{"id":1265,"date":"2014-02-28T18:43:25","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T23:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/conalti.org\/?p=1265"},"modified":"2020-04-07T15:11:42","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T19:11:42","slug":"hollywood-movie-titles-lost-in-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/conalti.org\/en\/hollywood-movie-titles-lost-in-translation\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood movie titles lost in translation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Associated Press<\/a><\/p>\n

JERUSALEM \u2014 David O. Russell\u2019s crime drama \u201cAmerican Hustle\u201d could be a big winner at Sunday\u2019s Academy Awards. But for the movie\u2019s many international fans, it may take a little longer to realize it. In their country, there is simply no word that captures the true essence of \u201cHustle.\u201d<\/p>\n

So in Israel the film is known in Hebrew as \u201cAmerican Dream.\u201d In France, it\u2019s translated as \u201cAmerican Bluff.\u201d In Argentina, it\u2019s \u201cAmerican Scandal.\u201d In Portugal, it\u2019s \u201cAmerican Sting.\u201d In Quebec, it\u2019s \u201cAmerican Scam.\u201d In Spain, it\u2019s the \u201cGreat American Scam.\u201d And in Turkey, it\u2019s merely known as \u201cTrickster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Big Hollywood films have immediate name recognition in the United States. But in the rest of the world, moviegoers are long accustomed to their respective countries translating the titles with their own, often quirkier names.<\/p>\n

Observers say there is often a need to reframe a linguistic expression or a cultural phenomenon that may be foreign to non-American ears. Sometimes the distributors orchestrate the name shift to create familiarity, stir a local buzz and attract more viewers. Other times, nonsensical translations simply defy logic.<\/p>\n

Arie Barak, whose public relations company represents the studios of Fox, Disney and Sony in Israel, said that in this era of globalization the trend is to try to stick as much as possible to the original title, particularly with blockbusters and well-branded superheroes like Batman and Superman. Other times, a literal translation does the trick just fine.<\/p>\n

But the bottom line is money, and if the name doesn\u2019t work locally, he said Hollywood studios are more than happy to adapt. That\u2019s how his firm came up with one of the strangest Hebrew translations in recent years, turning the animated comedy flick \u201cCloudy with a Chance of Meatballs\u201d into an Israeli version called \u201cIt\u2019s Raining Falafel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMeatballs are not something Israelis relate to,\u201d Barak said, noting that falafel was a better equivalent of a local food staple. (In Turkey, the title apparently translated just fine and the film was renamed \u201cRaining Kofte,\u201d a local version of the meatball.)<\/p>\n

While the Hebrew film lacked any reference to fried balls of chick peas, Barak said the strategy paid off and the movie did well at the box office. Ditto for \u201cSilver Linings Playbook,\u201d which he helped translate into \u201cOptimism is the Name of the Game.\u201d In France, for example, the film was renamed \u201cHappiness Therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always try to stay true to the source,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we can\u2019t do that we insist on maintaining the spirit of the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The results are often amusing. No one can quite explain how \u201cTerminator\u201d became \u201cDeadly Mission,\u201d \u2018\u2019Alien\u201d turned into \u201cThe 8th Passenger\u201d or \u201cTop Gun\u201d morphed into \u201cLove in the Skies.\u201d Even the movie \u201cLost in Translation\u201d was literally lost in translation. It was called \u201cLost in Tokyo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Top Gun you don\u2019t have in Hebrew … when you want to say to a pilot he is good you say he is an \u2018Ace\u2019,\u201d said Avi Edery, deputy chief executive of the New Lineo cinema chain in Israel. \u201cHebrew is a difficult language. It\u2019s not as rich as English sometimes and you cannot translate word by word all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hardly a unique phenomenon.<\/p>\n

In France, \u201cThe Dukes of Hazzard\u201d became \u201cSheriff, Make Me Afraid,\u201d and \u201cThe Hangover\u201d is known as \u201cVery Bad Trip.\u201d The French have a tendency to add titillating titles to subpar movies to spark interest. So \u201cStep Up\u201d is known as \u201cSexy Dance,\u201d and \u201cNo Strings Attached\u201d became \u201cSexy Friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Germany, Woody Allen\u2019s classic \u201cAnnie Hall\u201d was called \u201cThe Urban Neurotic.\u201d The war comedy \u201cStripes\u201d was called \u201cI think I\u2019m Being Kissed by an Elk!\u201d and \u201cEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind\u201d was titled \u201cForget me not!\u201d (In Italy, they called it \u201cIf You Leave Me, I Delete You.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Turkey also transformed \u201cThere\u2019s Something About Mary\u201d into \u201cOh Mary, Oh Mary!\u201d and \u201cErin Brockovich\u201d into \u201cSweet Trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emrah Guler, who writes about cinema for Turkey\u2019s Hurriyet Daily News, said the distributor probably used the world \u201csweet\u201d to describe Julia Roberts in her Oscar-winning performance. Had Gwyneth Paltrow played the part, he said, \u201cthe Turkish translation would probably be \u2018Elegant Trouble.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In Japan, George Clooney\u2019s \u201cUp in the Air\u201d was translated into \u201cMileage, My Life.\u201d In China, \u201cThe Full Monty,\u201d a comedy about a group of unemployed men who form a striptease act, was called \u201cSix Naked Pigs\u201d and \u201cBoogie Nights,\u201d the story of a young man becoming a porn star, was renamed \u201cHis Great Device Makes Him Famous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yehuda Stav, a veteran Israeli movie critic, said that in Israel the names are actually less absurd than they used to be but the logic remains the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is done in a clear and decisive manner in order to draw people to the movie theaters,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are looking for something catchy or funny, even if it is ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, the title of Paul Newman\u2019s 1978 comedy \u201cSlap Shot,\u201d about a bungling minor league hockey team, was considered so obscure in Israel at the time that it was simply renamed \u201cPaul Newman and his gang.\u201d Apparently, this kind of transformation is also common just north of the American border. In the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec, Woody Allen\u2019s 1973 sci-fi comedy \u201cSleeper\u201d was turned into \u201cWoody and the Robots.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some the phenomenon is no laughing matter.<\/p>\n

Danny Warth, an archivist at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, a local art-house theater, said the crude altering of titles was an insult to the genre.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are talking about a work of art here. No one would dare change the name of a novel or a theater production, but in film for some reason it is allowed,\u201d he bemoaned. \u201cA ridiculous name is indeed humorous but I have a hard time being forgiving about this. It is not dignified.\u201d<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Lori Hinnant in Paris, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Benjamin Shingler in Montreal and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Associated Press JERUSALEM \u2014 David O. Russell\u2019s crime drama \u201cAmerican Hustle\u201d could be a big winner at Sunday\u2019s Academy Awards. But for the movie\u2019s […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":2465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-en-los-medios"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conalti.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conalti.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conalti.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conalti.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conalti.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1265"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/conalti.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2466,"href":"https:\/\/conalti.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions\/2466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conalti.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conalti.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conalti.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conalti.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}