Abstract and Key Words

Abstract: With the opening of China and the increasing cultural communication, more and more English films have entered China’s film market. Translation is believed to play an important role in the introduction of these films. Therefore, film title translation has become special and significant part of translation studies. Based on skopostheorie, this thesis intends to argue that English film title translation should be under the basic principle of fulfilling the specific functions of the film title through adopting translation methods properly.

Key words: film title translation; Skopostheorie; translation strategies

摘要：随着中国的改革开放和国际文化交流日益加强，越来越多的英语电影正涌入中国电影市场。翻译对于这些影片的引进扮演着重要的角色，因此，电影片名翻译是翻译领域一项特殊且具有重要意义的组成部分。本文以目的论为基础，指出英语电影片名的汉译应以实现片名的功能为原则，巧妙灵活应用各种方法。

关键词：电影片名；翻译目的论；翻译策略

1. Introduction
Film title translation is an important and creative task. It should focus on the audience’s feelings and be measured by whether the film can be understood, accepted or loved. If a film is said to be a piece of art, then the film title is the art of art. In addition to the role of propaganda and guidance, it also has a very high aesthetic value. Nowadays, more and more Hollywood films come into China’s film market. These films are not only intermediaries for western and eastern cultural communication, but also bear the responsibility at the box office. Title translation plays a very important role in attracting the audience’s eyes at the first time. “Good title translation to good films is icing on the cake, and make a higher level of middle-quality films. At the same time, the translation itself gives a sense of beauty, and even plays a leading role of introduction.” “Film title is a piece of concise art, it is the eye of film content, the soul of film idea, the film art lintels.”
A well-translated film titles contributes a lot to the film company and its films, while poor translation always results in a failure. When a film is popular in public, its title means great value. The title of a certain film is rather important because it defines the central theme of the film and arouse the imagination of the film and its plot. A well-translated film title can bring out unexpected advantage. For example, the famous American film, the Waterloo Bridge, this tells a beautiful but unfortunate love story in the World WarⅠ.It attracted a number of Chinese people not only by the moving love story but its translated title. If the translator simply translates it into“滑铁卢桥”,it is very easy for the audience to associate the film with Napoleon’s fatal defeat at Waterloo Bridge in Europe in 1812.