Реферат: Difficulties in Translating Movie Titles

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND YOUTH OFTHE <st1:place w:st=«on»><st1:PlaceType w:st=«on»>REPUBLIC</st1:PlaceType> OF <st1:PlaceName w:st=«on»>MOLDOVA</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>

<st1:place w:st=«on»><st1:PlaceName w:st=«on»>MOLDOVA</st1:PlaceName><st1:PlaceType w:st=«on»>STATE</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceType w:st=«on»>UNIVERSITY</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ANDLITERATURES

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSLATION,INTERPRETATION

AND APPLIED LINGUISTICS

COURSE PAPER

DIFFICULTIES IN TRANSLATING

MOVIE TITLES

SUBMITTED BY: Flentea Ecaterina

GROUP: 2611                                  

RESEARCH ADVISER: MA in AmericanStudies,

University Lecturer,

Timofti Ecaterina

Chisinau 2007

Table of contents:

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………..3

Chapter One:Translation as the Possibility of Understanding the Art of FilmTitles

 

 

1.1.<span Times New Roman""> 

The Power of Film Translation…………………………………………………………………6

1.2.<span Times New Roman""> 

Types and History of Film Translation………………………………………………………...7

1.3.<span Times New Roman""> 

The Invention of Film Titles……………………………………………………………………8

1.4.<span Times New Roman""> 

The Art of Film Tiles……………………………………………………………………………9

1.5.<span Times New Roman""> 

Brief Historical View of the Titlesof Cultural Products……………………………………10   1.5.1. TheThree Models of Mass Communication……………………………………………..11

1.5.2. The Film Titleand the System of Paratext……………………………………………….12

1.5.3. The Titles ofAudiovisual Fiction and the Flow Model…………………………………..12

1.6.The Three Models of Mass Communication…………………………………………………13

1.7.Film Tiles’ Translation………………………………………………………………………...14

1.7.1.Types of Film Titles’ Translation ………………………………………………………...15

Chapter Two: Difficulties in Translating Film Titles from English intoRussian

 

2.1. Difficulties inTranslating Comedy Movie Titles…………………………………………….17

2.2. Difficulties in Translating Horror Movie Titles……………………………………………...20

2.3. Difficulties in Translating Action Movie Titles………………………………………………22

2.4. Difficulties in Translating Melodramatic MovieTitles……………………………………...24

2.5. Difficulties in Translating Adventure and Historical MovieTitles…………………………27

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………..30

Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………...32

Introduction

   Nowadays there is a great numberof foreign films that is imported in our country. As their original titles aremostly written in English, they have to be translated. A film title plays agreat role in understanding the film in general and the information containedin it. Consequently, a translator must be very attentive while translating themovie title to make it as sonorous as the original one. It is very interestingto perform this kind of translation, and we decided to choose this subject forour course paper. We made an investigation in it and we tried to discover somedifficulties in translating the film titles.

Actuality ofinvestigation

   In our time film is a veryimportant art form. It reflects our life, culture, world and our vision ofworld. Films entertain, educate, enlighten and inspire audience. The foreignfilms give to the target audience the possibility to know something new aboutthe people and culture of that country, which produced these films. With regardto the fact that the main function of film titles is to say something generalabout the whole movie, the film titles are also very important. If the pictureis imported, its title should be translated to make it more understandable forthe target audience. Here the difficulties may appear. Our investigationanalyzes these difficulties of translation movie titles.

Aims and Objectives ofthe Research

    There are many books about the films and theirmaking, but there are few sources about the film titles, especially about theirtranslation. So, we tried to make our research on the subject of movie titlestranslation.  The aims of our investigationwere: to analyze the functions, history and types of film titles translation;to find the most interesting examples of foreign movie titles; to give all theirpossible translations; to compare these translations with the official one; andto define all the difficulties that may appear during this translation.

Methodological Backgroundof Scientific Investigation

    In order to present the course paper in alogical way, we used several research methods:

Bibliographical method – that helped to work with a great variety of sources and select the necessary one. Historical method – that was used when making a survey of the historical events that were introduced in the Chapter One. Comparative method – that helped us to compare original film title, its possible translations and the official Russian translation.

Scientific Novelty

  The first movie was created in 20th century; consequently theart of cinema is rather a new one. Because of this there are no many booksabout it, especially those, where it is written about the film titles. Thesubject of movie titles translation isn’t studied at that level, as it shouldbe studied. That’s why it was new and very interesting for us to study andanalyze this kind of translation, because it plays a very important role inperception of foreign film titles by Russian audience. Having consulted theInternet forums, we found out that the movie titles translation is the subjectof wide discussions between people. They consider that in our time there aremany mistakes and lacks of coincidence in the translations of foreign movietitles. That’s why it was very exciting and interesting for us to analyze thisconcrete branch of translation. The scientific novelty of our course paperconsists in the fact that, having analyzed some examples of movie titles wefound what difficulties may appear while translating them.

