31 December 2011 • 20:31 0
It’s rare to hear about a French film that’s both socially conscious and wildly successful, but Intouchables is just that. It’s scheduled to be released stateside early this coming year, and will be interesting to see how this racially-based comedy fares here.
Filed under: French film industry, US film industry , Intouchables
27 November 2011 • 07:09 1
Anyone who has already seen or plans to see Martin Scorsese‘s wonderful new film should check out this website for more on Méliès. The character of René Tabard is entirely fictitious – but possibly the definitive work on him (which I happen to own) was actually written by his granddaughter.
I plan to see the film again – appropriately, in all respects, in 3D!
Filed under: French film industry, US film industry , Hugo, Martin Scorsese, Méliès
18 November 2011 • 22:56 0
I was vaguely aware of this series in high school, but like most Americans oblivious to it for most of my life. Until now (or at least in theaters come December.)
The film, thanks to Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, has already hit Europe, and the reaction, certainly in France, has been understandably qualified.
Filed under: French film industry, translation, US film industry , Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin, Tintin
18 November 2011 • 22:22 0
In our so-called “new new” economy, jobs are guarded with care formerly reserved for jewels, crops, and small children. Automation and technology have outstripped humans’ necessity, along with the ability to monetize almost anything that was exclusively sold in real stores and can now be either digitized or executed through computer algorithms. Unlike previous economic downturns (in my lifetime at least), there’s no turning back if for no other reason that “sides” have arisen, at least in the U.S., and essentially declared war over who will lead “us” back to either a better future, soothing normalcy, or both.
I’m stating what to some might be obvious, because as a professional translator, besides bridging multiple linguistic worlds, I am also a businessperson. The current stature of anyone with specific skills, accrued in and on human time and terms and not technological ones, is becoming rapidly irrelevant and eroded.
Translators, like utilities, big box stores, licensed health professionals, and a host of other “old” economy entities, provide a service that has real costs which we price accordingly. To seek out someone who is a specialist in a particular field, versus DIY computerized fudging, might not always be cost-effective, but consider how many decisions you make daily prejudicing quality over the bottom line, and in the end what you really get for what you’ve paid.
Filed under: divers, translation , 19th century class warfare, Frank Rich, new new economy, Occupy Wall Street, professionalism, Real Steel, The World is Flat 3.0, Thomas L. Friedman, Transformers
16 September 2011 • 21:16 0
I was delighted to see Dany Boon’s new film the other night, which on the one hand is a send up of our overly partisan yet constantly shifting world, and on the other an attempt to recreate the gargantuan success of his first film.
There’s talk of a remake (after Will Smith snapped up the rights for his earlier film), and it’s intriguing to imagine where they would base the comedy if transplanted here. Canadian border comedy was long-ago exhausted by SCTV, and demographic-based humor can be tricky these days.
Otherwise, I was on-set last fall across the soundstage where this other film (itself reflective of previous posts of mine about the ever increasing internationality of film production) was being filmed here in Los Angeles. “Droid” or “avatar”, it looks like fun, and certainly an homage to American films from that time with a definite French touch.
Filed under: audiovisual translation, French film industry, US film industry , Bienvenue chez les ch'tis, Dany Boon, Rien à déclarer, The Artist, Welcome to the South
31 August 2011 • 05:14 0
Toronto is just around the corner, and the following three films caught my eye:
Monsieur Lazhar: From the producers of the Oscar-nominated Incendies comes a classroom story similar to the docu-drama The Class from a few years back, full of social conflict in Québec.
Elles: Juliette Binoche plays a journalist for Elle magazine researching prostitution, and whose worldview is altered by her subjects.
Monster in Paris: Animated terror in the City of Lights, circa 1910, in which a creature unleashed from a greenhouse may not be entirely menacing, inciting hilarity and (adult) bad guys.
Filed under: French film industry, translation, US film industry , A Monster in Paris, Canadian film industry, Elles, Incendies, Monsieur Lazhar, The Class, TIFF, Un Monstre à Paris
25 August 2011 • 03:11 0
At this point in the year, most people can’t remember their New Year’s resolutions, much less have any foresight about upcoming ones. That said, here is my review, measuring where I stand and how far yet I have to go:
I will revisit my business plan and examine how I’m targeting my ideal clients and niche market. I have made the most progress here, discovering that my ideal client isn’t who I thought they were.
I’d like to really invest myself into my TM tools (Trados and Wordfast), and organize the vocabularies I’ve developed through my output. I’ve had a very productive summer, and now that I have some downtime, will commit to making inroads here before September.
I’m going to work on becoming a “CT” (ATA-certified professional translator) in my language pair. I will take a practice test I’ve purchased before the end of this month.
I’m revising my website, and would like to blog more this year, especially about what I love about my current and planned language pairs. My website revision is almost complete, and I will be promoting it this fall. Blogging still feels like I chore that I never fully “own”, i.e. trying to be “personal” as I discuss my business. This reminds me though about the last point, which I do look forward to blogging about soon.
Maybe the ridiculously insatiability of crowd-sourced media and platforms, as bashfully “a-promotional” as a Versailles courtier, can be useful in simple, human terms after all: accountability and goals.
Filed under: divers, translation , ATA, blogging, SDL Trados, Wordfast
22 August 2011 • 20:58 0
While the piece in the L.A. Times highlighting Point Blank appeared a few weeks ago, the film is still in release, and I plan to see it soon, certainly before a remake happens. It’s similar to other recent successful French thrillers, so the question arises: is it still a “thriller,” and French, if the frantically pressured men aren’t rescuing strong but vulnerable women? And would it be so phenomenally successful there and abroad if it weren’t?
Filed under: audiovisual translation, French film industry, US film industry , A bout portant, Fred Cavayé, Point Blank
12 July 2011 • 21:22 0
This film, which was screened last night at the L.A.’s Outfest, and earlier this year at Sundance, has a fascinating and all-too timely premise: a gay male Iranian couple escapes from Iran illegally into France seeking freedom they’ve never experienced. The conclusion is brutal, damning and believable enough. But the action, what’s shown, isn’t entirely convincing regarding the couple’s homosexuality.
It’s an Algerian-French co-production, and I wondered if the filmmakers were hesitant for whatever reason to be more commited and explicit showing the couple acting like a couple having escaped their “prison.” Suspension of disbelief, in otherwords, was more dependent on the press materials than the film itself. Were there religious/cultural limitations, possibly based on potential audiences in non-GLBT friendly/open countries?
Whatever one’s judgement on the results, the politics of this film outweigh any other considerations for anyone interested in human rights, and the GLBT movement and its allies. See it, and talk to your friends about it.
Filed under: divers, French film industry , OutFest, Quelques jours de répit, Sundance Film Festival
29 June 2011 • 20:54 0
Anyone who’s followed Woody Allen’s trajectory inevitably bemoans he don’t make ‘em like he used to. Perhaps so much the better!
His new film which makes allusions to both his earlier films (Marshall McLuhan in Annie Hall) and other contemporary ones (Inception), is a wonderful testament to both Paris and France, as well as the power and allure of history. The ideas of being out of time, from a different one, and an expert (or not) are all batted around with comic tenderness.
While I wasn’t crazy about the ending, the film reminded me that repetition for its own sake isn’t a particularly creative endeavor. But doing what one loves versus the “same-old-same old” is key, whether it’s in Malibu or Paris.
Filed under: divers, US film industry , Annie Hall, Inception, Marion Cotillard, Marshall McLuhan, Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen
