The Ghost (Writer) / The Ghost Writer / L'écrivain fantôme

I had wanted to see this film for ages and missed it at the cinema, and finally managed to catch up with it at the week end.

Before I get started, I have to say that it deserves a big Yay, despite Ewan McGregor whom I really liked in Shallow Grave and Trainspotting but disliked in nearly everything he’s done since. Especially Star Wars.

Anyway, I really liked the film. I found the film very gripping. 

It’s the story of a (ghost) writer to get employed to write the autobiography of British ex-Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan, whom, apart from Remington Steele and The Matador, always seems to be rubbing me the wrong way) after his predecessor dies in mysterious circumstances. I shall say no more.

What is a ghost writer? It is “a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person.” (wiki)

How do you say a ghostwriter in French? Un nègre aka a negro.

I already mentioned the n word when talking about Tête de nègre: a not very PC cake that got renamed. 

Another wiki search shows that the term was adopted in reference to the exploitation of black slaves and that “some people” want the term nègre to be replaced by “nègre” or nègre litteraire, introducing the literary idea. 

So I guess that’s the reason why the French decided to get all PC and kept the original name for their French title. That makes some sort of sense.

But what about the Canadians who decided to completely ignore the proper translation and do a word by word one which ends up with a title that doesn’t mean anything in French?

L'écrivain fantôme? The writer who was a ghost? What is that about? 

And that’s how a good thriller becomes a real horror.