The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Red carpet out for star-studded Venice film festival Posted: 30 Aug 2011 10:02 AM PDT VENICE, Aug 30 — The red carpet is out and builders are putting the finishing touches to the Venice film festival venue ahead of tomorrow's glitzy opening, when George Clooney's political drama "The Ides of March" has its world premiere. The 2011 edition of the world's oldest film festival promises a rich line-up of eagerly awaited movies and A-list stars, many of whom will hope the high-profile launch puts them on the road to awards early next year. For the next 11 days, the Lido island across the water from Venice hosts the toast of global independent film making, as well as thousands of journalists and paparazzi who come to follow their every move.  The sweep before the red carpet, in front of a sign reading "Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica la Biennale di Venezia 2011", near the Cinema Palace in Venice, August 30, 2011. The 68th Venice Film Festival will run from August 31 to September 10. — Reuters pic "It is a programme that tells you how much support we get from the artists, the film makers . . . and it proves that Venice really stands as a major platform to create a special kind of visibility," Mueller told Reuters. Donning their tuxedos along with Clooney tomorrow will be co-stars Ryan Gosling and Philip Seymour Hoffman, followed later in the festival by Colin Firth, Keira Knightley, Matthew McConaughey, Kate Winslet, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and pop superstar Madonna. "I don't recall a time when so many people have been so excited by a line-up and that is across the board," said Jay Weissberg, film critic for Hollywood trade publication Variety, who is a Venice festival regular. The line-up of 22 competition films and dozens more eclipses 2010's low-key event, and Venice is aiming to repeat the success of 2008 when it launched "The Hurt Locker", which went on to win six Oscars including best picture. Polanski absent Among the most hotly anticipated titles is "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", an adaption of John Le Carre's spy novel starring recent Oscar winner Colin Firth as well as Gary Oldman and John Hurt. Other standout titles in competition include Briton Andrea Arnold's take on the Emily Bronte novel "Wuthering Heights", US director Ami Canaan Mann's "Texas Killing Fields" and William Friedkin's "Killer Joe". In "A Dangerous Method", Canadian David Cronenberg explores the rivalry between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud as a young woman (Knightley) comes between them. Roman Polanski worked on the screenplay for his latest movie "Carnage", featuring Winslet, Jodie Foster and Christoph Waltz, while under house arrest in Switzerland last year. The 78-year-old was eventually freed after the Swiss authorities decided not to extradite him to the United States, where he is still wanted for sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977 in Los Angeles. "Yes, of course, I think . . . if he leaves France it's only to travel to Switzerland and Poland so of course when I met with him and told him how much we love the film . . . it is sad that he is not here," Mueller said. "But three out of his four lead cast will be here and that will create a sensation because it's really a sensational film." Acclaimed Russian director Alexander Sokurov brings "Faust" and Hong Kong's Johnnie To presents "Life Without Principle", a story touching on the economic crisis and its effect on ordinary people. Outside the main line-up, Madonna makes her second foray into feature films with "W.E.", a drama loosely based on divorcee Wallis Simpson, whose relationship with Britain's King Edward VIII led to his abdication in 1936. Egyptian documentary "Tahrir 2011" covers the revolution and overthrow of the old regime, Philippe Faucon explores radical Islam in "La Desintegration", and Al Pacino plays himself and King Herod in "Wilde Salome". Steven Soderbergh promises an all-star cast including Damon, Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Law and Paltrow in "Contagion", about a lethal airborne virus that spreads panic. — Reuters |
| Translating ‘Colombiana’: How not to include ‘penis’ in movie title Posted: 30 Aug 2011 08:25 AM PDT LOS ANGELES, Aug 30 — Puns are fine, but don't go too far: that's the advice the government has for film distributors of foreign product in Taiwan.  Star Zoe Saldana of "Avatar" fame, seen here arriving for the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles, August 28, 2011: Within a whisker of an anatomic no-no. — Reuters pic But the Taiwanese distributors of the upcoming film "Colombiana" — starring "Avatar" actress Zoe Saldana — learned this the hard way the other day when they were informed by the public morals minders that the first Chinese-language title they offered up in Taiwan was, how shall we say, a no-no. Hollywood movies usually get fairly good translations when their titles move to overseas markets, and the distributors try to keep the original sense of the English title — but sometimes things go awry. If you've ever spent much time in Japan, you will know how some Hollywood product gets "translated" into weird nihongo. Talk about lost in translation! But it's all in fun and no harm is ever intended. To give you an example, in Taiwan, a few years ago, the Tom Hanks vehicle "The Green Mile" was shown at cinemas across the nation, but with a Chinese-language title that called it "The Green Miracle". It just made better (poetic) sense to frame it that way in Chinese. Calling it "The Green Kilometre" just didn't make the cut. When translators are asked to render English movie titles into Chinese or Japanese, they must have a deft touch and mind their p's and q's as well, especially when it comes to public morals, such as they are. In the recent case of "Colombiana", the local translation team innocently decided to call it "Hei-lan-jiao" (黑蘭嬌) in Mandarin, which literally means "black orchid beauty". Nothing wrong so far. You couldn't ask for a more poetic or eye-catching title. But there was one catch that the Catchplay distribution company in Taipei didn't figure into the equation. The Chinese "pronunciation" of the new title sounds a bit like the Taiwanese dialect pronunciation for "dick". Well, penis. Can I say that here? You see, in Taiwan, multi-ethnic and multi-racial nation that it is, there are several languages on the table at any one time: the national, government-authorised language of Mandarin Chinese, the local dialect of Hoklo Taiwanese (spoken on a daily basis a bit in the way that Yiddish was used long ago in pre-war Germany) and several other "mother tongues" used by various ethnic groups. And in the Taiwanese dialect, "Heilanjaio" sounds very close to the Hoklo word for dick. Enter the public morals minders. The government, good people all, said the new title was, and I quote in translation: "A violation of public morals". The new title was deemed "inappropriate". But in its defence, the distributor told reporters in Taipei that they didn't do it on purpose or to cause a public uproar, noting: "Our translation came from the movie's story itself, in which the killer draws a picture of a 'black orchid' on her victims each time she takes revenge." But since Taiwan's popular TV shows are notorious for puns and word games that mingle the various spoken languages used here, often crossing boundaries and running afoul of the morals police, one must be careful at all times when translating movie titles lest the little ones — under 18, that is — and the conservative older crowd don't like the sound of certain things. So, Taiwan being a free and democratic nation, a decision was made to retitle the movie as "Hei-lan-sha" (黑蘭煞), which means ''black beauty evil" — and does not pun on penis. The government's public morals committee of the Department of Motion Pictures urged translators of movie titles to be more careful in the future, noting: "While film promotion and marketing needs to be creative and eye-catching, one must also consider public perceptions, and in this recent case, the title went too far." The final decision about the title brouhaha was made by a five-member panel that included local academics and several women's rights groups. The Luc Besson-Olivier Megaton film opens nationwide in Taiwan next month, according to industry sources. — Reuters |
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