Hi there,

I'm creating this post because the subject seems to be encountering many reactions on my submitted profile of the Fifth Element Bluray (043396-215207), and I feel such a discussion should take place in the forum instead of the contribution thread which is not very convenient and limited to those who have that specific disc.

I am convinced that this subject as already been covered in the past but I did not get a straight answer in the contribution's comments.

I believe the matter also concerns those who own other versions (Bluray or DVD) and might impact other profiles of that same film.
I also submit this matter to the forum's population because it might just be me not reading the rules right and anybody's input is welcome.

The heart of the matter: I was submitting "Le Cinquième Élément" as the Original Title for "The Fifth Element" bluray since it is a French Film with a mostly French crew and funding although the cast is essentially American.

My first submission did not include any references since I felt this was obvious. I also included a birth year to Bruce Willis for a reason I can't quite explain. My bad.

After PM exchanges with skipnet50, I did a new submission removing the BY and adding Wikipedia (EN) as a reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Element
The French Wikipedia page states the same thing.

Following the first negative vote, I updated my notes with the following:
It was maybe not released in the US with the French title but the contribution rules state: "Foreign Films: The Original Title field will contain the original title for the main feature in the country of origin. i.e. A German DVD release for a film originally produced in the United States would have the German title in the Title field and the English title in the Original Title Field."

Now people are saying that even in France it at The Fifth Element as a title at the film's release, based upon posters available in the Bonus Material. I am unable to find such Bonus Material on my disc since all I have is a Feature-Length Trivia Fact Track as mentioned in the profile.

So I submitted a list of French websites that show the movie poster with the French title that unfortunately made the notes too long and were chopped out.
The list is the following:
http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=12302.html (French equivalent to IMDB)
http://www.linternaute.com/cinema/film/115/le_cinquieme_element.shtml
http://www.chez.com/burgard/5element/i_affiches.html (movie posters)
http://films.blog.lemonde.fr/2008/04/05/cinquieme-element/
http://www.evene.fr/cinema/films/le-cinquieme-element-9741.php
http://www.commeaucinema.com/film=le-cinquieme-element,1947.html

Some also list "The Fifth Element" as the original title but still produce a french titled poster:
http://dvdtoile.com/Film.php?id=3
http://www.cinemotions.com/modules/Films/fiche/763/Le-Cinquieme-element.html
http://www.film-critik.net/le-cinquieme-element.html
http://www.cinefil.com/film/le-cinquieme-element

As I also mentioned but was also cut (figured out why since), I entirely agree with the fact that the filming language/audio was English and that it was then dubbed for the French release but it is nonetheless a French film.
I believe, the same thing applies to the following Besson in 1999: The Messenger (Jeanne d'Arc)

So given all this data and the passionate reactions I'm encountering, I submit this matter to your opinion 

Thanks,
Julien

I'm agreeing with Tim. I always thought the original title field was for the film credits title and never understood why it was suddenly changed.

The Fifth Element specifically was made by a mostly French crew and a French production company, but the film itself was made in the english language with an english title. This wasn't a French language film that was retitled for the english market.

Quoting Eagle:

Quote:

I agree, although according to the rules, it does state "Use the title from the copyright notice if available, otherwise from the film's credits."  I don't have access to the copyright notice right now, but I don't believe it uses the French title.

The title is not referrenced in the Copyright notice on the rear cover therefore the Original Title must come from the film's credits which is "The Fifth Element".

Quoting northbloke:

Quote:

The Fifth Element specifically was made by a mostly French crew and a French production company, but the film itself was made in the english language with an english title. This wasn't a French language film that was retitled for the english market.

This is how I see it as well.

For me, no doubt, it is "Le cinquième élément". But here we are in a strange world where people vote yes for Francois Truffaut and no for François Truffaut, so do not worry too much about those  votes...

I'm not worried it is just the first time I encounter such an opposition to one of my contributions.

I feel the concept of the software and DB is brilliant and I try to be as cautious as possible in my contributions, since I'm the first one to be annoyed by lame contributions, so encountering such a resistance is surprising, to say the least.

I've just submitted the question to a French DVD forum to get confirmation (or not) of the release title in France.

I don't think anyone's debating that fact that it was marketed as Le cinquième élément in France, but the point is that information has to come off the disc somewhere. If it's not in the copyright notice or in the film's credits you can't use it.
The foreign film title rule you quote is a bit badly written as it assumes that the DVD in question has a German title.
The thing you have to remember is regardless of what the film's title was in it's country of origin, the information you type into the original title field must come "from the copyright notice if available, otherwise from the film's credits."
If Le cinquième élément isn't mentioned in either of those places, you can't use it for the online profile.

Northbloke is correct on that... which just means you can't submit it to the online database since it is not coming from the copyright notice or the film credits... you can still use it locally if that is what you prefer. Just add it to your database and lock it. locking the title field also locks the original title field.