II.1. Unchanged or truncated titles (deletion) II.1.1. Unchanged titles:
Year
|
Original title
|
Director(s)
|
1941
|
Citizen Kane
|
Orson Welles
|
1942
|
For Me and My Gal
|
Busby Berkeley
|
1943
|
Cabin in the Sky
|
Vincente Minnelli
|
1950
|
Annie Get Your Gun
|
George Sidney
|
1961
|
West Side Story
|
Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
|
1964
|
Goldfinger
|
Guy Hamilton
|
1964
|
My Fair Lady
|
George Cukor
|
1969
|
Easy Rider
|
Dennis Hopper
|
1970
|
Love Story
|
Arthur Hiller
|
1983
|
Scarface
|
Brian De Palma
|
1986
|
Platoon
|
Oliver Stone
|
1987
|
Full Metal Jacket
|
Stanley Kubrick
|
1988
|
Beetlejuice
|
Tim Burton
|
1988
|
Rain Man
|
Barry Levinson
|
1991
|
Trainspotting
|
Danny Boyle
|
1993
|
Jurassic Park
|
Steven Spielberg
|
1996
|
Mars Attacks!
|
Tim Burton
|
1998
|
Snake Eyes
|
Brian De Palma
|
1998
|
The Big Lebowski
|
Joel and Ethan Coen
|
1999
|
American Beauty
|
Sam Mendes
|
2000
|
Memento
|
Christopher Nolan
|
2000
|
Requiem for a Dream
|
Darren Aronofsky
|
2002
|
Insomnia
|
Christopher Nolan
|
2002
|
Minority Report
|
Steven Spielberg
|
2003
|
Big Fish
|
Tim Burton
|
2003
|
Mystic River
|
Clint Eastwood
|
2004
|
Garden State
|
Zach Braff
|
2004
|
Million Dollar Baby
|
Clint Eastwood
|
2004
|
Shaun of the Dead
|
Edgar Wright
|
2005
|
Broken Flowers
|
Jim Jarmush
|
2005
|
The Constant Gardener
|
Fernando Meirelles
|
2005
|
The Descent
|
Neil Marshall
|
2005
|
The Jacket
|
John Maybury
|
2006
|
Little Miss Sunshine
|
Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
|
2006
|
The Fountain
|
Darren Aronofsky
|
2007
|
Hot Fuzz
|
Edgar Wright
|
2007
|
Into The Wild
|
Sean Penn
|
2007
|
There Will Be Blood
|
Paul Thomas Anderson
|
2008
|
Burn After Reading
|
Joel and Ethan Coen
|
2008
|
Slumdog Millionaire
|
Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan
|
2008
|
The Wrestler
|
Darren Aronofsky
|
2009
|
A Serious Man
|
Joel and Ethan Coen
|
2009
|
Lovely Bones
|
Peter Jackson
|
2010
|
Kick-Ass
|
Matthew Vaughn
|
2010
|
Shutter Island
|
Martin Scorsese
|
The original title is preserved. The potential audience does not necessarily have the title's indication (due to an approximate understanding of the English language), but in compensation, they are more and more guided by various film reviews.
Most of these examples can easily be translated faithfully. This results from the fact that they are composed either by transparent words, either by accessible words. This phenomenon is observed in titles such as: Love Story ("Histoire d'amour"), Jurassic Park ("Le parc du jurassique"), Mars Attacks! ("Mars attaque !" or "Les martiens attaquent !"), Requiem for a Dream ("Requiem pour un rêve"), Insomnia ("Insomnie"), Minority Report ("Rapport minoritaire"), The Fountain ("La fontaine"), etc.
Concerning the less obvious original titles that have been kept in France, I will suggest some French titles, using literal and faithful translation, Etoffement, or alternative titles.
Faithful translation: "Balles blindées".
Alternative title: "Le Merdier" (from Gustav Hasford's novel translated by "Le Merdier" into French).
Literal translation: "Jus de Scarabée".
Faithful translation: "Bételgeuse".
Etoffement: "Beetlejuice: jus de cafard".
