Before The Three Amigos: on more traditional AV translation studies

1. BeforeThe Three Amigos:on more traditional AV translation studies

2. Film Translation: problems of making the local ‘universal’ • - 1930s talkies: MLVs (multiple language versions) • - attempts by Hollywood and itsEuropeancompetitors to create the same (successful) film in anotherlanguage: • - early ‘re-makes’ thatusedsame setting, same story line, same costumes; • - re-making – onlywithdifferentactors and language Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

3. Problems of MLVs • 1. aesthetic: • standardizes cinema/story-telling (for profitability) • standardizes characters and conflicts and solutions • fails to attract culturally distinct/diverse audiences who want novelty, difference. • 2. industrial/economic: • technically too complex and expensive; • different acting traditions and techniques; • different work patterns (actors vs standardization). Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

4. Learning from failure of MLVs • - the “reality” of sound; it is specific, it’s specificity is important in creating and maintaining the cinematic illusion; “auditory realism.” • - with advent of sound cultural/linguistic diversity becomes an immediate problem; - story-telling via film does not take place in a no-man’s land; its specific sound creates awareness of specific plot structures, narrative patterns, gestures, behaviours; • - this in turn creates an understanding of what a ‘national’ ‘popular’ cinema might be. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

5. Dubbing/Subtitling: 1970s • Voege: 1977 • Film translation options are determined by distribution/sales; • - affected by national issues, size of audience, traditions, time factors, politics, economics, etc. • Subtitling: is abbreviation and condensation of text; • - simplification of text; • - requires division of attention between image and text; • - can comment and explain, and deal with wordplay; • -can translate text within the image: street signs, notices, letters. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

6. Dubbing/Synchronization • Every film is dubbed anyway: original actors post- synchronize text in studios; • Dubbing with translated dialogue is the only option to supply the “mass public” with access to film; • - obscures ‘authenticity’; sound and image no longer coherent; • - less than faithful to the content; • - problems with repeated, undifferentiated dubbing voices. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

7. Constant struggle • Between image and sound • In film, language is subsidiary to image; • But only language is translated… • The illusion of “reality”: of language/dialogues in the context of their culture is broken. • The more authentic/specific the images are, the greater the discrepancy between image and dubbed (foreign) language. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

8. AV in Translation Studies: from 1995, Strasbourg • Subtitling: timing and creation of subtitles • - readability, visibility • - amount of text • - type of AV material • - pre-formed subtitles, imposed by Hollywood • Dubbing: voice, content, censorship, costs • - voice to match character; • - one voice for each iconic actor; (even for interviews) • - “auditory realism” – still/again; • - dubbing as pedagogy: Ireland, Wales, Catalonia Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

9. Research Difficulties: Fawcett • 1. Material difficulties: transcriptions, random materials, access to materials; technical issues, even VHS wearing out. • 2. Difficult to theorize: contingent to technology, time and place, diverse, editorial policies and distribution practices, danger of ‘quantum theory effect.’ • 3. Synchronization/Dubbing and Subtitling and Voice-Over: are we actually discussing translation? Or adaptation? Or commentary? Or transnational communication? Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

10. Systematizing assessment of AV Translation (Goris 1993) • AV translation: in all its forms • - standardizes (francais international); • - produces cultural naturalization (cf. Anne Lise Feral: Sex and the City in French) • - explains (even dubs unheard dialogue, muttering, radio noise, etc (Sari Koskinen). Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

11. Antje Ascheid: Speaking Tongues. Voice Dubbing as Cultural Ventriloquism. 1997 • Dubbing (auf Deutsch): • - takes over the foreign (invader); • - naturalizes and inflitrates it politically; • - ignores and can destroy the ‘artificial hierarchies’ of national languages; • - dubbing undermines colonization (by Hollywood for ex.) , and opens avenues for deconstruction, appropriation of power. • No longer a foreign film: just a film! she claims… Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

12. Francais international: a language of dubbing • 1960s francophonie: francais international • 1960s: decree that all French dubbing for France is done IN FRANCE (closed shop, industrial protectionism); • 1970s: developing dubbing industry in Quebec – “on veuts’entendre” (anti-English, but for access to popular culture.) • 1978: anti-Quebec dubbing strike in France; • Quebec industry: heavily subsidized, selective, only “big” films for mass distribution, intense time constraints, regularly ignored by Hollywood (due to small audience), huge time pressures but also cultural pressures … • , Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

13. Quebec specific cultural issues • “On veuts’entendre”: yes, but with pages of blacklisted words/expressions; no Quebecismes, no dialect, no slang; • hyper-correct, proper French; • no Quebec accent/pronunciation in voices; • almost literary language used as oral language; • dubbing of song texts/lyrics. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

14. Chicago • Cell Block Tango : JUNE • Now I’m standin’ in the kitchen carvin’ up the chicken for dinner, minding my own business, and in storms my husband Wilbur in a jealous rage. You been screwin’ the milkman, he says. He was crazy and he kep’ screamin’, you been screwin’ the milkman. And then he ran into my knife. He ran into my knife ten times. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

15. Chicago - Quebec • Le tango du pénétencier (Quebec) • Je suisdeboutdans un coin de macuisine. Je découpe le pouletpourle dîner. Je ne demande rien à personne. D’uncoupmon mari Wilburdébouchedans la cuisineen hurlant. Je sais que tu te tapes le laitier. Ilestdevenufou. Et ilcontinuait à hurler: je sais que tu te tapes le laitier. Et ensuite, il a couru vers mon couteau, il a couru vers mon couteau dix fois. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

16. Chicago - France • Le tango de la taule (Franco-French) • J’étaispeinarde à la cuisine, j’découpais le pouletpour le dîner, bien tranquilledansmoncoin. D’uncoupmon mari Wilburdébarquefou de rage. Tu te faissauter par le laitier. Il se déchaine, ilgueule, iléructe. Te tefaissauter par le laitier. Et là il s’jette sur mon couteau. Il s’jette sur mon couteau dix fois Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer