Monday, May 28, 2018

New English subtitles for The Collector (La collectionneuse) (1967)

English subtitles aren't available in the usual places for recent, European Bluray-sourced editions of Rohmer's splendid The Collector (La collectionneuse) (1967), e.g., for releases such as The.Collector.1967.720p.BluRay.x264-MELiTE. I've filled this gap (at least temporarily) by combining old Dvd English subtitles with the timings of recent, release-appropriate Spanish subtitles (a trickier job than it sounds; it took hours), and making the upshot subtitles available without restriction here.

These subtitles are decent but far from perfect (e.g., there's a gap in all existing subtitles at around 30m 45s; the second part of the exchange between Daniel and the villa's Italian cook, to which Haydée mumblingly contributes, goes untranslated, and a joke is missed by those of us without sufficient French; things like google translate make absolutely no headway on this sort of rushed, slightly mumbled, heavily accented French conversation!). Feel free to improve them, and to share your improvements.