In yesterday’s La Repubblica, journalist Franco Montini reopened the dubbing vs subtitles debate with new evidence that Italy is ready to dump the dubbing system in favor of movies in the original language.
“Cinema is better without dubbing”, he says, and “the request for movies shown in the original language is growing. An example: Django Unchained, shown dubbed and in English at a Roman movie theater is having a bigger box office success with the one shown in the original language. It’s only one theater”, he admits, “but it’s a sign that things are changing”.
Montini cites the internet and the prevalence of the English language worldwide in his argument against dubbing, and says that a growing number of Italians are requesting films with subtitles. But Italy is still the king of dubbing. or “doppiaggio”, changing almost everything, movies, tv shows, and documentaries to the Italian language; they have some of the best voice artists in the world.
Chiara Barzini says in an article for Harper’s Magazine, “The success of a foreign movie in Italy depends on its ability to transfer the spirit of another language into Italian. Italy’s best dubbing director and adapter, Francesco Vairano, is known for his ability to work with films thought to be undubbable and unadaptable, such as the French hit comedy Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis, which relies for much of its humor on misunderstandings between French-speakers and speakers of the regional Picard (or Ch’ti) language. Vairano has also directed dubbings of English period films, like Kenneth Branagh’s full-text Hamlet and last year’s Best Picture Oscar-winner, The King’s Speech.”
Critics say, as you might expect, that no matter how talented the voice artist, the Italian version is disappointing. In the Oscar nominated film, Lincoln, for example, Pierfrancesco Favino, one of Italy’s best actors, was chosen to give voice to Daniel Day-Lewis, but the reviews have not been favorable . “It’s not the actors’ fault, but a matter of timing and arrangement”, says Marco Mete, a voice actor director. “The projects need to be done quickly to keep costs down and quality can’t always be guaranteed.”
Purists will always argue that dubbing hurts a film, and they’re right, of course. In this debate film lovers will always jump in, head first, crying “Down with dubbing!”. And yet they never really address the bigger issue.
In Italy, an increasing number of Italians speak English, so they are more likely to enjoy an English language film with subtitles. But in the US the sad fact is that few of us speak anything but English and few go to see foreign films. The reasons are varied and debatable, but I think it’s because, for all the praise of subtitles, nobody really wants to read them. When we want to relax and watch a movie, subtitles can be a lot of work, worthwhile, of course, but not something we are always in the mood to do.
At any given time in Roman movie theaters there are dozens of foreign movies showing, dubbed, all of them, yet this week in theaters in a 30 mile radius of my house there are two subtitled films.
Italian movie goers have the world of film at their doorstep, but in our elitism and insistence for subtitles, we bite off our noses to spite our faces. We may be “right”, but do we really win?
I Love Italian Everything 