摘要

  电影，作为一种包含视频和声音的艺术，在世界各国间的文化交流上起着重要的作用。本文介绍了直译和意译，探讨了其各自的优缺点，分析了英文电影的种类和特征，探索了在直译和意译选择上的影响因素，也就是文化和商业因素。电影片名的翻译，不应该片面地认为是直译好还是意译好，这两者应该是相辅相成的，应该把二者结合起来。

关键词：翻译；电影片名；直译；意译 

Abstract

  Films, a form of art which involve the video and the sound, have played a significant part in cultural interchanges among every country in the world, so the culture of some countries is becoming a major content to present in the films. This paper introduces the literal translation and the liberal translation. It also analyses the types and the features of English films, explores the influencing factors on the choices between the literal translation and the liberal translation, which are the cultural and the commercial factors. This paper makes an analysis of what people should not hold one-side view that the literal translation is good or the liberal one is good, instead they should be a complement or supplement for each other, that is to say they ought to be combined to make a perfect translation.
 
Key Words:  the translation; film titles; the literal translation; the liberal translation
 
1. Introduction
1.1 Research Background
Nowadays films which are a form of art which involve the video and the sound have become the major career of culture and play an significant part in the communication among every country in the world. The translation of film titles build up a bridge over the initial connection between the films and the audience. However, when facing various kinds of translation methods, how to choose the best one is a question.
Each country cultivates a different tradition of translating films and subscribes to two major modes, the literal translation and the liberal translation. The decision to which film translation mode is by no means arbitrary and stems from several factors, such as cultural and commercial factors. Nida believes that “Since no two languages are identical ...it stands to reason that there can be no absolute correspondence between languages. Hence there can be no full exact translation. The total impact of a translation may be reasonably close to the original but there can be no identity in detail.”(Nida, 1964:156) However, the translation of film titles is complex and difficult. Peter Newmark says:” It is not urgent to translate the film titles, however it is necessary to understand the content, plot and connotation of the story deeply.” (Peter Newmark, 2001:118). Chen Huaiyan also believes that the misunderstanding of cultural information is not conductive to the translation. The translation of film titles is crucial, which not only adding charming to the film itself, but also does a vital contribution to the box office income.