When Rodolphe and Emma meet in the vacant building during the speech prior to her husband's at the agriculture event, you can hear certain words from the speech between their affectionate actions. I distinctly heard "seamen", "sowing his seed", and "reaping something something".
I'm hoping this isn't due to a dirty mind and that this was intentional which I believe it is.
Considering the date of your post, I'm guessing you saw this film recently on TCM, as I did. I saw it when I was a teenager in the 60s, but didn't remember much about it. Yes, I also heard the word "seaman" spoken during the speech, but not the others. I was listening the Rodolphe and Emma's dialogue. You weren't just hearing things.
I have dual personality, and so do I.
oh yes, those words were definitely amplified for effect and quite "risque" of Minnelli to do that at the time. It's harmless enough that it probably made it past the censors because children wouldn't notice it or understand it.
Did I not love him, Cooch? MY OWN FLESH I DIDN'T LOVE BETTER!!! But he had to say 'Nooooooooo'
I also heard the Mayor's word "manure" emphasized several times, no doubt an inside-joke/judgment on the affair about to start between Emma and Rodolphe!
shareI absolutely noticed this, but it works best in your memory because the way it's edited is actually pretty "safe"; these words aren't really spoken when Emma and her lover are on camera.
"The welfare of the seaman, the fisherman, the rich man in his château" is mentioned as the camera is outside, but we do see Emma and the man (forgot his name) slipping into the empty room in the background. Of course, "fisherman" and "rich man in his chateau" is very euphemistic.
But the speech wasn't just amplified... he (not the husband, Monsieur Canivet) says it when he's on camera.
"Sowing his seed... reaping his harvest..."
[cut back to interior]
"planting his cabbages" and then this goes into talk about commerce and stuff, but the point is well made! THen he goes on to say "But the farmer's crying out for fertilizer, and there's no fertilizer!"
Still, it's absolutely on purpose and great for viewers of the future (us)!
I'm sooo lazy but every time I watch an old film like this, I'm usually shocked by the amazing euphemisms and hidden innuendo, especially in Hitchcock's films.
Flaubert wanted the reader to understand that everything that Rodolphe was saying to Emma was a lie. He was a selfish, manipulative man. He plots to seduce Emma. He had many lovers before her and he thinks that Emma is as insincere as they were. So Flaubere shows what Rodolphe is saying at the same time with what the speaker says.
The context of the fair provides sharp ironic contrast to Rodolphe’s skillful seduction of the sentimental Emma. Flaubert cuts back and forth between the scene of the seduction and the speech on morality delivered by the bureaucratic official at the fair. In every instance, the official’s pompous words emphasize the insincere passion Rodolphe displays toward Emma. When he tells her he loves her, for example, the official presents a local farmer the award for first prize in manure. As the scene continues, Flaubert heightens the pace by including shorter and shorter segments from each speech, until we hear single sentences intercut with each other.