MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND YOUTH OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

MOLDOVA STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSLATION, INTERPRETATION

AND APPLIED LINGUISTICS

COURSE PAPER

DIFFICULTIES IN TRANSLATING

MOVIE TITLES

SUBMITTED BY: Flentea Ecaterina

GROUP: 2611                                  

RESEARCH ADVISER: MA in American Studies,

University Lecturer,

Timofti Ecaterina

Chisinau 2007

Table of contents:

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

Chapter One: Translation as the Possibility of Understanding the Art of Film Titles

1.1.  The Power of Film Translation…………………………………………………………………6

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

1.3.  The Invention of Film Titles……………………………………………………………………8

1.4.  The Art of Film Tiles……………………………………………………………………………9

1.5.  Brief Historical View of the Titles of Cultural Products……………………………………10   1.5.1. The Three Models of Mass Communication……………………………………………..11

1.5.2. The Film Title and the System of Paratext……………………………………………….12

1.5.3. The Titles of Audiovisual 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 into Russian

2.1. Difficulties in Translating 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 Movie Titles……………………………………...24

2.5. Difficulties in Translating Adventure and Historical Movie Titles…………………………27

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

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

Introduction

    Nowadays there is a great number of foreign films that is imported in our country. As their original titles are mostly written in English, they have to be translated. A film title plays a great role in understanding the film in general and the information contained in it. Consequently, a translator must be very attentive while translating the movie title to make it as sonorous as the original one. It is very interesting to perform this kind of translation, and we decided to choose this subject for our course paper. We made an investigation in it and we tried to discover some difficulties in translating the film titles.

Actuality of investigation

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

Aims and Objectives of the Research

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

Methodological Background of Scientific Investigation

    In order to present the course paper in a logical 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 20^th century; consequently the art of cinema is rather a new one. Because of this there are no many books about it, especially those, where it is written about the film titles. The subject of movie titles translation isn’t studied at that level, as it should be studied. That’s why it was new and very interesting for us to study and analyze this kind of translation, because it plays a very important role in perception of foreign film titles by Russian audience. Having consulted the Internet forums, we found out that the movie titles translation is the subject of wide discussions between people. They consider that in our time there are many mistakes and lacks of coincidence in the translations of foreign movie titles. That’s why it was very exciting and interesting for us to analyze this concrete branch of translation. The scientific novelty of our course paper consists in the fact that, having analyzed some examples of movie titles we found what difficulties may appear while translating them.