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French to English: Extract from Nicole Kidman (Anatomy of an Actor series), Phaidon, 2016) General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Cinema, Film, TV, Drama
Source text - French Comme souvent dans la filmographie de l’actrice, nous observons des situations dangereuses desquelles elle se doit de sortir. Cette dualité humour-danger est une griffe constante, en particulier dans Moulin Rouge!, qui est pourtant un film musical plus dur et plus noir qu’il n’y paraît. Le sourire lumineux et les pitreries de Satine laissent deviner une inquiétude, une menace pesante, un arrière-plan psychologique plus sombre qui font moins d’elle une comédienne qu’une tragédienne. Elle voudrait croire à l’amour, réussir une vraie carrière et ne pas être en mauvaise santé. Paraître est le devoir qui lui est assigné. Quand elle simule le coït et joue plus que jamais la prostitution, qui se confond au métier d’acteur, elle affirme haut et fort à Christian : « Je suis une courtisane. Les gens me paient pour y croire. » Entre les mensonges et les numéros, Satine fait passer quelques vérités, et Kidman doit gérer énormément de ruptures de rythme et de ton, passant du burlesque au film d’amour tragique, parfois en quelques secondes (ce que nous laisse en tout cas penser le montage). C’est notamment le cas quand Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent) surprend Satine et Christian, et qu’il est nécessaire d’endormir les soupçons du Duc ! Le rôle de Satine témoigne du tourbillon d’une époque et de ses folies parisiennes, mais aussi de la folie du métier de saltimbanque.
Translation - English As is often the case in the actress’s films, we see her in dangerous situations that she has to get out of. This humour–danger duality is a recurring theme, particularly in Moulin Rouge!, which is nevertheless a musical that is more forbidding and darker than it at first appears. Satine’s antics and bright smile betray an anxiety, an oppressive threat and a darker psychological context that make her less of a comic and more of a tragic figure. She would like to believe in love, succeed as a real actress and be in good health. But creating an appearance is the role assigned to her. When she simulates sex and plays up prostitution, which becomes confused with acting, she states loudly and clearly to Christian, ‘I am a courtesan. I’m paid to make men believe what they want to believe.’ Between lies and acts, Satine lets slip some truths, and Kidman has to manage a lot of breaks in the rhythm and tone, moving from burlesque to tragic love story, sometimes in just a few seconds (or so the editing would have us believe). This is notably the case when Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent) surprises Satine and Christian, and they have to allay the Duke’s suspicions. The role of Satine reflects the turmoil of a Parisian era and its follies, but also the madness of the world of entertainment.
French to English: Peyre (from The Official Guide to the Most Beautiful Villages of France, Flammarion, 2016) General field: Other Detailed field: Tourism & Travel
Source text - French Accroché à une falaise abrupte dans laquelle son église primitive s’est encastrée, Peyre domine le Tarn à l’aval de Millau.
Sous le plateau du causse Rouge parsemé de cazelles dont les toits de lauses et les murs de pierres sèches abritèrent bergers ou vignerons, le bas du village, sillonné d’étroites calades en escalier, plonge vers la rivière. Le haut de Peyre s’étire au pied d’une haute falaise de tuf dont l’avancée en encorbellement le surplombe. Comme les demeures qui l’entourent, l’église St-Christophe s’y est adossée. Fortifiée au XVIIe S. pour servir de refuge aux habitants de la paroisse, elle a conservé bretèches, assommoirs et bouches à feu témoignant de sa fonction défensive. Récemment restaurée pour accueillir concerts et expositions, l’église, baignée d’une lumière changeante diffusée par des vitraux contemporains mariant le verre et le cristal, fait désormais face à un autre symbole de modernité : la pile P2 qui, s’élançant à partir du Tarn, fait du viaduc de Millau le plus haut du monde.
Translation - English Clinging to a sheer cliff where the original church was built, Peyre overlooks the Tarn downstream of Millau.
Beneath the plateau of the Causse Rouge, dotted with caselles (drystone shelters), whose lause (shist-tiled) roofs and dry-stone walls provided shelter to shepherds and winegrowers, the lower village, crisscrossed with narrow, cobbled, stepped streets, descends steeply toward the river. The top of Peyre stretches out at the foot of a high tufa cliff, whose corbeled overhang towers above the village. Like the houses that surround it, the Église Saint-Christophe backs on to this cliff face. Fortified in the 17th century to serve as a refuge for residents of the parish, it has retained brattices and murder holes, which bear witness to its defensive use. Recently restored as a venue for concerts and exhibitions, the church, which is bathed in changing light diffused by its glass-and-crystal stained-glass windows, now faces another symbol of modernity: the P2 pier, which, soaring upward from the Tarn, makes the Millau Viaduct the tallest in the world.