Sources

   In our course paper we have consulted many sources: books, reports andInternet-sites. The most important source, used in Chapter One was the reportof Milevici I. G. about the translation of film titles. In Chapter Two theLingvo10 Dictionary was avery important source,because with its help we made the detailed analysis of all 19 examples of movietitles translation. Also, helpful was the Internet source- the site <span Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family:«Times New Roman»;mso-bidi-font-family:«Times New Roman»; color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">www.worlddvd.ru/filmrussianalfavit,because it gave us the most expanded list of theoriginaltitles of foreign films. Despite the fact that these three sources assisted usthe most in our research, other books and sites were also interesting toconsult.

Volume and Structure

   The course paper consists of 30 pages and, in two chapters covers theanalysis of the famous film titles in order to find what difficulties mayappear when translating them. Chapter One, named “Translation as thePossibility of Understanding the Art of Film Titles”, is dedicated to thetheory: the main definitions, types and methods of movie titles translation. Itincludes seven subchapters:

1. The Power of Film Translation

2. Types and History of Film Translation

3. The Invention of Film Titles

4. The Art of Film Titles

5. Brief Historical View of theTitles of Cultural Products

6. The Three Models of MassCommunication

7. Film Titles’ Translation

    Chapter Two, named “Difficulties in Translating Film Titles from Englishinto Russian”, consists of our practical work, i.e. the detailed analysis of 19examples of foreign film titles and their translation, according to the filmgenres. This chapter includes five subchapters:

1. Difficulties in Translating ComedyMovie Titles

2. Difficulties in Translating HorrorMovie Titles

3. Difficulties in Translating ActionMovie Titles

4. Difficulties in Translating MelodramaticMovie Titles

5. Difficulties in Translating Adventureand Historical Movie Titles

Having examined 19 examples offoreign movie titles in these two chapters, we discovered all the problems,which may appear during their translation.

Chapter I: Translation as thePossibility of Understanding the Art of Film Titles

1.1.<span Times New Roman""> 

The Power of Film Translation

           Film is a term that encompasses motion picturesas individual projects, as well as the field in general. The origin of the namecomes from the fact that photographic film (also called film stock) hashistorically been the primary medium for recording and displaying motionpictures. Films are produced by recording actual people and objects withcameras, or by creating them using animation techniques and/ or specialeffects. They comprise a series of individual frames, but when these images areshown rapidly in succession, the illusion of motion is given to the viewer.Film is considered by many to be an important art form; films entertain,educate, enlighten and inspire audience. The visual elements of cinema need notranslation, giving the motion picture a universal power of communication. Anyfilm can become a worldwide attraction, especially with the addition of dubbingor subtitles that translate the dialogue. Films are also artifacts created byspecific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Filmscan be of different genres. In film theory, genre refers to the primary methodof film categorization. A genre generally refers to films that sharesimilarities in the narrative elements from which they are constructed. Forexample, the most widespread film genres are: comedy- intended to provokelaughter; horror- intended to provoke fear in audience; action- generallyinvolves a moral interplay between “good” and “bad” played out through violenceor physical force; melodramatic- mainly focuses on character development;adventure- involving danger, risk, and/ or chance, often with a high degree offantasy and historical- taking place in the past.  [12:739]

          Translation is an activity comprising theinterpretation of the meaning of a text in one language- the source text- andthe production, in another language, of a new, equivalent text- the targettext, or translation. The goal of translation is generally to establish arelation of equivalence between the source and target texts (that is to say, toensure that both texts communicate the same message), while taking into accounta number of constraints. These constraints include context, the rules ofgrammar of languages, their writing conventions, their idioms, and the like. [12:739]

           Any form of audiovisualtranslation ultimately plays a unique role in developing both nationalidentities and national stereotypes. The translation of cultural values inscreen translation has received very little attention and remains one of themost pressing areas of research in translation studies. Films can betremendously influential and extremely powerful vehicle for transferringvalues, ideas and information. Different cultures are presented not only verballybut also visually and orally, as film is a polysemiotic medium that transfersmeaning through several channels, such as picture, dialogue and music. Itemswhich used to be culture-specific tend to spread and encroach upon othercultures. The choice of film translation mode largely contributes to thereception of a source language film in a target culture. However, there is nouniversal and good-for-all mode of translating films. The methods are dependentupon various factors, such as history, tradition or translating films in agiven country, various audience-related factors, the type of film to berendered, as well as financial resources available. What is also of primaryimportance here is the mutual relationship between the source and targetcultures, as it will also profoundly influence the translating process. [<st1:time Hour=«1» Minute=«27» w:st=«on»>1:27</st1:time>] 

1.2.<span Times New Roman""> 

Types and History of FilmTranslation

           There are two major types of filmtranslation: dubbing and subtitling. Each of them interferes with the originaltext to a different extent. On the one hand, dubbing is known to be the methodthat modifies the source text to a large extent and thus makes it familiar tothe target audience through domestication. It is the method in which “theforeign dialogue is adjusted to the mouth and movements of the actor in thefilm” and its aim is seen as making the audience feel as if they were listeningto actors actually speaking the target language. On the other hand, subtitling,i.e. supplying a translation of the spoken source language dialogue into thetarget language in the form of synchronized captions, usually at the bottom ofthe screen, is the form that alters the source text to the least possibleextent and enables the target audience to experience the foreign and be awareof its “foreignness” at all times. [3:611]

