French Translation Of French Film And Television Works

The significance of television and film for people is self-evident. As the embodiment of collective aesthetics, film and television dramas display the cultural ideas and images of specific areas in addition to the universal values. As today's international cultural exchanges are becoming increasingly frequent and diversified,the role of film and television in communication has drawn more and more attention.The French films and television programs, particularly the television dramas,however, are mostly dubbed into Chinese for spreading. The audience largely relies on Chinese subtitles to understand the drama series, which means that the translation of French films and televisions is very important for the audience.China's film and television translation began after the liberation. Since the reform and opening up,the rapid economic development has enabled the rapid popularization of television, meanwhile the introduction of foreign films has gradually highlighted the importance of audiovisual translation. However, the importance attached to audiovisual translation in China is far lower than that to literary translation. Whether it is the degree of perfection of relevant teaching materials or the quantity and quality of relevant researches, all of them can hardly match its social function.As a special form of translation, the translation of French films and televisions requires the translators to have a deeper understanding of the source language(French), the target language (Chinese) and the culture of both countries. Besides, it is different from literary translation in many aspects such as the translation standards and translation methods: (1). Unlike novel translation, which creates the story space purely through the text, in audiovisual translation, elements displayed in picture and sound effect can be ignored to some extent. That is to say, audiovisual translation needs "selection".(2). Since film and television translation relies on the screen images and sounds, the instantaneity of images, the match of the actor's mouth shape and the translation as well as the length of original lines need to be considered during translation. That is to say, audiovisual translation needs "synchronization". (3).Movie is characterized by vivid narrative and being close to life. Compared with literary works, film and television works target at more diversified audience,allowing for people ranging from at all age levels and cultural levels. It can be said that the film and television translation is characterized by "popularity".In addition, as an important part of Sino-French cultural exchanges, the French film and television works need to be dubbed by taking into account cultural elements,which involves the choice between "domestication" and "foreignization" and judgement for propriety.Although the audiovisual translation has not received the attention in the subject field, it is widely used in translation of online films and televisions. The model of online film and television translation emerges as the times require.But the drawbacks are obvious, such as the abuse of network buzzwords in translation, lack of extensive knowledge and so on.This paper will start by reviewing the introduction of foreign films and televisions and expound the emergence and development of audiovisual translation.The first chapter reveals the changes in translation object, target audience, translator identity and translation method respectively in audiovisual translation by answering the questions: "What is to be translated?" "Who is translated for?" "Who will translate?" "How to translate?" The second chapter focuses on the limitations of audiovisual translation, the existing problems and countermeasures, and induces the discussion about translation norms. Considering the differences between dubbing and subtitle translation, this chapter will be divided into two parts for discussion. For example, how to achieve synhronization in dubbed film, and the feasibility of making annotation in subtitle translation. Moreover, this article compares the merits and demerits of online translations with those of official ones by collecting the Chinese subtitles of French film and television works that have been widely spread in China in recent years for reference. For example, movies Amelie from Montmartre,Welcome to the Sticks, Intouchables, and television dramas Les revenants, Bref, Les Hommes de l'ombre and Falco. Combined with examples, the paper shows thedilemma faced by subtitle translation and problems demanding prompt solution, thus giving suggestions for reference. The third chapter focuses on the cultural effects and the cultural conflicts in translation. This chapter will discuss the choice between domestication and foreignization in film and television translation, and how to translate the different cultural images (such as dialects, idioms, proper nouns, body languages, etc.). It also discusses the role and purpose of translation in today's context of multiculture, and offers relatively feasible suggestions regarding strategies used in film and television translation. It is hoped that through the exploration of this article we can make some contributions to focus on audiovisual translation.