Lost in Translation

Okay, if you've been hanging out here the last day or two, you are perhaps already aware that I am currently in the land of the Ignoble Frog, specifically extremely Gay Paree (France), for a much needed vacation. In which case, like me, you may have been wondering what the current cinema sensation is here in the City of Lights.

Well, it didn't take me long to find out. In fact, within ten minutes of arriving, the following movie poster -- for a film opening Thursday at Les Octaplexes d'Enfers all over Paris -- had assaulted me from countless directions, i.e. the sides of buses, at newstands, and of course in Le Metro.

Please take a moment to ponder it (and the official trailer), and I beg you -- no Jerry Lewis jokes at the expense of star Franck Dubosc, who I am certain is a comic genius fully deserving of his French appellation "L'Idiote Stupide."

As you can see from the clip, Cineman appears to be only the millionth or so film to use the old metaphysical hero-falls-into-the-movie-on-screen gimmick since Buster Keaton perfected it in Sherlock, Jr (1924), although to be fair, the Gallic homage to Taxi Driver in the clip did make me laugh a little.

But I should note here for the record that the tag line in the poster -- "Cet Homme Est Professeur de Mathématiques" -- translates as "This Guy is a Math Teacher," which has got to be the single least funny tag line in history, unless the French find something intriniscally hilarious about the entire concept of "Math Teacher." And I should also add that given the Wiki translation of the film's plot summary -- "Regis Deloux, professor of mathematics at Montreuil-sous-Bois, one days is bitten by a brooch that belonged to an Austrian actress blueberries" -- there may be mysteries attendant to the film that will never be solved by those of us who dine more or less infrequently on snails in butter and garlic.

Oh well, who knows, or as M. Dubosc might put it "Qui sait?" In any case, for more on Franck and his movie, feel free to check out the official froggy website.