Like John Holbo, I know I enjoyed the Matrix II, but I want to see it again before I can tell if I really liked it. It’s such a dazzling film, that there were whole chunks of time where I almost completely ignored the dialogue to concentrate on the action. The movie seemed to pass like time does when you’re giving a speech or attending an interview - you’re so keyed up by the performance that you walk out unable to recall it with any coherence, and have to wait for the flashes of memory over the following hours before you can put it together into a while.
The dialogue was mostly yards of exposition rather than character-driven discussion, and most of it tumbled out of Laurence Fishburne’s mouth. I just do not know how the man keeps a straight face, though he almost succeedes in making the most banal of lines (‘some things never change. some things do change.’) seem profound. Carrie Anne Moss didn’t have much to do except look very, very cool. Monica Belucci was mesmerising (as always), and, although she’s Italian, made a far better stab at speaking English with a French accent than did Lawrence Wilson (the Merovingian) who sounded German half of the time. (Which is odd because Wilson has worked a lot in France. Or maybe he was supposed to be German?)
But anyway, there were a few longeurs; the scenes showing off Zion, and anything involving Morpheus speaking. The political set-up of Zion is about as complex as the average Star Trek stop-off, rather disappointing given the attention lavished on its look. One notable feature, though, is the variety of races amongst the secondary characters. Zion may be a plutocracy, but it’s a relatively diverse one. Although, I did find myself speculating about why the only 250,000 conscious humans on the planet spoke English with American accents and yet partied like they were at Glastonbury. Perhaps, just by coincidence, the first 23 people of the 6th version of the Matrix just happened to be American and so passed the accent on to everyone else?
I’m still trying to get my head around the turn of fate involving the Oracle (and don’t read any further if you don’t want to know more of the film’s plot!), but I did wonder. In the first Matrix film, Neo was told that the year was actually about a century later than he’d thought, but the rule of the machines wasn’t thought to have pre-dated this by very long (much less than a century I vaguely remember). So, Zion couldn’t have been older than, max, 200 years, or about 3-5 generations. But, in Matrix Reloaded, we learn that the Matrix has been destroyed and re-populated several times. If this is the case, then wouldn’t there be a folk memory of the re-population amongst the inhabitants of Zion? And wouldn’t the people of Zion know that they (or their immediate ancestors) had not, in fact, built Zion and its machines? I am perplexed.
Overall though, my verdict is a fuzzy one; case unproven. I have the impression that Matrix Reloaded was more a the sum of its parts; a series of truly stunning set pieces just about held together by the love story at its centre and its burning question about foreknowledge, pre-destination and free will. I suspect that a second viewing will be very worthwhile and that, like the Empire Strikes Back, Reloaded may turn out to be the most interesting of the trilogy.
One last thing, Merovingian’s monologue about cursing in the french language being like wiping your arse with silk went down an absolute cracker in central Paris. A real gem.
Update: Thanks to John J. Emerson who explains Merovingian’s accent by pointing out that the Merovingians were, of course, Franks.
Posted by Maria at May 19, 2003 09:49 AM | TrackBackI’m looking for the exact quote from the Merovingian and if you find it somewhere, please let me know. They laughed out loud at it here in Flanders too. Unfortunately, my memory was not quite good enough to keep in all in my head until I got home, and besides, as someone for whom a long string of French cussing is “hostie de calice de sacre christ de tabarnac de marde”, it was stranger sounding to me than the local Flemings.
Posted by: Scott Martens at May 19, 2003 10:34 AMI’ll ask the friends I went with whose fluency in french cuss words is much greater than mine! (cue angelic sigh.)
Posted by: Maria at May 19, 2003 11:22 AMWell, the Merovingians were Franks, so a German accent would be OK. Karl der Grosse = Charlemagne.
Pointed out to me by Dunne of the Shamrockshire Eagle.
Neo is supposed to pull 25 people out of the Matrix to rebuild Zion, not to rescue people from Zion. So no, there would be no folk memory.
In the first movie, Morpheus says that the One was the first person to awake to the reality of the Matrix and rescue others from it. So they’re actually being consistent here.
Posted by: Kevin Brennan at May 21, 2003 11:35 AM“I have sampled every language, french is my favorite. Fantastic language, especially to curse with. Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d’enculé de ta mère.” — The Merovingian, in the Matrix Reloaded
google translate:
Name of god of whore of bloody hell of filth of jerk of asshole of your mother.
Insult forms are different in every language, thus it is hard to put that many insults together into a sentence in english(I know someone will). I think this is why the Merovingian preferred french
Posted by: Mike at May 27, 2003 01:27 PMThank you so much for posting exactly what he said. I’ve been looking all over for it. I was laughing to hard to catch it all. :)
Posted by: LeeAnn at May 28, 2003 10:28 AMAhh so confused about Zion are we? Well here’s the Truth: Zion is just another Matrix within the Matrix.
How’s that for a mind-fuck?
And the translation of the french swearing is more accurately: “In the name of god, of a brothel whore, of shit, of a dirty cretin, ass-fucking your mother.”
Posted by: Ray of Zion at May 28, 2003 04:44 PMHi, I’m some french dude and I was looking for the exact cuss said by Lambert wilson (not lawrence) and came across this very site.
