Soko Leipzig and The Bill collaborating – to be shown in the UK in November 2008, in Germany who knows when.

One fears the worst.

Youtube sneak preview.

This seems to be more popular than Amnesty International or the Malteser, but I didn’t investigate exactly what they want to fight for on my behalf.

Rudolf Hermstein: Chandler verschandelt, oder
Das luftgetriebene Riesenhorn

In 1976, when Hellmuth Karasek’s translation of Raymond Chandler’s The Lady in the Lake appeared, I wasn’t living in Germany.

That may explain why I am so late to hear about other translators’ reactions to it, albeit not too late to hear Karasek holding forth about literature – and translation – on the box.

At least at that time, Karasek not only had a slim grasp of the English language, but he didn’t take much trouble to find out what the unfamiliar terms meant, even where his interpretation did not make much sense to him. His German style was a little rocky too.

The article linked above gives a full account in German. Some gems: interpreting you darn fool as if it had to do with darning; in ‘You can’t tell anything about an outfit like that’, with reference to a company, taking outfit to mean the furnishing of the room; an air-raid horn on a police car (the USA had just entered WWII when the novel appeared) is taken to be a large air-powered siren; ‘(the secretary) looked a little warmer, but no prairie fire’ comes across in German as ‘not like a prairie on fire’, which doesn’t work.

Thanks to Christiane

The Guardian reports that Max Mosley has won his case against the News of the World.

It also links to the full judgment as a PDF file. In particular, the judge found that there was no element of Nazism in the S & M role play. No. 51:

The facts that the jacket corresponded to the modern Luftwaffe uniform and that
German was spoken in the second of the two scenarios acted out on 28 March cannot
be identified with Nazism. As Woman B observed, and most Germans would agree,
it is inappropriate and offensive to equate everything German with the Nazi era. Mr
Thurlbeck’s answer, on more than one occasion, was that everything has to be seen
“in the round”. I take that to mean that notwithstanding the absence of specifically
Nazi or concentration camp indicia a reasonable person would still view the overall
exercise as Nazi role-play. He said that this was to be regarded merely as “am drams”
and the Claimant had been let down by his wardrobe department, with the result that
the clothes (whatever they actually were) should be regarded as “pretend” Nazi
uniforms. This is an approach that is not uncommon when witnesses in court are
trying to defend a certain position under cross-examination. If it is believed that a
particular state of affairs came about, it becomes necessary to explain away any
indicators to the contrary. Here, simply because it is assumed that there was Nazi
role-play, non-Nazi clothes have to be explained as “pretend” Nazi clothes.

and no. 53:

Mr Thurlbeck also relied upon the fact that the Claimant was “shaved”.
Concentration camp inmates were also shaved. Yet, as Mr Price pointed out, they had
their heads shaved. The Claimant, for reasons best known to himself, enjoyed having
his bottom shaved – apparently for its own sake rather than because of any supposed
Nazi connotation. He explained to me that while this service was being performed he
was (no doubt unwisely) “shaking with laughter”. I naturally could not check from
the DVD, as it was not his face that was on display.

On the German language (no. 59):

As to the use of the German language, Woman D gave evidence that she was turned
on by the thought of being interrogated, while she was in a submissive role, by people
using a foreign language which she did not understand. It added to the sense of
helplessness and having no control. She had originally heard the Claimant and
Woman B speaking German at a gathering towards the end of January or beginning of
February (simply because they had the language in common) and suggested to
Woman A that it would be a good idea to incorporate the further use of German in a
scenario later on.

The ABA Journal has canvassed the 25 best legal movies. Readers can vote too. One of the jury is Michael Asimow, who wrote Reel Justice (1996) – I see there’s a second edition and an interactive CD-ROM, which would be interesting.

Anyway, it’s inspired me to order a DVD of My Cousin Vinny.

(via Jurabilis)

Just like everyone else, some of what we learn is wrong. In Germany, young lawyers make motions in court that are unknown to German law because they saw them on American TV shows. A new law firm in Washington, D.C., conducted meetings every morning in which the lawyers reported on their cases. It was a total waste of time, but they got the idea from L.A. Law.

I wonder what the source for that is. But I have certainly noticed German TV series that show the German lawyer using the kind of court rhetoric usually associated with the common-law systems.

Five lawyers write on what they learned from films.

(Michael Asimow, How I Learned to Litigate at the Movies, ABA Journal)