Dave (imported) wrote: Tue Jul 10, 2012 6:18 am
I saw the subtitled version of the Swedish "Dragon Tattoo" and liked it. I'm not fond of dubbed movies unless the dubbing is really, really good. Most times dubbing is pathetic and emotionless. Sometimes it looks and sounds silly.
I just couldn't bring myself to watch three hours of subtitles because of my own bad habits in watching a movie while doing everything else. So I never watched the long versions when they were on my cable.
I hate sounding like a snob about subtitles... Let me tell you about three of the reasons why:
1) in THE GODFATHER, there is a wedding scene that opens the movie. I"ve asked friends to translate the song that they sing and no one can. It's Luna Mezza Mare and it's in Sicilian (which is not a dialect spoken anywhere but Sicily) and its idiomatic. The daughter says "Papa, find me a man to marry" and the Papa says naughty things in very Italian double entendre about why the man would be a bad husband. So translations get silly "The trowel is in the stone mason's hand" ... stuff like that.
2) In DIVORCE, ITALIAN STYLE there is a wonderful sequence where Sophia Loren's character just launches into an angry tirade about Marcello Mastroianni's character and it lasts about 30, 40 seconds. The subtitle on the screen said "stupid" --- one word, that was it. Now I don't know much Italian but what I do know (and it ain't the nice words) came off that screen. It was dragon lady breath fire time and not coy maiden speaking softly. Plus, her hands signs during the tirade say very naughty things to the male character. "Stupid" didn't cut it.
3) Woody Allen created a comedy movie called "WHAT'S UP TIGER LILY"
There exist dozens of Japanese movies (mostly Monster movies) that have dubbed dialog with lousy synchronization of lips and words, silly voices, and puerile translations.
Woody Allen had the grand idea that anyone could take a Japanese film, re-cut it, and dub it with English and it would make sense.
So he took a Japanese gangster movie, picked it apart scene by scene, rearranged the scenes and wrote a new script about a restaurant magnate stealing an egg roll recipe (something that ridiculous). You can still get that movie and laugh it because, Woody was right. It's a comic triumph. It kinda even makes sense (in Woody's strange warped world).