           It is known from the filmstranslation history that in the times of silent movies, translation wasrelatively easy to conduct: the so-called intertitles interrupted the course ofa film every couple of minutes, so the target language titles could easily betranslated and inserted in place of the original ones. The problem arose withthe appearance of “talkies” in the late 1920s.At first, American film companiestried to solve it by producing the same film (using the same set and scenario,but different directors and actors) in various language versions. However, thissoon turned out to be unprofitable, as the films produced were of poor artisticquality and they did not win the public. The studios that had been built in <st1:place w:st=«on»><st1:country-region w:st=«on»>France</st1:country-region></st1:place>for this purpose began to produce dubbed versions of films instead. The newinvention “enabled <st1:place w:st=«on»><st1:City w:st=«on»>Hollywood</st1:City></st1:place>to avoid any interruption in its dominance of the international film market”.Talkies guaranteed that the audience was very much aware of the source cultureand its nature, and thus they helped cement <st1:place w:st=«on»><st1:City w:st=«on»>Hollywood</st1:City></st1:place>’s leading position. [4:99]

           The introduction of talkiesexerted a far-reaching influence on both larger and smaller countries. As filmproduction costs rose, it became increasingly difficult for smaller countriesto export their productions and- limited by their small domestic markets- theirhome production decreased, which led to a rise in film imports. As for largerEuropean countries, they “were better equipped to continue producing their ownfilms, but were also faced with powerful American competition”. This situation,i.e. the wide gap between larger and smaller countries, was to be reflectedlater in the choice of the film translation mode: larger countries tended todub imported foreign productions, while smaller ones settled on subtitling. Fromthe early 1930s until 1950s American film companies reigned over the entiremovie industry as they monopolized the recording equipment. During World War IIthe American film industry flourished, and as a result, in the period followingthe war “European countries were easily flooded with new films as well as withthe 2500 backlogged American movies produced during the war”. [4:99]

           It took some time forEuropean economies to recover, and in the 1950s larger states, such as <st1:country-region w:st=«on»>France</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st=«on»>Italy</st1:country-region>,<st1:country-region w:st=«on»>Germany</st1:country-region> and <st1:place w:st=«on»><st1:country-region w:st=«on»>Spain</st1:country-region></st1:place>,introduced protective measures aimed at lessening the influence of Americanfilms in their territories. For instance, import quotas were imposed in orderto protect domestic production, and special taxes were levied on imported filmsin some countries (<st1:country-region w:st=«on»>France</st1:country-region>, <st1:place w:st=«on»><st1:country-region w:st=«on»>Italy</st1:country-region></st1:place>)which required that “profits by American companies had to be reinvestedlocally”. At the same time, domestic production in <st1:country-region w:st=«on»>France</st1:country-region>,<st1:country-region w:st=«on»>Italy</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st=«on»>Germany</st1:country-region> and <st1:place w:st=«on»><st1:country-region w:st=«on»>Spain</st1:country-region></st1:place> was supported by the governmentthrough various subsidies and loans. By that time it was clear that film hadbecome an extremely influential and profitable medium and everyone wanted toget the largest possible slice of the “film cake”. The smaller Europeancountries were producing fewer than larger countries, and importing a host ofboth American and European films. As for the larger countries, protectivepolicies introduced by their governments resulted in an increase in domestic filmproduction and a decrease in foreign (mainly American) films importation. Thesepolicies also generally improved the domestic/imported films ratio in largercountries. [4:99]

1.3.<span Times New Roman""> 

The Invention of Film Titles

           The title is an identifying name givento a book, play, film, musical composition, or other work. It comes from Old English “titul” — superscription, and from Old French “title” — title;both from Latin “titulus”.[12:739]Films were short at the beginning of the cinematographic epoch, just afew minutes in length. They were not always narrative but sometimes onlydescriptions of every day life, scenes of reality. The fact that most filmsbefore 1900 were not narratives, had a great importance for the titles: theylooked like picture captions, or like newspaper headlines, and not like thetitles of novels or theater. But the many items did not leave any space forabstracts. Like the small news in newspapers they didn’t need a lead. Almostall the titles were like picture captions or headlines. Some ten years later,films became longer. What happened was that we got a paratext that was designedtotally according to the newspapers’ system of headlines that is the filmtitles and leads that is the abstract of the films. [<st1:time Hour=«6» Minute=«49» w:st=«on»>6:49</st1:time>]

