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How would you translate into English the German expression, "Ich glaube, ich bin im falschem Film."?

Danke im Voraus.

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1

How would you translate into English the German expression, "Ich glaube, ich bin im falschem Film."?

Literally, it means, "I believe I am in the wrong film."
Probably means "I feel out of place here."
Perhaps a native German speaker could enlighten us.

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2

Thanks, Kano_Jim, but I was aware of the literal meaning of the expression. What I'm looking for is the figurative meaning. For this I think we would need not only a native German speaker, but one whose English is very good too! Thanks for trying, though.

Suggestions, anyone else?

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3

I searched for this phrase on the internet and got 329 000 matches, so it must be a very common expression, although I had not heard it before.

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4

I couldn't find an English equivalent, though

I found lots of examples of "I'm in the wrong movie." Some were lines in movies, but some were used to describe situations that seemed unreal, surreal, or at least disconcerting.

A woman describing a nightmarish encounter with immigration officials
>"I'm in a nightmare," she said as she packed yesterday afternoon, having abandoned hope of straightening out the problem. "I feel like I'm in the wrong movie."

A man describing a bad day in a blog
> it’s a day where the german expression ‘i’m in the wrong movie’ takes on a literal meaning. perhaps it’s time to change the soundtrack, there’s only so much rainbow chasing that can be done with a 'moon river' soundtrack for the day.

In Tom Stoppard's play NIght and Day, a character named Ruth Carson is lamenting about her life.
>I was meant to be one of those women who blow smoke into the faces of strong men in smart nightclubs...I'm in the wrong movie, I think. I should be in "Ruth Carson, Speakeasy Queen."

A business report
>Carolyn Brancato was supposed to advise the top officials of the oil-producing sultanate of Oman on how to clean up their stockmarket. Instead she found herself fielding offers of condolence. "Everyone was dressed in their robes and talking about Enron and Ithought to myself, 'Wait a minute, I'm in the wrong movie,'" said Brancato


Nutrax
The plural of anecdote is not data.
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5

When I looked for both "falschen Film" and "wrong movie" in the same hit, I got some equivalents:

A person watching the Challenger space shuttle explosion
>We have a saying here: im falschen Film sitzen -- I'm watching the wrong movie here ...
>That's how I felt

A dual langage blog. A cyclist finds that she is unexpectedly riding faster than ever
>Aber nix da, dachte ich war im falschen Film, es wurde so schnell gefahren wie schon lange nicht mehr.
>But nothing there, thought I was in the wrong movie, it was the fastest race what I’ve ever done this year

various message boards
>Almost anytime we Germans experience a surreal, weird, strange, somehow unreal siuation IRL, we say "I think I am in the wrong movie right now"...it's "Ich glaube ich bin im falschen Film"

I think I'm in the wrong movie. In German ( "Ich glaub' ich bin im falschen Film .") this is kind of a life metaphor.

I hate to interrupt, but in Germany we'd say "Du bist im falschen Film" (verbally: "You're in the wrong movie") to point out that somebody has recently really missed the point.

sich wie "im falschen film" fühlen
...as if (I was) on a different planet
...ich glaub', ich bin (hier) im falschen Film I don't believe it

...ich glaub', ich bin (hier) im falschen Film = I must have come to the wrong place, I must be in the wrong film

Woher kommt der Ausdruck "im falschen Film sein" und gibt es eine englische Entsprechung? (Completely auf Deutch)


Nutrax
The plural of anecdote is not data.
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6

I did the same search as well, and it does appear to be a commonly used expression - by Germans. I couldn't find an English equivalent, though. Maybe we don't have one.

Where are the Germans today? Speak up, will ya!

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7

Nutrax: All good examples, but do we have an equivalent expression for it in English? I'm beginning to think not. Maybe English speakers just don't end up in the wrong movie?

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8

Do a search on "in the wrong movie" -popeye (The -popeye gets rid of quotes from that movie). You'll get tons of hits like the ones in my post #5.


Nutrax
The plural of anecdote is not data.
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9

In Dutch we say something similar: "in een slechte film zitten", to be in a bad movie. This means you are in an undesirable, often surreal situation.

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