English title of feature films in French release

Moktar Aliya

The global popularity of American cinema has resulted in a growing demand for the translation of films, starting with their titles. The title of a film is a trademark of a film that potential viewers consider when choosing a film. Therefore, the title plays a big role in the future fate of the film, for example, one film title can have many different translations and adaptations when distributed in different parts of the world. Such a discrepancy in the translation of the original title of a film work can be explained, in most cases, by the desire to adapt it to the linguistic and cultural perception of the target audience. Much more questions arise when translations of the same title into the same language differ at the box office in different parts of the world. According to the observations of many fans of American cinema, in French box office, English-language titles of feature films are often found, while not retaining the original titles. Of course, there are also translated titles into French, but their translation diverges at the box office in different parts of the French-speaking world. When it comes to titles of English-language films in a French-speaking country, there are three well-established trajectories: 1. Their titles are translated into French. 2. They keep the original title in English. 3. They are reformulated, taking on a more “simplified” title for the non-English speaking target audience, but still in original English, regardless of their level of English proficiency. With all this, one or another choice of film name does not affect the quality of translation of the content of the film, i.e. voice-overs and dubbed text by dubbing actors do not change when the film is released in different French-speaking countries. In this article, we describe the factors influencing the choice of titles for American films that have been released in France, comparing them with titles under which they have been released in other French-speaking countries or territories, such as Quebec, by describing some common patterns, with the aim of identify the reason why film distributors agree to translate the titles of some films and not others. We will also be doing research to see how this new trend has evolved over the last three years and how it might further impact the film product as a whole.

Keywords:film title, movie, target audience, original title, translation, adapted title, film distribution.