           At the beginning of thecentury, the paratextual entrance to the film still adhered more to theinformation model and the titles still looked like headlines. What was equallyimportant, the film makers made efforts to produce documentaries and the likeas reconstructions of reality and not fiction. There was a hesitation in thebeginning of the century: should film tell real life stories and thus havetitles that designate them as a metonymy of reality, or should film be purelynarrative, fictional and metaphorical and thus get titles like novels? In thefirst case, film would be a kind of visual reportage very much like newspaperreportage and with titles appropriate to this use of film. But when the Pathebrothers established the first cinema for news film in 1908, they made thefirst step toward distinguishing what should be the mainstream (fiction) fromthe informational film. And thus film got into the editorial model and the titleswere free to take any shape, they only had to be clear and easy to retain-which did not exclude enigmas or puns. Film titles had to establish identity,to be a factor in the film distribution. There were no more abstracts and thelike. These paratexts were taken over by the press; film was no longer relatedto a written program functioning as paratext. This distribution of work betweenfilm and press has persisted. [<st1:time Hour=«1» Minute=«38» w:st=«on»>1:38</st1:time>]

1.4.<span Times New Roman""> 

The Art of Film Titles

           There are some statements about thefilm titles, their making and their translation. The famous translator WilliamMcKay once said: “Translator should be able to write; he should be an originalwriter, because sometimes it isn’t possible simply to copy the target title- itgives only a prompting of how it should be translated, but the translator, inhis turn, reveals the thought and the idea with the help of the language oftranslation.” Saul Bass, a graphic artist in the film industry said: “Making atitle is like making a poster – you’re condensing the event into this oneconcept, this one metaphor…a back-story that needs to be told or a characterthat needs to be introduced”. Also Saul Bass said: “My initial thoughts aboutwhat a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film’sstory, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a wayof conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewerswould already have an emotional resonance with it”. The titles are often more innovative than thefilm itself and can be dramatically and emotionally satisfying. In the words ofMartin Scorsese, “titles have the unique function of setting the tone,providing the mood and foreshadowing the action”. [<st1:time Hour=«2» Minute=«11» w:st=«on»>2:11</st1:time>]

1.5.<span Times New Roman""> 

Brief Historical View of the Titles ofCultural Products

          Most of the texts (epic texts) fromthe Middle Age had simply the names of the main character as their title, or theyhad an indication of genre plus the name of the main character: “Erec etEnide”, “Le Roman de Tristan”. There were other possibilities as well: thetitle can refer to the content: ”Gesta Danorum”. In some cases, we have doubletitles as by “Chrestien de Troie”: name plus specification “Lancelot ou lechevalier a <st1:PersonName ProductID=«la Charette» w:st=«on»>la Charette</st1:PersonName>”.In cases when we don’t know who was the author or if there were one or moreauthors of the same text, we also don’t know whether the title was made by the authoror if it was invented later as a simple device of identification of the text,the identification being a necessity if the text was to have a “social life”. Whenthe printing press began to print medieval texts, it took over the titles notonly as means of identification but now also as a device for sale. [7:154]

           Theturning of the century (1500) saw the beginning of a totally new genre, theancestor of all modern mass communication, the leaflet/ flyveblade either asreligious propaganda or simple entertainment (stories about crimes, aboutnatural phenomena or catastrophes, about monsters) — the stuff we get today inthe tabloid press, in B-films and low-status entertainment fiction on TV. Theleaflets had a huge paratexts: a long title with indication of genre toidentify themselves and an even longer abstract to sell them. This is a systemrather close to the modern headline and lead system. And it is linked with anew production technology and a new system of distribution: to be sold, theleaflets had to identify themselves and give the customer an idea of theircontents. When the periodical newspaper took over, the paratext changed. Thenewspaper’s name became the important thing, and in the beginning there wasvery little use of headlines to distinguish the different items within thepaper. As for books, they seem to have taken over rather simple titles and havehad somewhat restricted use of abstracts. But books have very often used themedieval system of proper name/ noun plus salient feature of the story(abstract, evaluation or the like). [<st1:time Hour=«5» Minute=«56» w:st=«on»>5:56</st1:time>]

            But as soon we leave fiction and turn to“factual” books, the titles get longer. By the end of the 19thcentury, the newspapers had finally found a form that persists to this day: thesystem of columns and headlines covering more than one column, the totalspatial organization of news instead of the former temporal organization. Thenew spatial organization made the use of headlines and leads a must. Theearliest credit sequences were for silent films. They were presented on titlecards- cards containing printed material that were photographed and laterincorporated into the movie. These cards also included the dialogue and set thetime, place and action for the scenes. As cinema evolved, so did the titles.After the implementation of sound, titles began to function as a transition:taking on the responsibility of displaying the movie’s title, the name of thedirector and establishing the hierarchy of actors. In the 1950s, titles beganto move beyond pragmatic communication and evolved into complete narratives-establishing the mood and visual character of the film. [11:117]

1.5.1.<span Times New Roman"">     

The Three Models of MassCommunication

              But film titles have changed overthe years mainly due to the way films or order audiovisual products have beenintegrated into three different models of cultural production and distribution:

 -the editorial model: the production isdistributed as isolated items: the case of books and other texts, ofrecords/CD’s and of film tickets that are sold as isolated items. Theseproducts have, compared to the products of the following models, a rather highlongevity. It is a model that encourages the emergence of the stars, yesterdaythe classical Hollywood stars, today the rock stars.

