Finger on the pulse

Categories: culture, germany, translation

Date: 11 March 2008 16:26:06

You can always depend on your roving reporter to have her finger on the pulse of cultural matters.

I learned a few days ago that the film "Die Fälscher" (The Counterfeiters) had won the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film. I enjoyed it but did not think it fell into the "all-time great" category. However, I haven't seen any of the other nominated films in that category so it's possible it was the best of the bunch.

A bit of news which is a bit more up-to-date: a German TV channel has bought "Allo, Allo" - all 80+ episodes and these will be screened just as soon as the translators have done their work. I know the series was very popular here and that I was in a minority of one person who did not think it was hilarious. The first few episodes were amusing but, after a while, the same jokes were recycled so often that it became rather predictable.

It will be interesting to see how the Germans take to it. There are still laws in the country concerning the "glorification" of Nazi attitudes - and where "Allo, Allo" does not promote Nazism and actually sends it up fairly mercilessly, it could still ruffle a few feathers. Having said that, most Germans I've met think Basil Fawlty is hilarious - particularly when he says "Don't mention the war".

My main interest would be to see how the translators tackle the largely puerile humour (is this a very British thing?), puns, etc. - and the solutions they find for the ridiculous accents. No doubt they have their own versions of silly foreign accents. But given that this series is a very British view of the approach taken by the French to the resistance effort, I suspect some aspects may be lost in translation.

As a PS. I remember seeing the film L'armée des ombres with a German friend once. I was astonished when she commented afterwards that she had had no idea that there had even been a resistance effort in France. I find it hard to believe that this is a common view but who knows?