# FR: what the movie was going to be about



## reneeb143

Alas, I'm yet another native-English speaker who is completely baffled by "s'agir". I'm trying to translate (from English) "I didn't know upon arriving at the theatre Friday night what the movie was going to be about,..." I'm assuming I have to use "s'agir" somewhere in here, and this is my best effort with translating thus far: "Je n’ai pas su avant d’arriver au théâtre vendredi soir..."

Can anyone help me out? How do you translate, "what the film was going to be about"? I don't even know where to begin!

Thank you!!!!


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## wannabebelge

for your sentence, using "s'agir", i'd say something like:

Je ne savais pas de quoi s'agissait le film avant d'arriver... !oops! needs "il"
but you could also say
Je ne savais pas le sujet du film avant... (connaitre here? i dunno)

and to complete your sentence:
...de quoi il s'agissait, le film

confirmation from a native?


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## wildan1

_s'agir _can only begin with _il,_ which is neutral like the _it _in _it's raining_

_il s'agit de _____* dans ce film.*_
_*This film* is about ___________

_Il _doesn't refer to the film, it is the neutral subject of_ s'agit_

_Je ne savais pas de quoi il s'agissait dans ce film_
_I didn't know what this film was about_


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## wannabebelge

you're right wildan1, (I had forgotten the "il") except I don't think you use "dans"
so:
Je ne savais pas de quoi il s'agissait ce film...


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## linguisticsareus

No, i think "dans" is needed. For example, if you said:

"Dans ce film, il s'agissait..."


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## reneeb143

great, thank you! your help is very much appreciated, and I can honestly say it makes much more sense to me now!


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## pozzo

A quote from a random French-speaker:

Je doute qu'il puisse en fait s'agir dans le film d'une veritable histoire d'amour... C'est plutot une reinterpretation pathologique d'une manipulation et d'un viol.

http://forums.editions-hatier.fr/vi...nechronique&key=1163203802&site=cinechronique

I'm not sure if that exactly confirms it but maybe close.


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## pozzo

Funny, searching through Google for "il s'agit de quoi ce film", the closest I seem to get is what the topic or genre of the film is rather than what happens in the film. If someone asks me what the film is about in English, often they're asking for details about what happens in the movie rather than just what the genre is. Does this make sense?


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## reneeb143

I see what you're saying... that is interesting indeed, though I most certainly cannot verify anything.


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## pozzo

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=77041
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=351977
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=410087

I also noticed it seems much more common to ask "de quoi s'agit-il" rather than "il s'agit de quoi". Not sure if that's a rule or just a tendency.


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## idkwtc

Technically, inversion is an English rule as well:

Incorrect:
-English: *This film* is about what?
-French: *Il* s'agit de quoi dans se film?
Correct:
-English: About what is *this film*?
-French: De quoi s'agit-*il* dans ce film?

The "Incorrect" versions are generally considered incorrect (or at least unclear) in written language. In spoken language they are sometimes used because inversion can be replaced with a change in intonation (e.g. raising your voice at the end of an english sentence to make it a question)


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## lrosa

I'm nervous, there's been no native's opinion...


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## itka

A native's opinion : 
_"De quoi s'agit-il dans ce film ?
- Dans ce film, il s'agit de deux personnes qui s'aiment mais qui ne sont pas libres"._
More colloquial : _"Il s'agit de quoi dans ce film ?"_
_"Je ne savais pas de quoi il s'agissait dans ce film, sinon, je n'y serais pas allé(e)."_
_"Dans ce texte, il s'agit de la Première Guerre Mondiale".
_
Other way (more colloquial) to express the same thing :
_"De quoi parle ce livre ?"_
and very colloquial (not to be _written_ at school !) : _"Il parle de quoi, ce film ?" "Il est bien ce film ? De quoi ça parle ?"
_


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## lrosa

Merci itka, je suis à l'aise maintenant


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