 -the model of written information: thismodel implies a regular and periodical distribution. The products are normallymade up of bunches of texts, i.e. newspapers or magazines. Each sale makesobsolete the products of yesterday (newspapers) or last week (magazines).

 -the flow model: (mostly radio andtelevision) is characterized by the necessary continuation of the programs, andit is a combination or interference of the cultural field and the informationalfield. As for the model of written information, it is one in which the productsbecome obsolete when they have been shown on the screen (or listened to on theradio). [5:94]

            Foreach model, there is a specific economic and distribution organization. In manycases, however, it is useful for the owners/managers to play simultaneously ontwo models at the same time: the use of serial publications of novels, the useof film on television or even the different ways of pay-TV that turns TV intothe editorial model. The flow model is the younger model going back to about1920, whereas the two others go back to the first half of 17thcentury where they slowly emerged from an unstructured market where books,pamphlets, leaflets, songs were sold the same way (colportage). Each system gotfixed distribution forms at least in the second half of the 17thcentury, and already in the beginning of the 19th century we getmixed forms: the use of periodical novels, and from 1836 the use of thefeuilleton novel in newspapers. Each of the two systems or models has overthese centuries built up its own and specific use of paratexts. The lastnewcomer is the use of headlines and leads in newspapers just before 1900. [5:94]

       When filmdefinitely had become a medium in 1895, there were thus two models to follow,either the editorial model (film is like a novel or short story) or theinformation model (film is like a news item). Today there is no hesitation: afilm is a unit like a book, we all know that. And therefore a film title lookslike the title of a novel, we all know that too. We know that many films arebased on novels and may have the same title. But in 1895, things were differentand no one could know how film would be distributed, what it would be like andwhat kinds of paratext would accompany the film.[5:94]

   1.5.2. The Film Title and theSystem of Paratext

              A film title is a paratext. By“paratext” we understand one or more small texts “besides” the text. Accordingto Fradsen a paratext is the title, notes, dedications, attributions, abstracts,leads and headlines. Now the paratexts in films are rather specific becausetext, that is the film, and paratext use different media. If we considertrailers, title sequences, announcement and abstracts on TV as paratexts, thenwe have also visual paratexts. In the cinematographic distribution system theparatext is reduced to the simplest possible expression whereas in televisiondistribution, the visual and the linguistic paratexts have seen theirimportance grow in recent years due to the rising competition among an increasingnumber of television channels. Fradsen refers to “this particular, butincreasing part of texts in the modern information of society”. [<st1:time Hour=«8» Minute=«53» w:st=«on»>8:53</st1:time>]

           Accordingto Genette, who is only concerned with the reader of literature, the reader hasto get through the paratext in order to enter the text “proper”. From atheoretical or systematic point of view he is right in doing this- and hispoint of view fits in with the strategy of producers/distributors who try toget viewers/readers to enter their texts. But in actual fact, the televisionviewer is often little concerned by the paratext. She/he is zapping and thusavoiding the proper use of the paratexts. Solutions to this problem have been,on the one hand, to make television consist of self-containing segments inorder to make the zapping easier and on the other hand, to increase the numberof paratexts on the screen in order to capture those viewers who are notzappers. Here we should distinguish between paratext “outside” the text, suchas announcements and recapitulations (after the text), and trailers, etc.“inside” the text in the beginning. The ways in which paratext and text arerelated in television depend on genres (types of fiction, types of news or ofdocumentaries, types of entertainment) and types of channel: generalist orthematic, public broadcast or commercial. [9:86]

   1.5.3. The Titles of AudiovisualFiction and the Flow Model

              The film is no longer the mainstream fictionalentertainment product. This role has been taken over by the production oftelevision fiction. Serials, series and isolated products fill up thetelevision programs and several systems of titles are coexisting in the flow.The cinema films keep, of course, their original titles when shown ontelevision. Often, serial have only a name and then a number and even if eachepisode has a name, this name is rather unimportant; you don’t sell the seriesor the serial in isolated episodes. The serials are sold and seen because ofthe main character who gives its name to the entire set of episodes. Othersseem to prefer totally impersonal titles (like many American series andserials) or they find a title that characterizes the main protagonist. Only inrecent years does this seem to have come to an end with them. As a matter offact, what we see now is a very poor way of titling: an identification noun andnumber, a system that has been taken over from the flow of talk shows,entertainment programs, etc. the flow model implies that once a text has beenshown, it is “dead”. So why bother with a title? Television fiction is inbetween the two models; it has taken over the flow logic, but at the same time,it has taken over the more lasting life of the products within the editorialmodel. Of course, these programs have a paratext helping us to get through:announcements on channel, television programs in newspapers, and not to forgetthe lead in each program: the anchor and his/her helpers explaining what we aregoing to see. Only the isolated text, that is the film, still has a title of acertain importance. The rest is silence. [<st1:time Hour=«5» Minute=«56» w:st=«on»>5:56</st1:time>]

1.6.<span Times New Roman""> 

The Functions of Film Titles

           Then, what are the functions of the titles?The prime function is to identify the film. Without this initial identificationwe would not be able to talk about the film, sales promotion would beimpossible, and researches could not analyze the film. The title makes theunit. If the text has come to us without a title we must give it a title inorder to talk about it. In a computer, the file must have a title, but evenbefore the file gets its title it is called “untitled <st1:metricconverter ProductID=«1”» w:st=«on»>1”</st1:metricconverter>. Given this obvious functionof the title we can indicate other functions:

 -The title is a sign to guide us through the television flow or the filmpages of newspapers/magazines.

