THE INTERACTIVE FILM MAGAZINE
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importing it needed to do was change the intertitles to their own language.
And with sound film-makers do the same thing – replace the original language so that it can be understood in every market.
You may bemoan the lack of subtlety in delivery and nuance but really that’s more down to the dubbing quality
than your ability to detect cultural nuances in a language you don’t understand.
than your ability to detect cultural nuances in a language you don’t understand.
Then there’s the prospect of encouraging the next generation of cinephiles. Do you really expect a child to sit through Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea reading the subtitles rather than listening to Hannah Montana’s sister because you want to enjoy the original
Japanese soundtrack? The film was designed to be enjoyed by five-year-olds, not adults.
Dubbing is not always inherently bad – after all, primitive forms of dubbing were employed on early sound films when the actors and actresses from other cultures were suddenly found not to possess sufficient language skills to make the film work (see Hitchcock’s Blackmail) but were perfect for the role in all other respects.
Remember those so-called ‘badly dubbed’ kung-fu films from the Seventies and Eighties? Most of them were dubbed regardless of where they were released because they were not shot with synch sound anyway.
In Sergio Leone westerns (the Man With No Name trilogy etc) about half the dialogue was dubbed because the actors spoke different languages. And that finest of animations, Jan Svankmajer’s Alice, surely gains an added layer of surrealism precisely because the lip movements do not match the dialogue.
Whatever worthy gain can be obtained from watching a film subtitled is surely outweighed by introducing a wider and more diverse selection of world cinema to a general audience whose mainstream exposure to cinema is English-based content. Surely that can’t be a bad thing?
COLIN ODELL
Who wants to read when they’re in the cinema? Here are two very
different opinions on what makes a good night out at the movies
different opinions on what makes a good night out at the movies
It’s an oft repeated and somewhat inevitable retort when, having suggested a film that someone might like, they reply with one of the two questions that plague the cineaste: “It isn’t in black and white, is it?” or “It’s not subtitled, is it?”
In some ways the Hollywood product seems so ubiquitous that anything else is simply labelled “world cinema” and therefore
Although I like watching films in their original language, there are instances when dubbing is okay. Cinema is about sound and vision; it is not a medium that encourages reading and subtitles can be a distraction from the onscreen action.
In the silent era producers reduced rambling monologues to succinct dialogue intertitles – the film was international because all the country
something to be avoided. Be that as it may, there is still a need to champion the subtitled film – even as something that is just different to the slew of by-the-numbers rom-coms and CGI rollercoasters.
Keeping a film’s soundtrack intact is as important as keeping its image intact – it’s part of the essence of the film. Without the proper dialogue the nuances of the acting, the meaning in the intonation and
the natural rhythm of the language are lost.
I wouldn’t expect a pair of Levis and a tee-shirt to be superimposed on Charlton Heston’s Ben Hur any more than I want to hear the whining voice that emanates from Franka Potente’s mouth in the dubbed
version of Lola rennt (Run Lola Run). Given that most people do not have the time to learn Korean, French, Cantonese and Mandarin, Hindi, Urdu and Spanish subtitling offers the path of least damage.
Sure, the results are not always perfect but you get closer to the film-maker’s meaning when watching the film. Besides which, hearing the original language helps create a better sense of culture.
The sadistic part of me loves seeing people squirm in the cinema when they are not expecting subtitles – hearing a group of popcorn munching Friday nighters groaning at the opening of the Jackie Chan/Owen Wilson flick Shanghai Noon (the opening was in Mandarin) was worth the price of admission alone.
And how many times do you see a trailer for a subtitled film where no-one actually speaks? It happens quite often – we either hear the gravel-voiced man talking about epics or we see a number of quotes zooming from the screen intercut with
carefully edited action that allows only for the generic “Woooaaaarrrggghhhhhh!” of a battle cry or maybe a diegetic kissing sound.
carefully edited action that allows only for the generic “Woooaaaarrrggghhhhhh!” of a battle cry or maybe a diegetic kissing sound.
Are we selling world cinema under the pretence that it might be in English after all?
MICHELLE LE BLANC
To sub . . . or to dub?
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