So ... yesterday morning, when I was getting dressed for work, I was watching one of my favorite movies, Miller's Crossing (which was originally titled The Big Head) ... if you haven't see it, you really should, because -- although a bit gruesome in spots -- the language in it is beautifully put together ... not poetic beauty like Shakespeare or ballet ... more the beauty that comes out in a live street performance or in a well played international amatuer hockey game ... but I digress ...
So ... I'm getting ready to play the Miller's Crossing DVD, and at the initial menu, I'm prompted to make a choice ... you know - play the movie - view selected scenes - see extra junk - select language ... Now, much of the story of this film plays out in the language of it's characters ... their cultural foundations are solidly built on their speech patterns, their accents, and their word choice ... so, I start wondering ... hmmmm ... how the hell are they going to capture that in German or Spanish, for example? No doubt these are both well established languages with their own deeply rooted cultural identies ...
So, I'm just wondering ... when a movie is made and the DVD released, do the voice tracks of the alternate languages capture the flavor of the original, or do the voice track casts simply render the words and some of the the emotions ... ? Does anyone know?
I can fumble my way through a number of languages, but I have true cultural knowledge of only one ... English ... so if anyone can clue me in, I'd really appreciate it ...
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2 comments:
A little off-topic, but partially related. The dubbed versions of foreign films in english rarely capture the passion of emotions. I find that subtitles do a much better job than voiceovers..
When I went to Germany, back when "Pulp Fiction" came out, my friend said that the English version was much better than the German version because some of the jokes were lost in the translation. Well, like you care.
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