It doesn't enhance the experience, it just makes the dialogue come across as stilted and cheesy like we're watching some badly acted soap opera. It's not just Argento, it's Lucio Fulchi, Sergio Leone and any other Italian horror director from around the time. How did such a stupid, unnecessary fad catch on?? Just have your damned characters speaking Italian as they should be! Good grief!
shareAll Italian films of the time were shot without sound and then post-synched because they usually featured international casts who couldn't agree on a common language. Some actors spoke Italian, some English, some German etc. However, if you look closely at their lips you can notice that most of them were speaking English. Thus, whichever soundtrack you're listening to, English or Italian, it is a dub. So, if you wish to watch the film in Italian you can do so. However, if you watch "Suspiria" in Italian, Jessica Harper will be dubbed. If you watch "Profondo rosso" in Italian, David Hemmings will be dubbed. The same goes for Antony Franciosa in "Tenebrae" and Tony Musante in "L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo" etc. Since all of Argento's protagonists are played by English-speaking actors it makes more sense to me to watch their performances with their voices than with some Italian fellow trying to mime along to their lip movements.
shareI guess they were trying to appeal to the American market or the international market, in the early days of sound they would shoot the same film in several languages.
shareNo. It was filmed without sound because they had to. In an international cast such as this and many others there wasn't any one language everyone spoke perfectly, so they all spoke in their languages/accents and then everyone was dubbed. It also allowed them to change the script in post.
shareI think part of it is that his films are so visually interesting that he doesn't want us distracted by reading subtitles.
shareBecause reading subtitles is for idiots....either you understand another country’s spoken language or you don’t. Reading text on a screen when you’re supposed to be taking in all the imagery is moronic and a stupid way to watch a movie. All foreign movies should be dubbed in English (the official language of planet earth).
shareYou forgot the /S
/S implies you are being sarcastic.
I’m dead serious, reading subtitles is the equivalent of a teenager texting on their phone while watching a movie. If you’re not giving a movie your full attention then why bother even watching it?
shareThe fact that you don't consider using your ears a component of experiencing a movie says enough. But your analogy? Well it might work if the subtitles were being written by the viewer as they watched the film, printed on their lap and having no connection to the film. Instead, it's fatuous the to point of meaninglessness.
shareI take it that you don't watch foreign films
shareI agree, no sarcasm here, the English language has conquered the world in a way that no nation could dream of.
share[deleted]
Subtitles are far superior to dubbing because they enable you to hear the actors' voices and the original sound edit, as the director intended. When you watch a dubbed version, you hear an interpretation from an actor who may or may not understand the nuances and culture of the original work. Voice is half of any film performance.
For those of us with an education, reading subtitles while watching a film is no challenge whatsoever.
Wantoosoon I agree with you 100%. I honestly thought Doriangay was joking. I want to hear film in its origins native language.
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I disagree that all films should be dubbed
Most Americans won't watch foreign films no matter what, so it's pointless to waste time/money dubbing them
Plus the slight disparity between the phonetic sound and the lip movement takes away from the suspension of disbelief
Neither dubs or subs are perfect. That is why many foreign films are re-made in English, but then fans get butthurt about that too. You can't really win
1. because subtitles didn't fly with most audiences in the 1970s
2. italian films featured cast speaking in their native language.. hence dubbing later