“My favorite?
“De Düva” 1968
a spoof ON Bergman.”
- I’ve never heard about this film, but it seems amusing. Thanks for tip!
( I read a little about it here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062906/ )
The title as such, “De Düva: The Dove”, is probably an intentional linguistic misdeed. To someone who knows both Swedish and English (like I do) the title is rather funny and absurd.
“The Dove” would be “Duvan” in Swedish (”Duva” is the word for “Dove). Furthermore, “De” doesn’t mean “The”, in most contexts it would mean “They”, or “Those”. Sometimes, “De” appears as definite article (like “The”), but only in relation to certain words that are in the definite PLURAL form. “Duva”, however, is the SINGULAR form of “Dove” and “Duva” (just like “Dove”) is not in the definite form. Therefore, “De duva” is like saying “They Dove” in English - utter nonsense.
It’s even more weird than this as the letter “Ü” doesn’t even exist in the Swedish alphabet. But we do have a letter that looks a bit similar, namely “Ö” (pronounced more or less like “ea” in “earn”). “De Döva” would actually be perfect Swedish. It would mean “The Deaf”, which also strikes me as a typical title of an “artistic”, European, slightly incomprehensible film.
A sloppy minded film distributor of the Anglo-Saxon world would perhaps give “De Döva” the title “De Düva - The Dove” on their home market. Maybe this is the idea behind the name of the film?
Yes, it is intentional. The whole thing is done in a mock Swedish with English subtitles. My favorite line is the chauffeur, after the dove craps on the car window and he gets out to clean it off: "Duva caca. Eil weipen." The climax of the film is a badminton match with Death.