1. The spoken words "appearing" in the mouths of the characters in the top half of the screen or "off" to the side might be said to be inverted in the written form at the bottom. Une version is French for a translation into the mother tongue, as well as being, as in English, the expression that distinguishes different forms, especially different language forms of a given film (e.g., version originale, version française ). [BACK]

2. For a lengthy comparison of the two films, see Falkenberg. [BACK]

3. However, McBride's film has the very Godardian shot through a large doughnut that gives the appearance of the iris that Godard uses for some of his fades, and during which the word "nuts" appears briefly. [BACK]

4. The differences between French dialogue and English subtitles are worth repeating. First of all, as Ropars points out, Michel's dying words remain somewhat inaudible, but the difficulty is not with the word "dégueulasse," which is heard quite clearly, but rather in the difference between " C'est vraiment dégueulasse " ("It's really shitty") and " Tu es vraiment dégueulasse " ("You are really shitty"). That is relayed into English by an ellipsis, as follows:

Michel: Tu es (C'est) vraiment dégueulasse.

Patricia: Qu'est-ce qu'il a dit?

Policeman: Il a dit: "Vous êtes vraiment une dégueulasse."

Patricia: Qu'est-ce que c'est 'dégueulasse'?

5. For discussion of the chiasmus, see Derrida (165-66). [BACK]

6. For further discussion of this, see Wills, 1986 and 1991. [BACK]