Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
Two up, one back, right?
French translation:
Formation en triangle, pas vrai ?
English term
Words travel worlds ...
Native in: French (Variants: Canadian, Standard-France) 
, Persian (Farsi)
Works in: English to French, Persian (Farsi) to French, French to English, and 4 more.
Two up, one back, right?
L'un vient d'aider l'autre dans une galère et au moment de se dire au revoir, l'échange est le suivant.
Man 1 : You ought to come for dinner sometime.
Man 2 : Two up, one back, right?
Man 1: Take the higher ground.
Après cet échange l'homme 2 part en faisant signe de la main (au revoir).
Pas plus de contexte :(
++ Question: Tout ce film se passe dans les années 60. Connaissez-vous un document/site de référence pour trouver les termes et expressions de l'époque pour ne pas faire d'erreur dans le choix des mots (pour l'époque) ? Merci
| 3 -1 | Formation en triangle, pas vrai ? |
Odette Grille (X)
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Nov 19, 2018 10:29: writeaway changed "Field (write-in)" from "Conversation (60\\\\\\\'s)" to "Cinema, Film, TV, Drama"
Nov 25, 2018 20:03: Odette Grille (X) Created KOG entry
PRO (1): Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
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Proposed translations
Formation en triangle, pas vrai ?
Toutefois dans un dialogue de ciné, on peut être à la fois plus claire et traduire plus librement.
Suggestion : Toujours prêt, pas vrai ?
ou
Tous pour un ... (cri de ralliement célèbre des mousquetaires)
| disagree |
Daryo
: "tactique militaire" + "invitation pour venir dîner à la maison" = ??? //RealWorld-v1.0: what would they need to clarify if the guest is to find his way to the house where he is invited?
7 hrs
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I figured they are pals from the military or some sports team
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Discussion
If these are two journalists in a foreign country they don't understand the language of (or the script used in that country) and in a town they are not much familiar with, counting blocks or corners, and going up/down, on high ground /along a valley is as much "navigation aid" they are ever going to get (at that time GPS was science-fiction ...)
The key for deciphering this might be in the kind of town where this is happening (no named streets, hills) rather than the historical period.
For anything more than a guess, you would need not only to have the whole script, but to watch the whole movie!
There is no huge context as the hole exchange lasts a couple of minutes but "two steps forward, one step backwards" does make sense here. Thank you !
If he is still dwelling on the situation that has just passed, then he might be using it in the sense of "two steps forward, one step backwards" — in other words, making progress slowly and with difficulty. Why they would choose to use 'up' instead of the more usual expression remains to be seen — though bear in mind such expressions as "Getting one up on someone" (winning some kind of moral victory) or "One up to us!" (scoring a point in a literal or figurative "game" — "France were 2-1 up at half-time."
So this could be suggesting that although they / he has suffered a setback, it's still part of an overall progression; this would sort of be consistent with what #1 then says "Take the higher ground" — possibly alluding to "moral high ground" — conceding defeat on one point, while content in the knowledge that morally / in principle you are right.
I hope some of this may make sense when related to the rest of your wider context.