 -The title is a means for guiding our reception and our interpretationof a text, either by stressing a specific point of view or by giving us aresume/abstract of the film.

  -Giventhe various roles the title may fulfill, the main function of the film titlemight seem to be the film’s promotion, in which case the title should be easyto remember because it astonishes/provokes, etc at first.

  -Giventhe fact that the text in a film is audiovisual and that the paratext or thetitle is textual, one might expect that film titles were different from titlesof novels, short stories, dramas, etc. but as far as it can be seen, there isvery little original in film titles. The combination of twomedia/communications channels in one global text (film plus its paratext) doesnot seem to have or to have had any importance. Most film titles would work astitles of novels and vice versa. [<st1:time Hour=«8» Minute=«54» w:st=«on»>8:54</st1:time>]

            Nor does it seem that the distinctionbetween the heteroreferential and the homoreferential aspects of the paratextchange when we leave newspaper paratexts to have a look at film paratext. Fradsendistinguishes between “transmitter 1, enunciator <st1:metricconverter ProductID=«1”» w:st=«on»>1”</st1:metricconverter> (for the proper text) and“transmitter 2, enunciator <st1:metricconverter ProductID=«2”» w:st=«on»>2”</st1:metricconverter>(for the paratext). This distinction works perfectly when applied to newspaperheadlines. It seems to work too within the title system of novels, as well aswithin the film title system. The only thing that should distinguish filmtitles from other titles is the total impossibility of anaphoric relationsbetween the film text and the title. The title is too far removed from thefilm.  [<st1:time Hour=«8» Minute=«54» w:st=«on»>8:54</st1:time>]

 

1.7.<span Times New Roman""> 

Film Titles’ Translation

          Let us appeal to one of the mostapplied translation aspects- translation of film titles. This aspect oftranslation is interesting in many points: the modern audience is given a greatnumber of translated artifacts in the various translation forms (thesimultaneous translation, the subtitles, double subtitles). The quantity oftranslating material affects its quality: the foreign films translations are theexamples of the different kind’s mistakes, inaccuracies, interference. The filmtitle in the publicist discourse functions as the identification of the actoror the film director, what is realized in corresponding communicative pass.Such identification is often concerned with the character’s visualization andthe appearance of the actor-performer. The most successful this step is in thecase when there is a great need to identificate the foreign player, which isnot very famous. The inexactitudes in the film titles translations may causethe communicative failure, because many difficulties often appear whenidentificating one or another film. The observations show that the titles offoreign feature (as well as the animation and the documentary) films in themodern publicist editions mostly appear in the bilingual variant. [12:1].

E.g. “The Hunted”- “Преследуемый”

 “The Matrix Reloaded”-“Матрица: Перезагрузка”

E.g. phonetic variants:   “AliMcBill”-“АлиМакбилл”; “ЭллиМакбил”

 The most numerous type is lexico-synonymical variants:

E.g. “Pirates of the <st1:place w:st=«on»>Caribbean</st1:place>: The Curse of the Black Pearl”-“ПиратыКарибскогоморя: Проклятиечернойжемчужины”; “КарибскиеПираты: Проклятиечернойжемчужины”; “ПиратыКарибов: Проклятиечернойжемчужины”

 “TheLordofRings: TwoTowers”- “Властелин Колец: ДвеТвердыни”; “Властелин Колец: Две Башни”; “Властелин Колец: Две Крепости”.

    Thus the translations of film titles represent the vast material for theanalysis of the types of equivalence, interference, speech mistakes. The titlesmodified and transformed during the translation and the motivated steps asidefrom the title in the source language represent an interest also in the aspectof identification and comparison of translation tendencies. The comparativeanalysis shows that during the translation of movie titles the adaptations ofdifferent kinds may be observed.

  E.g. “ShallowHal”- “Поверхностный Хэл”; “ЛюбовьЗла”; “Тяжело Влюблен”

  “OrangeCountry”- “Оранжевое Графство”;“Апельсиновая Страна”; “Страна Дураков”. [12:1].

 

1.7.1.<span Times New Roman"">     

Types of Film Titles’ Translation

              In general, there are the following types offilm titles translation:

 Euphemism translation we know as thetypical translation of the past. Some examples became classical: “Some like ithot” in the Russian distribution is known as “Вджазетолькодевушки”. However, in the modern titles we can alsomeet both euphemism titles and deeuphemism translations. For example, theseopposite functions are implemented by the transliteration and transcription:

“MeettheFockers”- “Знакомство сФокерами”;  “ Знакомство с Факерами ”.

