I plan to see the film again – appropriately, in all respects, in 3D!

The film, thanks to Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, has already hit Europe, and the reaction, certainly in France, has been understandably qualified.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.