The American dubbing makes me weep. - Lola rennt (1999) Discussion

[–] hubcap18 14 years ago

Yes, I'm a firm believer that one should always watch films in their orginal langauage and use subtitles in the language the viewer understands.

Being inconsistent is better than being consistently bad.

reply

[–] ttrek-1 14 years ago

I am as well. I bought the Blu Ray the other day, cause I remember seeing this movie in High-School and College and thinking Franka Potente was hot in a kinda weird way.

It played by default in the daubbing, which aside from the fact they got Franka back to do hers, was crap. So I changed it to the German audio and flicked on the English subs.

I have seen maybe one or two times where American dubbing works. The only notable one was DEATH NOTE the anime series. The English dubbing in that was quite good.

Flynn 24

reply

[–] omoxus 14 years ago

There wasn't much dialouge. So I was able to tolerate it.

Im the Alpha and the Omoxus. The Omoxus and the Omega

reply

[–] buckshot69 14 years ago

Films in languages other than my native English makes me a little sad. I know not every film can be made in ones native tongue and english has the most films all together but I still worry that I'll never get the proper understanding a german speaker would get from this through the subtitles, or the inflection and choice of words the characters use in different films. And I feel sorry for people not native english who try and watch a dialogue driven film like Pulp Fiction, I mean, you don't really catch that Samuel L Jackson really emphasizes the MAC in Mac Donalds. But that's how were divided.

She tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up.

reply

[–] james-t-cann 14 years ago

Wow are you for real?

reply

[–] sweiland75 14 years ago

Why do you look at different languages as creating divisions? Are you American?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5GZIDnMzZQ Why does Canada need a queen?

reply

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] sweiland75 14 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5GZIDnMzZQ Why does Canada need a queen?

reply

[–] Al_and_Smithy 14 years ago

I found it odd (and sometimes humorous) that the dubbing and the subtitles didn't match. I can see when they used an expression that wouldn't work in English, but why substitute "God Damn" for "$h1t, $h1t"?

reply

[–] Miss_Sui_Generis 14 years ago

The only reason I could think of is that '$h1t' sometimes has positive connotations in English. (He's hot $h1t, this movie is the $h1t,so excited he didn't know whether to $h1t or go blind.) God Damn is a cry of frustration or rage, without any uncertainty.
With all the ordinary things that get lost or warped in translation, this was the funniest.

The first time I watched this I was just wishing I were in Berlin again. Paying attention to all the details was for later viewings.
Send lawyers,guns and money/The *beep* has hit the fan

reply

[–] catjoescreed 13 years ago

Dubbing definitely has its bad points, but subtitles have their bad points as well. Often an actor's emphasis on a word or words can make all the difference to how the auditor is meant to understand it/them. You don't get that emphasis from subtitling. In addition, film is a visual medium; reading subtitles can distract a viewer from noticing/appreciating camera work, lighting techniques, and other directorial decisions that advance the film. In fact, attention paid to written words at the bottom of the screen can make the viewer miss critical facial expressions and, in mysteries and thrillers, clues in the environment that enable native speakers (those who aren't busy looking at the letters at the bottom of the screen)to help solve the mystery.

It's sort of a lose/lose situation if you don't speak the language a movie is filmed in. Dubbing is usually laughable at best, hateful at worst. But at least you get to look at the movie.

Thanks for the Warren Zevon reference, Sui Generis! :)

The Haunted Man, by Dori Davis: Sometimes it's the living who torment the dead
Amazon.com

reply

[–] andu-00 13 years ago

I've watched subbed films all my life and it never detracted from the visual experience, with the exception of films with very complicated plots, where you need to follow all the details in order to understand what's happening. These are very rare; let me nominate Inception and Un long dimanche de fiançailles as such cases.

However, dubbing almost always detracts from the overall experience for me. It's tough for me to find exceptions, the only good dubs I can think of are those for Myiazaki's Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke.

reply