Difficulties in Translating Movie Titles

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