“If Godunov is for you, then he’s good enough for me”: cultural aspects of the translation of American humor in the film adaptation of the novel “Malavita”

Translation of foreign language humor is one of the most difficult tasks of professional translation activity. It is complicated by deep cross cultural differences, which are especially evident in modern film adaptations of literary works. The study of the cultural component of translation activities in the context of translation and adaptation of cinematic humor is an urgent and current task. Based on the novel “Malavita” and the film of the same name in the Russian film distribution, the authors carried out an in depth linguistic and cultural analysis of the central humorous plot. The French and English literary bases, the script of the film and its Russian translation were compared. The conclusion is made about the semantic inconsistency of the Russian translation and the incomplete disclosure of the cultural context for the Russian viewer.