In Bruges/Bon baisers de Bruges

(From Bruges with Love)

Ah, In Bruges. The first film where I stopped thinking Colin Farrell was an absolute douche, and started thinking he was actually quite cute. (I'm still waiting for that sort of revelation with Christian Bale, but this is not like it's going to happen any time soon).

Two hitmen are sent to Bruges after something goes wrong. And they are to wait there to be contacted by their boss. So they spend their time sightseeing and meeting pretty Belgians. Until the final shootout.

In Bruges is to thrillers what Shaun of the Dead is to zombie films... An excellent mix of the genre with comedy. With kick ass lines like "Ken, I grew up in Dublin. I love Dublin. If I grew up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me but I didn't, so it doesn't." or "Purgatory's kind of like the in-betweeny one. You weren't really shit, but you weren't all that great either. Like Tottenham." it is definitely one of my favourite comedies.

The English title is simple, factual. This is a story that happened in Bruges. No hint on comedy or anything else for that matter.

Different story for the French title. "Bon baisers de Bruges" (From Bruges with Love) reminds audience of the Bond film "Bon baisers de Russie" (From Russia with Love) which was referred to in one of the silliest spy spoof films ever, "Bon baisers de Hong Kong" (synospis here) that was released in 1975 with a bunch of French comedians, therefore, hinting that any title with "Bon baisers" in would apply to spy films. Or comedies. (This shall be rule 4: "Thou shall refer to a previous title in order to establish that this new film is part of the genre or family that the older film belongs to". More on that later.)

Which is a bit hit and miss really since, as it stands, the characters in the film aren't exactly inconspicuous, though I have to admit that they are very funny.

I was quite upset on finding out how the title was translated: "A Bruges" would have kept the spirit of the original title perfectly.

But why keep things simple when you can complicate them a bit?