This is a list of language interpreters in fiction. Conference interpretation is often depicted in works of fiction, be it in films or in novels. Sydney Pollack's The Interpreter and Javier Marías' A Heart So White (1992) are amongst the best known examples. Several books, symposiaFirst International Conference on Fictional Translators in Literature and Film, Vienna, September 2011 or websites tackle the issue at hand. Below is a list of works of fiction in which interpreters appear.
Interpreters in films
1956 to 1989 1956: The King and I - Directed by Walter Lang. The interpreter refuses to translate what Anna Leonowens tells the kralahome (the king's minister); it then appears that the kralahome understands English. This scene shows that an interpreter has to fear being associated with the speaker.The King and I on IMDb 1961: Judgment at Nuremberg – Directed by Stanley Kramer. Simultaneous interpretation was used for the first time at the Nuremberg trials.Excerpt from Judgment at Nuremberg on youtube 1963: Charade - Directed by Stanley Donen. Audrey Hepburn plays an interpreter.Excerpt from Charade on youtube 1964: Fail-Safe – Directed by Sidney Lumet. "There would be phalanxes of interpreters listening in, to insure against even the tiniest mistranslation... Simultaneous translation is a good dramatic device, because it avoids the distraction of subtitles or the absurdity of a Russian leader speaking fluent English".Fail-Safe on IMDb 1965: Gendarme in New York (Le Gendarme à New York) – Directed by Jean Girault. French policemen travel to New York. The welcome speech is interpreted in several languages. Louis de Funès’ headphones don’t seem to work.Excerpt from Gendarme in New York on youtube 1968: Barbarella - Directed by Roger Vadim. Barbarella lands on a foreign planet and asks the locals, "Do you speak English? Parlez-vous français?" She then activates her "tongue-box" which helps her understand what people say. From then on, everybody speaks English.Excerpt from Barbarella on youtube 1970: Patton - Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.Excerpt from Patton on youtube 1971: Bananas – Directed by Woody Allen.Bananas on IMDb. The fake interpreter is played by Eulogio Peraza 1973: Live and Let Die – Directed by Guy Hamilton. An anonymous hand substitutes a jack plug for another on a telephone-switch type of contraption in the interpreter's booth. Following this a delegate receives a deadly shock to the head. Languages channels are not linked to particular delegations and are not located in the booths either.Live and Let Die on IMDb 1973: Le Magnifique – Directed by Philippe de Broca. A dying Albanian has something to reveal. Five different persons are brought in, each one of them understanding a Slavic language, the last one of them being a French speaker who understands Czech. An illustration of relay interpreting.Excerpt from Le Magnifique on youtube 1977: Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Directed by Steven Spielberg. In the French version, the interpreter paraphrases what is said as he cannot interpret French into French.Close Encounters of the Third Kind on IMDb 1977 to 2008: Star Wars – Directed by George Lucas. The robot C-3PO speaks 6 million galactic languages fluently. "Don’t blame me! I’m an interpreter! I’m not supposed to know the difference between a power socket and a computer terminal. I'm not much more than an interpreter, and not very good at telling stories."Quotes by C-3PO on IMDb EV-9D9: "How many languages do you speak?" C-3PO: "I am fluent in over six million forms of communication and can readily—" EV-9D9: "Splendid. We have been without an interpreter since our master got angry with our last protocol droid and disintegrated him." 1981: Teheran 43 - Directed by Alexander Alov and Vladimir Naumov. One of the main characters is accompanied by an interpreter called Marie Louni. 1986: Children of a Lesser God - Directed by Randa Haines. Includes a sign language interpreter.
From 1990-present 1995: Nixon– Directed by Oliver Stone. A Russian and a Chinese interpreter. 1996: Mars Attacks! – Directed by Tim Burton. A robot serves as an interpreter between humans and Martians. 1997: La vita è bella – Directed by Roberto Benigni. The character played by Benigni pretends to understand German and interprets the words of the SS so as not to worry his son.Excerpt from La vita è bella on youtube 1999: Anna and the King - Directed by Andy Tennant. The interpreter refuses to translate what Anna Leonowens tells the kralahome (the king's minister); it then appears that the kralahome understands English. 2003: Lost in Translation – Directed by Sofia Coppola. Very lengthy explanations in Japanese are translated in very few words by the interpreter. "That's all he said?" asks the character played by Bill Murray.Exterpt from Lost in Translation on youtube 2004 The Terminal – Directed by Steven Spielberg. Victor Navorski (Tom Hanks), having learned English all by himself in the terminal serves as an interpreter between the US authorities and a Russian who has been caught by the customs officers. 2005: The Interpreter (2005) – Directed by Sydney Pollack. Sylvia Broome (Nicole Kidman) is an interpreter at the United Nations in New York. She understands ku, a fictional language, and hears a conversation between two delegates speaking that language.Article by Danielle Grée on the aiic website 2005: Everything Is Illuminated - Directed by Liev Schreiber, after the eponymous novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. A young American travels to Ukraine to find his ancestors. He is accompanied by an informal guide-interpreter.Everything Is Illuminated on IMDb 2005 : The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Directed by Garth Jennings and based on the book by Douglas Adams. An animal by the name of Babel fish serves as a universal translator. 2005-2009 Kaamelott - Directed by Alexandre Astier. The Burgundian king brings an interpreter (Lorànt Deutsch) who tries to give Arthur helpful advice on defeating the Burgundians. Kaamelott, livre I, episode 24. 