Lemme give you more details :
Monica Belucci spends a lotta time in France and is, so, fluent in French. Lambert wilson IS french and I don’t know how you can hear he sounds german ( http://us.imdb.com/Name?Wilson,+Lambert ). The merovingians were a dynasty of french kings (named after Merovée, the first one). They were franks. And Franks=french. Not germans at all (who were the “Goths”) Clovis was the most famous of these kings. And Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus) whom you refer as to “Karl der Grosse” was not a Merovingian since he was the most important king of the following dynasty (carolingiens, named after him). Plus he was “french” as well.
Done with history. About the cuss now.
as said above, you can’t really translate curses but still :
Nom de dieu=goddammit
putain=whore but is used for “fucking”
like : fucking car=putain de voiture
bordel=brothel and is also used for “fucking”
like : bordel de merde = fucking shit
connard = asshole, dick
saloperie=filth
enculé = ‘fucked in the ass’
but “enculé de ta mère” would more accurately be: motherfucker.
So my translation would be :
“Goddamn fucking shit, filthy asshole, motherfucker”. But basically, the Merovingian’s curse is just cuss words put one after the other with a “de” to link them so it means nothing but a list of cuss words. Every french brat tries this at a time of his life (trying to make the longest sentence like this, using every word only once). It’s fun ;)
As an anecdote, Wilson was asked to curse in french and he improvised this sentence. When he said “sorry, that’s all I came off with”, everybody there was just amazed and they finally decided to keep it as it
the franks had strong ties with the german crown at the time, and were not (quite)contempory with the goths (who hung out all over western europe anyway)
besides a)the merovingian just likes french, he dosent have to be good at it; and
b)he didn’t have a german accent at all!
(which makes everything I just wrote irrelevant;sigh)
thanks for the quote and all the cool translations, I’ve been looking all over for what he said
jmack
As much as they would hate to admit it, the Franks and the Germans were the same people.
When the Franks invaded Gaul, the intermarried with the Celts who were there already but at the time of the Merovingian dynasty, there was little difference between the bearskin clad, axe wielding french and the bearskin clad, axe wielding germans.
Posted by: Dman at July 3, 2003 12:20 PMwow…thanx guys for that lovely curse:
“Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d’enculé de ta mère.”
I observed that in Matrix Reloaded, many scenes are funny; Not a chance in the first Matrix…
The first i think was suposed to be serious, and the second one, to be embraced by all types of viewers is full of this action-comic shit…which i love.
I think that this is the movie of this century, the best of its kind…but i will have to compare it with…Revolutions…
Anyway, in Matrix 3 everybody dies…IT’S SHIT ON SILK!!!
Thanks for the cuss. And since you guys like swearing so much I decided o try to translate one of the Merovingian’s last English lines into French. “Il comme essuyer une avec soie.” I don’t know if this is correct so feel free to change it.
Posted by: CUSgirl at August 8, 2003 06:07 AM“il est comme essuyer votre âne avec soie”
that’s a little more like the actual quote. i can’t wait for revolutions…
Posted by: 5h4m4n at October 4, 2003 12:31 AMhihihiihihihihi vs etes cons!! franchmen c chanmé grav là a foooooonnnnnnnnnnnnn c trop fuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnn (j di n importenawak g ke ça à foutre!!)
Posted by: hey at November 7, 2003 10:35 AMouai bon j marke des conneries pas possible mé bon kan on est con, on est con!!!!!!!!!!!!!
j di ça pr vs aussi!!
et je c mm pa de koi il parle votre site parce ke g mm pa regardé!!
Posted by: hey at November 7, 2003 10:38 AMHere’s a nice long french curse phrase. Hope you don’t mind the swearing. LOL
tapes-toi une queue et va niquer ta mere espece de connard qui se leche le cul chque matin en fumant des gauloises pour le pete-dej.
_
Posted by: Caleb at November 10, 2003 12:29 PMthere is speculation that the Merovingian dynasty is actually the bloodline of Jesus Christ
Posted by: bainsidhe at November 10, 2003 05:44 PM-> C’est comme se torcher le cul avec de la soie…
(se torcher=s’essuyer)
It’s a french guy who write this, so trust me ;)
Posted by: Indian at November 16, 2003 04:10 PM-> C’est comme se torcher le cul avec de la soie…
(se torcher=s’essuyer)
It’s a french guy who write this, so trust me ;)
Posted by: Indian at November 16, 2003 04:11 PMDo you know any sites that helps or pronounciates french? im kinda bad in accents..
Posted by: Kevin at November 26, 2003 10:26 PMthe cursing part is figured out, but how about the part when he sees that Persephone gave them the keymaker, he speaks french there also. abit.
Posted by: mud at December 4, 2003 10:36 AMhello!!
I think that you cant understand the nuances if you are not french.In french there is a lot of insults and we can combine them together.
at one moment the merovingian says:
c est rien!! c est rien!! but it s not an insults it means it is nothing
Posted by: frenchy at December 8, 2003 08:00 AMThanks for the variety of translations. I was going to ask a very nice French girl at work. Very, Very glad I didn’t!
Posted by: Aeneas at February 9, 2004 05:10 AM