Etoffement: "Big Fish: un film aux proportions mythiques" (from Daniel Wallace's novel Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions).
Faithful translation: "La camisole".
Etoffement: "La camisole de force".
Alternative title: "Voyage au bout de la solitude" (from the French title of Jon Krakauer's book) or "Retour à la vie sauvage" or "L'appel de la nature".
Literal translation: "Il y aura du sang".
Faithful translation: "Du sang coulera" or "Le sang va couler".
Alternative title: "Pétrole !" (This is the literal translation of Upton Sinclair's novel Oil!, from which Anderson's movie is based on) or "Du pétrole et du sang".
Faithful translation: "Le millionnaire du bidonville".
Etoffement: "L'enfant des bidonvilles et les millions".
Literal translation: "Le catcheur".
II.1.2. Truncated titles: II.1.2.1. The:
Year
|
Original title
|
French title
|
Director(s)
|
1971
|
The French Connection
|
French Connection
|
William Friedkin
|
1980
|
The Shining
|
Shining
|
Stanley Kubrick
|
1981
|
The Elephant Man
|
Elephant Man
|
David Lynch
|
1981
|
The Evil Dead
|
Evil Dead
|
Sam Raimi
|
1984
|
The Terminator
|
Terminator
|
James Cameron
|
1985
|
The Breakfast Club
|
Breakfast Club
|
John Hugues
|
1994
|
The Last Seduction
|
Last Seduction
|
John Dahl
|
1995
|
The Crossing Guard
|
Crossing Guard
|
Sean Penn
|
1995
|
The Usual Suspects
|
Usual Suspects
|
Bryan Singer
|
1996
|
The Rock
|
Rock
|
Michael Bay
|
1999
|
The Matrix
|
Matrix
|
A. and L. Wacowsky
|
1997
|
The Butcher Boy
|
Butcher Boy
|
Neil Jordan
|
1997
|
The Ice Storm
|
Ice Storm
|
Ang Lee
|
1997
|
The Postman
|
Postman
|
Kevin Costner
|
1999
|
The Ladykillers
|
Ladykillers
|
Joel and Ethan Coen
|
1999
|
The Virgin Suicides
|
Virgin Suicides
|
Sofia Coppola
|
2003
|
The Matrix Reloaded
|
Matrix Reloaded
|
A. and L. Wacowsky
|
2003
|
The Matrix Revolutions
|
Matrix Revolutions
|
A. and L. Wacowsky
|
2006
|
The Da Vinci Code
|
Da Vinci Code
|
Ron Howard
|
2006
|
The Last Kiss
|
Last Kiss
|
Tony Goldwyn
|
2009
|
The Girlfriend Experience
|
Girlfriend Experience
|
Steven Soderbergh
|
2010
|
The Wolfman
|
Wolfman
|
Joe Johnston
|
The principle is to remove "The" from the beginning of the original title. No translation is done thereafter. They are mostly accessible and rather short titles. This method may be used in order to simplify the titles' alphabetical classification.
II.1.2.2. Other:
Year
|
Original title
|
French title
|
Director(s)
|
1984
|
This Is Spinal Tap
|
Spinal Tap
|
Rob Reiner
|
1995
|
Beyond Rangoon
|
Rangoon
|
John Boorman
|
2000
|
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
|
O’Brother
|
Joel and Ethan Coen
|
2004
|
Finding Neverland
|
Neverland
|
Marc Forster
|
2004
|
A Love Song for Bobby Long
|
Love Song
|
Shainee Gabel
|
2009
|
Up in the Air
|
In the Air
|
Jason Reitman
|
One or several words were truncated from the original title. We can notice several functions concerning these truncations:
There is a deletion of some words that do not affect the meaning of the title: This Is Spinal Tap was released in France with the title Spinal Tap and Up in the Air under the title In the Air.
Out of two words, the French title keeps the main one which is also the easiest to understand (Beyond Rangoon becomes Rangoon; Finding Neverland becomes Neverland).
Only the main idea is kept in the French title, everything else is judged as being useless (O Brother, Where Art Thou? Was entitled O’Brother; A Love Song for Bobby Long was changed to Love Song).
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