French to English: The First Posthumous Retrospective in France: The Paul Delaroche Exhibition; a New Perception of the Artist’s Work General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting
Source text - French Le 21 avril 1857 s’ouvrait à l’Ecole impériale et spéciale des Beaux-Arts de Paris une exposition comme on n’en avait encore jamais vu en France. Cette exposition était consacrée à l’œuvre d’un seul et même artiste, Paul Delaroche, disparu quelques mois plus tôt, le 4 novembre 1856. Jusqu’alors, le monde des expositions parisiennes était essentiellement constitué du Salon officiel, annuel ou biennal, et de quelques manifestations collectives issues d’initiatives privées comme celles organisées au Bazar Bonne-Nouvelle par l’Association des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, architectes et dessinateurs – société de secours mutuel fondé en décembre 1844 par le Baron Taylor. Alors que le Salon n’autorisait pour chaque artiste qu’une présentation souvent limitée d’ouvrages inédits, l’exposition officielle de l’année 1855, intégrée à l’Exposition universelle, avait fait figure d’exception. Les artistes s’étaient en effet vu accorder la possibilité de soumettre au jury un nombre illimité d’œuvres et parmi elles, des œuvres déjà exposées. Ingres, Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Gudin, Horace Vernet et Henri Lehmann avaient quant à eux eu le privilège de présenter un nombre important d’œuvres, donnant ainsi à voir un aperçu rétrospectif de l’ensemble de leur carrière. Ingres disposait par ailleurs d’une salle qui lui était entièrement décernée. En parallèle, Gustave Courbet avait proposé, dans son « pavillon du réalisme », une rétrospective de son œuvre.
Translation - English On 21 April 1857, an exhibition opened at the Ecole impériale et spéciale des Beaux-Arts in Paris the like of which had never been seen before in France. It was dedicated to the work of a single artist, Paul Delaroche, who had died a few months earlier, on 4 November 1856. Until then, the exhibition world in Paris had consisted mainly of the official annual or biennial Salon and a few privately initiated collective events such as those organised at the Bazar Bonne-Nouvelle by the Association des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, architectes et dessinateurs, a mutual aid society founded in December 1844 by Baron Taylor. Normally, the Salon allowed each artist to present only a limited number of new works, but the official exhibition of 1855, which formed part of the World Fair, had been an exception. Artists had been given the opportunity to submit to the jury an unlimited number of works, including ones previously exhibited. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Gudin, Horace Vernet and Henri Lehmann had each had the privilege of presenting a sizable number of works, providing a retrospective overview of their careers. Meanwhile, Gustave Courbet had proposed a retrospective of his work in his ‘pavillon du réalisme’.
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Translation education
Bachelor's degree - University of Birmingham
Experience
Years of experience: 16. Registered at ProZ.com: Sep 2009.
I have been working since 2001 as a freelance project manager and editor in illustrated book publishing. In 2008, when a couple of existing publishing clients commissioned me to undertake translation work, I added French to English translation to my CV. I've since worked for many other publishing clients – in the UK, France, US and Switzerland – translating books in various mainstream subject areas, most notably travel and food/cooking /nutrition, but also film, art and crafts, among others.
My 30 years of experience in illustrated book publishing have proved valuable to my clients: I have a broader view of the whole process, can edit as well as translate text, commission services such as proofreading, and can work directly in InDesign to fit the translated text into the layouts. I have therefore often been asked to manage as well as translate text for a project.
Publishing clients for whom I have provided translations include Éditions Skiva, Hardie Grant, Quarto, Cahiers du Cinéma (Phaidon), Éditions de la Martinière, Éditions du Chêne, Flammarion, Michelin APA Publications, David & Charles, Quadrille Publishing, Ebury Publishing, The Womanity Foundation.
I've also worked on numerous shorter texts, for both translation agencies and private clients, in various general subject areas, notably tourism, arts, interior design, fashion, food and drink, marketing and business.
Keywords: French to English, book publishing, cookbooks, editorial project management, travel books, art and architecture, tourism, cookery, editing, proofreading. See more.French to English, book publishing, cookbooks, editorial project management, travel books, art and architecture, tourism, cookery, editing, proofreading, Americanization, copyediting, food, cinema, films. See less.
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