Ford v Ferrari

You may have thought Sweden had stopped with the weird translations of film titles, leaving all of this behind in the globalised era of on-demand streaming. You thought wrong.

This Oscar-winning film from 2020 proves that the practice is alive and well. For some reason, translators didn’t think that Swedes would realise that Ford v Ferrari was about a racing feud between car companies Ford and, you guessed it, Ferrari.

Instead, they chose to give the film the much more obvious name of… err.. Le Mans ’66, named after the car race central to the plot of the film.

We’re not sure what they were thinking there.

The Shawshank Redemption

The 1994 prison film starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins as inmates in Shawshank State Prison has a confusing title in English, which is blamed as one of the factors behind its initial box office flop.

The Swedish title isn’t much better, though. It’s called Nyckeln till frihet (the Key to Freedom) in Sweden, which is about as descriptive as the English version.

Confusingly, the Steven King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption which provided the inspiration for the film has a different name again in Sweden: Vårbedrift or “Spring Company”, reflecting its original inclusion in King’s Four Seasons collection.

The Silver Linings Playbook

When the 2012 film The Silver Linings Playbook starring Jennifer Lawrence hit Swedish cinemas, posters in Stockholm left at least a few people scratching their heads, as the title was translated to Du gör mig galen (literally: You Drive Me Crazy).

Sure, an idea like a playbook with any kind of lining at all is a challenge for even the trustiest of translators, but in this case – they appear to have abandoned ship and gone for something completely different.

Attack of the 50-Foot Woman

Granted, this 1950s American sci-fi horror film about a woman who becomes a 50-ft giant after a mysterious encounter with an alien has an odd name in English, but the Swedish name is even better: Wow, min fru är en sexig jätte! or “Wow, my wife is a sexy giant!”

Either way, the film poster is great.

Groundhog Day

This 1993 film stars Bill Murray as a narcissistic weatherman who gets stuck in a timeloop, where every day is Groundhog Day.

Although the direct Swedish translation of Groundhog Day would be Murmeldjursdagen, translators instead chose to go for Måndag hela veckan or “Monday all week”, which arguably more accurately portray’s Murray’s feelings when waking up every day to a replay of the day before.

The Graduate

A classic film from 1967, the film The Graduate was not only a huge hit in its own right, but the soundtrack by Simon and Garfunkel, including Mrs Robinson, The Sound of Silence and Scarborough Fair was also extremely popular after the film was released.

The story follows Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who moves back to his hometown and is seduced by Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), an older woman who is a friend of the family.

The film portrays Braddock in a transitional stage between youth and adulthood, which is reflected in the Swedish title: Mandomsprovet or “The Manhood Test”.

Heathers

The 1988 cult film Heathers is a black teen comedy featuring a clique of teenage girls – three of whom are named Heather – and the disruption caused when a new student arrives who is intent on killing the most popular students in the school in staged suicides. 

Although the English title doesn’t explain much more than the names of the girls in the clique, the Swedish title is just flat-out confusing. It’s known as Häxor, läxor och dödliga lektioner, or “Witches, homework and deadly lessons”. Despite the title, there are no witches in the film.

The Producers

This odd film title isn’t just one film, but a whole category. The 1967 Mel Brooks comedy is about a theatre producer duo who set out to make the worst play ever, in a bid to run off with all the money they collected to finance the play.

The play ends up being a musical titled “Springtime for Hitler – A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden”, which provides the basis of the Swedish film title: Det våras för Hitler (literally: It’s Time for Hitler, but also a play on the Swedish word vår meaning “springtime”).

So far, the Swedish translation makes sense. What is odd about this, though, is that almost all of Mel Brooks’ subsequent films also had titles beginning with Det våras för…

This includes Det våras för svärmör (The Twelve Chairs), Det våras för sheriffen (Blazing Saddles), Det våras för Frankenstein (Young Frankenstein), Det våras för stumfilmen (Silent Movie), Det våras för galningarna (High Anxiety), Det våras för världshistorien del 1 (History of the World, part one), Det våras för rymden (Spaceballs), Det våras för slummen (Life Stinks) and Det våras för Hamlet (To Be or not To Be).

It’s not clear why Swedish translators were so committed to using this format for Mel Brooks titles, but you can’t fault them for going all-in.

By Becky Waterton, based on an article by Oliver Gee