Welcome to Est. 1999, the official blog of Abraham Translations. As is perhaps easy to surmise, the name of this blog reflects the year that Abraham Translations was founded.
It all began with the correction of a few texts that had been translated by another time-pressed translator. Within the year, translating had become my main source of income; now, it has long been the only way I put bacon on the table.
I am rather proud of many of the projects on which I have worked.
Est. 1999, basically, is a visual confirmation of past projects, a blowing of my own horn, a presentation of translator-related topics, and an occasional departure into other areas that I deem worthy of presenting. Enjoy.

Friday 20 February 2015

Swimming Pool - Der Tod feiert mit / The Pool (2001)

German Trailer:
One of the first screenplays I ever worked on was an early version of this slasher directed by Boris von Sychowski. The movie's two main distinctive features are a particular nasty death involving a waterslide and machete, and a then-unknown James McAvoy (of The Last King of Scotland [2006 / trailer] and Wanted [2008 / trailer]) as one of the body count. The fact that the cast was international was one of the reasons an English-language script was needed.
English Trailer:
The screenplay translation job actually belonged to the talented translator Finbarr Morrin, but for a variety of reasons he pulled me in to help. We were allowed to suggest alternative dialogue, a rarity when it comes to screenplay translating. And though the final script filmed obviously went through many more hands (a whole secondary subplot was later added), when I finally caught Swimming Pool on DVD I recognized at least one of my lines: a "joke" said in passing that was so timely — it was tailored around the then-current pop hit by the Bloodhound Gang, The Bad Touch, and the lyric "You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals; so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel" — that it's incomprehensible to today's audience.
Remember the song? Refresh your memory with the video below.
Bloodhound Gang, The Bad Touch:

No comments:

Post a Comment