had had a Canadian education, I might have slightly less dreadful French than I do. :( At the very least I could have listened to Radio-Canada to hear it actually spoken. Or learned it from someone who hadn't learned it out of a book. Woe, woe.

[anilori.livejournal.com]

"Now a francophone must step in here to defeat us all."

Weeelll, since you ask I step in, but you have already said all there is to say (plus, I haven't even seen the film). Actually Lancret and Lancré would not sound exactly the same but I don't think you could expect the distinction in an English-speaking context.

Both Lancret and Lancre are actual existing names, so no help there. You choose between XVIIIth century painter (Nicolas Lancret) and XVIIth century witch-hunter (yep, witches !)I would prefer the first though, even if it is the wrong century...

On the other hand, did you know someone had actually created a computer language based entirely on the word Ook ? http://99-bottles-of-beer.net/language-ook!-515.html


Ani, expert swallower of weird sounds

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I know that's how it ought to be spelled but I'm just really hoping the writers were trying to pull one on us and Frenchified the pronunciation by spelling it Lancré.

[floramir.livejournal.com]

Don't know how official wikipedia is, but they say: Nicole de Lancrét (they also have a humorous list of historical inaccuracies in the film ^_^).

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Wow, that spelling covers all the bases.

Was the film even trying to be historically accurate?

[floramir.livejournal.com]

Apparently not.