     Genretranslation can be considered one of the most expanded types of adaptation,during which in the translation of film title the language units are equipped.They correlate the translated title with the concrete genre. The detectivetitle “City by the Sea” has been transformed in Russian translation in “ПоследнееДелоЛя-Марки”, but the horror film title “SheCreature” in the Russian translation corresponds to the “terrible” genre: “УжасизБездны”. [12;2]

   Semantic translation is the adaptation which with the help ofchanging or adding the lexical elements and introducing the key-words of filmexpands the semantic field of the genre film. For example, the drama title “Outof the cold” in the Russian distribution is far from the original title: “Танцуйсомной!” This variant ofthe title greatly over commutated the plot accents: the film main character wasthe American dancer of step who has spent 20 years in <st1:place w:st=«on»><st1:country-region w:st=«on»>Russia</st1:country-region></st1:place>. The comedy about theyounger son of evil “Little Nicky” is translated with the adding of lexicalelement- “Ники, Дьявол-младший”. The comedy with the title where only themain character’s surname is reflected- “Bowfinger” is translated in Russian as“КлевыйПарень” or “БезумныйБоуфингер”, thus, this kind of translation will notallow to identificate this film as, for example, a detective or biographicaldrama. [12;2]

           The translations of thescreen versions’ titles represent a specific analysis’ object; because in thiscase we should trace the adequacy of some titles (the source- original title-translated title and transformations, which appear as the result of one oranother translation). The type of translation adaptation- the return to thefirst primary source- is generally used in the case when the screen versiontitle doesn’t correspond to the title of writing, which was the source of theplot. For example, “Sleep Hallow”- in the Russian translation is “СоннаяЛощина” (but the subtitles propose another variant,which is closer to the literal source- “ЛегендаоВсадникебезГоловы”). Thus theanalysis of film titles, translated into Russian, has shown a quitemany-colored picture. The foreign film titles translated in Russian languagehave different variants (in Russian editions, in central and regional press).Moreover, the analysis showed that the translations of the titles often followthe fixed adaptation strategies. [12;2]

Chapter II: Difficulties in Translating Film Titles from English intoRussian

            The art of translation is a verydifficult art; it shows us that one and the same original text may have a lotof translations. The difficulty for us is to use the one of them, which wouldsuit the situation best of all. The same difficulty appears when we deal withmovie titles, sometimes the original title is absolutely different from thetranslation we are given. The explanation may be very simple; the Russiantranslation may be better understood by Russian-speaking community, than theoriginal variant of the title. The work of finding a better and a more suitabletranslation is very difficult but at the same time very interesting. So, let usenter the world of translating the movie titles.

     2.1. Difficulties in TranslatingComedy Movie Titles

            A comedy film is a film laced withhumor or that may seek to provoke laughter from the audience. Along with drama,horror and science fiction, comedy is one of the largest genres of the medium.There are different types of comedies. For example,a <span Times New Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:«Times New Roman»; mso-bidi-font-family:«Times New Roman»;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none; text-underline:none">comedy of manners satirizes the manners andaffectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters. The plotof the comedy is often concerned with an illicit love affair or some otherscandal, but is generally less important than its witty dialogue. In a <span Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family:«Times New Roman»;mso-bidi-font-family:«Times New Roman»; color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">fish-out-of-watercomedy film

the main character finds himself in an alien environmentand this drives most of the humor in the film. A <span Times New Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:«Times New Roman»; mso-bidi-font-family:«Times New Roman»;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none; text-underline:none">parody or spoof film is a comedy that satirizesother film genres or classic films. Such films employ sarcasm, stereotyping,mockery of scenes from other films, and the obviousness of meaning in acharacter's actions. The <span Times New Roman";mso-hansi-font-family: «Times New Roman»;mso-bidi-font-family:«Times New Roman»;color:windowtext; text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">anarchic comedy film usesnonsensical, stream-of-consciousness humor which often lampoons some form ofauthority. Films of this nature stem from a theatrical history of anarchiccomedy on the stage. The <span Times New Roman";mso-hansi-font-family: «Times New Roman»;mso-bidi-font-family:«Times New Roman»;color:windowtext; text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">romantic comedy sub-genretypically involves the development of a relationship between a man and a woman.The stereotyped plot line follows the «boy-gets-girl»,«boy-loses-girl», «boy-gets-girl-back-again» sequence. [12:538]

     To begin with, let us analyze the following comedy movie title:

1) The original title is: “Some Like it Hot”.

If to take Lingvo10 dictionary, it will give us the followingtranslations:

-Some: кое-кто, какой-нибудь, какой-то, некоторые, некие, несколько,немногие

-Like: любить, нравиться, хотеть, предпочитать, желать

-It: он, она, оно, это, этого, этому, этим, (об) этом

-Hot: горячий; жаркий; разогретый; накаленный, острый, пикантный,пряный, возбужденный,разгоряченный, раздраженный, сильный, резкий, опасный, рискованный

If to unite them the following variants can be:

1.“Кое-кто любитэто горячим”; 2.“Некоторые хотят это накаленным”; 3.“Несколько предпочитают этоострым”; 4.“Немногим нравится это разгоряченным”; 5.“Некие желают это жарким”