2006: La traductrice (2006) - Directed by Elena Hazanov.La traductrice on IMDb 2006: The Boss of it All (Direktøren for det hele) – Directed by Lars von Trier. An Icelandic-Danish interpreter intervenes in the beginning and in the end of the film.the Icelandic boss (Viking-like film-maker Thor Fridrik Fridriksson) fulminates via an interpreter about those accursed Danes The Independent, March 2, 2008 2009: The Hurt Locker - Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. An Iraqi interpreter. 2009: Je l'aimais - Directed by Zabou Breitman and based on the novel by Anna Gavalda. The character played by Daniel Auteuil falls in love with an interpreter.Je l'aimais on IMDb 2009: Desert Flower - Directed by Sherry Horman. The character representing Waris Dirie (author of the eponymous book) needs an interpreter when in hospital. The interpreter lectures her and tells her how she should behave.Desert Flower on IMDb 2010: Mad Men, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, Season 4, Episode 5. The agency is about to make a deal with Honda motorcycles. The Japanese interpreter is embarrassed{ to translate the words of Roger Sterling.Mad Men, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword on IMDb 2010: The Tourist - Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. An interpreter is urgently called by the British secret services and is asked to interpret what Russian gangsters are saying. He asks to be given some context but will get none.The Tourist on IMDb. The interpreter is played by Giovanni Esposito 2011 L'arrivo di Wang - Directed by Antonio and Marco Manetti. Aliens study Chinese before landing on earth as they think it's the most widely spoken language on the planet. An interpreter by the name of Gaia is hired by the Italian authorities to try and communicate with them.The Arrival of Wang on subtitledonline 2012 Zero Dark Thirty - Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Features several military interpreters."Zero Dark Thirty" on IMDb."Finally a movie that shows interpreters doing what they really do"-Blog entry 2012 Emperor - Directed by Peter Webber. The Japanese interpreter, Takahashi (Masayoshi Haneda), helps General Fellers for every mission including negotiation and finding his lover."Emperor" on IMDb.
Interpreters in TV shows 1999-2006: The West Wing - Created by Aaron Sorkin. Kenny Thurman (Bill O'Brien), is the ASL interpreter for pollster Joey Lucas (Marlee Matlin). 2013–2019: Game of Thrones - Created by George R. R. Martin. Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) is former slave who works as Daenerys Targaryen's interpreter. 2016: The Interpreter - Created by Hong Jinghui and Ying Yang. Qiao Fei (Yang Mi) and Cheng Jiayang (Huang Xuan) are professional French interpreter. 2018: You Drive Me Crazy - Created by Park Mi-ryeong. Han Eun-sung (Lee Yoo-young) the simultaneous French interpreter working for a South Korean Interpreter Agency. 2021: - Created by Chen Yao-chang. Tiap-moe (Wen Chen-ling), is the interpreter for Charles Le Gendre 2023: - Created by . Leena (Regina Lei), is the interpreter for Tung Pao-jhu 2024: Shōgun - Created by Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks. Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai) is the interpreter for Toranaga and John Blackthorne. 2024: When the Phone Rings - Created by Kim Ji-woon. Hong Hee-joo (Chae Soo-bin) and Jeong Won-bin (Jung Ji-hwan) are the sign language interpreter. 2024: Our Interpreter - Created by Fei Hui Jun. Lin Xi (Victoria Song) is known as the "witch" in the translation industry works at Huasheng as the youngest chief interpreter. 2026: Can This Love Be Translated? - Created by Hong Jung-eun and Hong Mi-rae. Joo Ho-jin (Kim Seon-ho) is the multi-lingual interpreter for reality dating show Romantic Trip.
Interpreters in literature
from 1893 to 2000 1893 : The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter, short story by Arthur Conan Doyle.The Greek Interpreter on wikisource 1963 : Asterix and the Goths (comic book): Rhetoric, a cowardly Gaulish-Gothic interpreter, is called in to try and convince Getafix to cooperate and brew a magic potion. Although Getafix flatly refuses, Rhetoric misinterprets and says that he has agreed to do so.Rhetoric, the interpreter in Asterix and the Goths, on asterix.com 1966 : The Russian Interpreter by Michael Frayn. A love story between a Russian woman and a British businessman, with the help of an interpreter. 1968 : Between by Christine Brooke-Rose. Experimental novel written in several languages. The verb "to be" is never used. The main character is an interpreter.Obituary of the author in The Independent, March 27, 2012 1979 : The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. An animal by the name of Babel fish serves as a universal translator. 1980 : Toutes les chances plus une by Christine Arnothy. The main character is an interpreter.Toutes les chances plus on amazon 1981 : The Summer Before the Dark by Doris Lessing. A housewife becomes an interpreter overnight to do a favor to a friend of her husband's.Doris Lessing’s website 1982 : Simultan by Ingeborg Bachmann. Short stories.Article on Simultan by Katya Krylova 1983 : A tolmács by Ágnes Gergely. 1991 : The Greek Interpreter by Max Davidson. A comic thriller with two interpreters as main characters. The story takes place in Bangkok on the occasion of the World League of Parliaments’ annual conference.The Greek Interpreter on amazon. Out of print 1992 : A Heart So White (Corazón tan blanco) by Javier Marías. The narrator is an interpreter who claims to come by on a few months' work a year. He also boasts about the way he changes what heads of state say to each other.A Heart So White on Javier Marías’s website
1997 : Der Versteckspieler by György Dalos. The main character is an interpreter and political opponent in Hungary in the 1970s.Der Versteckspieler on Sokrates Digital