"Eh Doc! Reculez un peu, la route est trop courte pour atteindre 88 miles à l'heure. (Translation: Hey, Doc, step back a little, the road is too short to reach 88 miles per hour.")'" —Marty "La route? Là où on va, on n'a pas besoin... de route. (Translation: "The road? Where we go, we do not need... of the road.")'" —Doc

Back to the Future was redubbed into various languages for international release. The French-language version was released as Retour vers le futur on October 23, 1985. Luq Hamet provided the voice for Marty McFly, while Pierre Hatet dubbed the lines for Dr. Emmett Brown. The DVD release includes an option to listen to the soundtrack in French. The French script can be viewed at a fansite [1].

The sequels, Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III were also re-dubbed in French and was released as Retour vers le futur 2 and Retour vers le futur 3.

Cast

[ http://www.retourverslefutur.com/divers_doublage_autres.html]

Teaser & Trailer

Retour Vers Le Futur - Teaser VF (1985)

Retour Vers Le Futur - Trailer VF (1985)

Script

Doc's exclamation "Great Scott!" is translated as "Nom de Zeus!" ("Name of Zeus!", or "Zeus's name!"), while Biff Tannen's insult of "butthead" is "banane" (literally, "banana"), "Hello McFly, is anybody home?" is "Allô McFly, y'a quelqu'un au bout du fil ?" (literally referring to a telephone call, "Is anybody at the other end of the line?"). Mr. Strickland describes Marty as a "tocard", meaning "loser"; and Martys "This is heavy" is translated as "Oh dur c'est pas le pied!" ("Oh hard is not the foot!"). The flux capacitor is rendered as "le convecteur temporel" (the time convector).

The French website lists other variations in the script:

After being blasted into the shelf, Marty says, "Now that's rock," which is not far off from, "Whoa, rock 'n' roll."

Rather than asking Doc if he's wearing a "Devo suit", Marty asks Doc, "Why are you dressed as a spaceman?".

For lip sync reason, the French DeLorean requires an extra jigowatt to travel through time-- 2.21 gigawatts

Since the "World Series" of baseball is not well-known in France, Doc says that he'll see the winning numbers for the lottery for the next 25 years.

"Don't stop Wilbur, don't!!" translates as "Ne t'arrete pas, Joseph! Accelere!" ("Don't stop, Joseph. Accelerated!")

Because Calvin Klein products were relatively unknown in France, Lorraine believes that Marty's name is "Pierre Cardin".

At Lou's Cafe, Marty orders a "Gini" (a brand of lemon-lime soda akin to Mountain Dew or Mello Yello) rather than a Tab. That drink was not yet on the market in France of 1955; Lou thinks that Marty is referring to "Genie" detergent (which had the slogan at that time, "Genie without boiling") and says, "The drugstore is next door."

Rather than The Saturday Evening Post, Doc guesses that Marty is selling a subscription to Reader's Digest. When Marty says that Ronald Reagan is President in 1985, Doc says "I suppose Bette Davis is the First Lady!" Jack Benny being relatively unknown in France, Doc says instead... "And John Wayne is the Minister of Defense!"

Instead of misreading "density" for "destiny", George says "dessiné" (drawing), then corrects it to "destiné"