Sometimes one and the same title may have several accepted versions,but anyway, only one will be official. Sothistitlehasthefollowingacceptedversions:

6.“Некоторые любятпогорячее”; 7.“Некоторым нравится погорячее”; 8.“Кое-кто любит погорячее”; 9.“Некоторыелюбят пожарче”

But the official Russian translationis:“Вджазетолькодевушки”. [17:22]

      So, including the official Russian version, we have 10 translationvariants of this title. The difficulty with this movie title is that it wasabsolutely changed, that sometimes may happen. It was adapted to the audienceof the former <st1:place w:st=«on»><st1:country-region w:st=«on»>USSR</st1:country-region></st1:place>and changed by the censors, because its original title sounded very frivolousin that time. The type of film titles translation, used in this case is calledeuphemism translation. But nowadays on the West this variant is considered morefelicitous than the original one.

           

2)  The next original comedymovie title is: “LemonySnicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events”.

 The Lingvo10 dictionary gives us the followingtranslations of the words:

-Series: ряд, последовательность, серия, полоса, цикл, сериал

-Unfortunate: неудачливый, несчастливый, неудачный, плачевный, прискорбный, печальный,заслуживающий сожаления

-Event(s): событие, происшествие, случай, ход дел, ходсобытий, исход, результат

If to unite them, we get some possible versions of this title:

1.“Лемони Сникет: ряд неудач”; 2.“ЛемониСникет: череда неприятностей”; 3.“Лемони Сникет: серия несчастных случаев”; 4.“Лемони Сникет: полоса неудачных происшествий”

But the official Russian translationis only one: “ЛемониСникет: 33 несчастья” [24:57]

The difficulty of thisfilm title translation is that we had to choose between 5 synonymic versions.We had to find the most convenient translation, which at the same time would beclose to Russian audience. So, we chose the translation “33 несчастья”, because there is such aphraseological unit in Russian language, which has the general meaning of allothers translations of this title.

3) Another title ofthe comedy movie is:“JohnTucker Must Die”
 The Lingvo10 dictionary gives usseveral translations of these words:

-Must: должен, обязан, необходимо

-Die: умереть, скончаться, исчезать, быть забытым

The name of the main character we have translated by means oftransliteration, but the whole title has several possible translations:

1.“Умри, Джон Такер!”;2.“Джон Такер должен умереть”; 3.“Убить Джона Такера”; 4.“Необходимо, чтобы Джон Такер скончался ”; 5.“Джон Такер обязан исчезнуть”; 6.“Джон Такердолжен быть забытым”

The official Russian translation is: “Сдохни,Джон Такер!” [24:86]

In general, we have 7versions of this movie title translation. The type of film titles translation usedin this case is the deeuphemism translation. The official Russian version ismore emotionally colored and is colloquial, when the original title is neutral.This way of translating the film title was used to make it closer and moreunderstandable to the film potential audience- the young people, the most partof which speaks in colloquial language.

           

4) The next comedy movie title is: “ISpy”

The Lingvo10 dictionary gives thefollowing translations of the words:

-I: я

-Spy: (n) шпион, тайный агент, следопыт, шпионаж, тайное наблюдение, шпионская программа, (v) заниматься шпионажем, шпионить, следить, подглядывать, подсматривать,совать нос в чужие дела

If to unite thesetranslations we get the 12 translation variants of this film title:

1.“Я — шпион”; 2.“Я — следопыт”; 3.“Я — тайный агент”; 4.“Я — шпионаж”; 5.“Я – тайное наблюдение”; 6.“Я – шпионская программа”;7.“Я занимаюсь шпионажем”; 8.“Я шпионю”; 9.“Я слежу”; 10.“Я подглядываю”; 11.“Яподсматриваю”; 12.“Я сую нос в чужие дела”.

The 13th translationversion of this movie title is the official Russian version: “Обманутьвсех”. [24:64]

It was completelychanged, and has a far connection with the meaning of the original film title,but it corresponds to the genre of comedies. The type of movie titlestranslation used in this case is called genre translation, because the originalversion has the aim that people, by this title, could identify this film as acomedy, but not mix it with the detective story or action movie.

   2.2. Difficulties in Translating Horror Movie Titles

           <span Times New Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:«Times New Roman»; mso-bidi-font-family:«Times New Roman»;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none; text-underline:none">Films from the horror <span Times New Roman";mso-hansi-font-family: «Times New Roman»;mso-bidi-font-family:«Times New Roman»;color:windowtext; text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">genre

are designed toelicit fright, <span Times New Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:«Times New Roman»; mso-bidi-font-family:«Times New Roman»;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none; text-underline:none">fear, <span Times New Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:«Times New Roman»; mso-bidi-font-family:«Times New Roman»;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none; text-underline:none">terror, <span Times New Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:«Times New Roman»; mso-bidi-font-family:«Times New Roman»;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none; text-underline:none">disgust or <span Times New Roman";mso-hansi-font-family: «Times New Roman»;mso-bidi-font-family:«Times New Roman»;color:windowtext; text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">horror from viewers. Inhorror film plots, <span Times New Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:«Times New R
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