Skip to main content
University
of
Nebraska–Lincoln
Visit
Visit
Visit the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Apply
Apply
Apply to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Give
Give
Give to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Log In
Search
Search Form
Search
Submit
Close
MediaHub
Menu
Search
Log In
Browse Media
Channels
Manage Media
Log In
Visit
Visit the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Apply
Apply to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Give
Give to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Frame By Frame: Subtitles v. Dubbing
Wheeler Winston Dixon
Author
09/12/2012
Added
443
Plays
Description
UNL Film Studies professor Wheeler Winston Dixon compares foreign-language film dubbing to subtitles.
icon search
Searchable Transcript
x
english
Search:
Toggle between list and paragraph view.
[00:00:13.027]
Hi. I'm Wheeler Winston Dixon, James Ryan professor of Film Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
[00:00:18.035]
and I'm going to speak today about subtitles versus dubbing.
[00:00:22.032]
It should come as no surprise that I come down in favor of subtitles.
[00:00:27.006]
Dubbing has been referred to by the brilliant critic, Geoffrey O'Brien as "post-syncronese," and he's absolutely right.
[00:00:35.023]
If you take a film, and you strip out the actor's voice, and you get someone else to dub it,
[00:00:40.067]
what you get is sort of an automaton on screen with someone else's voice speaking the language,
[00:00:45.077]
and as a result it's just completely unconvincing.
[00:00:48.068]
PUT IT DOWN! IT IS EMOWI'S SWORD!
[00:00:52.038]
COME TAKE IT IF YOU THINK YOU CAN.
[00:00:55.052]
Dubbing came to prominence in the 1960s, with the Italian wave of films...
[00:01:02.072]
horror films, spaghetti westerns, and things like that...
[00:01:05.039]
where people would show up on the set and speak four or five different languages...
[00:01:09.010]
so they would just shoot it all silently, and then dub in everybody's voices later for the various different countries.
[00:01:14.024]
AND THIS ONE, SHOWING THE SCARS, WAS GIVEN TO ME AT THE CLINIC THAT SENT HER AWAY DISFIGURED FOREVER.
[00:01:18.034]
For example, Sergio Leon's spaghetti westerns... when Clint Eastwood was first hired to act in them..
[00:01:24.008]
He very famously went over to Italy, looked at the script and said to the director, "Sergio, why is there all this dialog?"
[00:01:30.042]
"If you cut it out, it'll be easier to dub." And Sergio said, "You're right!"
[00:01:34.049]
So that's why there's no characterization. He just shows up and starts killing people, and it's just all action.
[00:01:41.003]
But dubbing basically ruins a film. Subtitles really... people complain sometimes that that's giving you double-work.
[00:01:49.077]
But if you just think about it for a moment or two, you really get the entire presence of the actors...
[00:01:55.011]
You get their speech patterns. And if you're striping away the actual dialog and the actual speech patterns of the actors...
[00:02:01.068]
you're really removing a great deal of their performance.
[00:02:04.069]
So, dubbing versus subtitles... dubbing may be more universal and attract a larger audience...
[00:02:10.059]
but if you want to experience the true film as it was actually made, you need to go for subtitles.
[00:02:15.090]
I'm Wheeler Winston Dixon, and this is Frame By Frame.
The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!
You can always
jump over to MediaHub
and check it out there.
Tags:
film
cinema
subtitles
dubbing
foreign
Comments
icon comment
0 Comments
Log in to post comments
Embed
Related Channels
Frame By Frame
Embed
Close
iframe embed code:
Copy the following code into your page
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%; overflow: hidden; position:relative; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1;"> <iframe style="bottom: 0; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; border: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%;" src="https://mediahub.unl.edu/media/3041?format=iframe&autoplay=0" title="Video Player: Frame By Frame: Subtitles v. Dubbing" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div>
Comments
0 Comments