Louis C.K.’s six part story about his character Louie’s love affair with a Hungarian woman who doesn’t speak English was brilliantly bittersweet. It explored a lot of what it means to have feelings for someone, what sex does and doesn’t mean with romance, feelings of loss, and perhaps most poignantly, what communication means between two people. Amia, who was only in New York for a short time, did not speak English, and Louie did not speak Hungarian, but they communicated profoundly in other ways. At times it was exhilarating, and at times it was incredibly frustrating, but it highlighted how we often don’t communicate with each other very well when we speak the same language. Louis chose to not use subtitles so the audience, assuming they don’t speak Hungarian, could better feel what it was like for both of them, but in case you want to know everything Amia said to Louis, someone translated it, and we transcribed it.
Someone at Slate made a nice subtitle video for everything Amia said. She actually didn’t speak very much at all during the episodes, so the total running time for the Slate video is only 7 1/2 minutes. We’ve transcribed it below.
Elevator 1:
To Louie when he barges him her apartment “Who are you? Who? Who are you? Who? Go, go, go now now now, Ivanka! There is someone here!”
Later, when she apologizes to Louie: “Sorry, upstairs, I was totally stupid . . . I brought a pie for you, yes.”
When Louie digs into the pie and offers her some: “I don’t want any, OK. Looks like you find it delicious, I’m happy you are enjoying it.”
Elevator 2:
To Louie when he asks her out, “Now?”
When he tells her to eat a fish at the market “Do I have to? Are you sure?”
While she sensuously mimes taking a shower and drying her hair the drug store: “Not shampoo, I’ll show you this. So I’m at home . . . I forgot to take off my shoes. So I go in. I turn on the tap. Water feels good. I get out, towel, and then . . . I plug it in and dry my hair.”
Elevator 4:
Telling Ivanka, her aunt, what to say to Louie: “Tell him that I am leaving, I am only here for a month, the dinner was very nice and everything but . . .”
After Ivanka tells Louie, and he gets down to beg her to stay: “Get up . . get up. Look, you’re very likable and the day with you was great, beautiful, but I’m leaving in a month, and I am not coming back, I have a child there.
Amia to Louie’s daughter Jane: “You play the violin? Wait. Wait. Wait for me. I’ll be back in a minute. I was practicing too. Yes, practicing Hungarian folk songs.”
Elevator 5:
To Jim Norton: “You are very dumb, you are not even a little bit funny.”
To Louie in bed the morning after they have a passionate night together: “That was a big mistake. We’ve ruined what was good, understand? We’ll fix it tomorrow. We’ll fix it somehow.”
As she leaves “Everything is in order.”
Elevator 6:
To Louie “You’re not going to understand me now. I want to tell you how I feel but we don’t understand each other right now. I just want to be by myself. Understand?
