As I see it, there are two types of dubbing that we're discussing here.
Rich Robin is quite right about the advantages of dubbing in a
multi-national cinema market. What many of us hate about Russian dubbing is
something different: the practice of putting a Russian voice-over on top of
the original soundtrack of foreign movies, so that one hears both languages
at the same time. I remember watching Sokurov's *Molokh* in NY in a version
where you could hear Russian and German and there was someone standing at
the back of the theater translating (reading an English translation?) it all
into English. It was a disaster, even if you knew all three languages.
Tony
On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 2:21 PM, Richard Robin <rrobin at gwu.edu> wrote:
> *Many Russian интеллигенты (intelligenty) are fed up with the
> near-universal
> practice there of dubbing;*
>
> My impression is quite different. I regularly ask just about everyone in
> Russia why no one subtitles. Typical comments:
>
> We're not used to reading on the screen.
> It's too much work to read subtitles.
> I want to feel like I'm watching a real movie.
> etc.
>
> I used to think that dubbing was part of a dark Soviet conspiracy to cover
> up the original soundtrack. The fall of the Soviet Union, I figured, would
> not only bring about an end to censorship but to dubbed films as well.
>
> But in this sense, Russia is just following European tradition. European
> films are often shot for multinational distribution with a multilingual
> cast. Individual parts are then redubbed, depending on the market.
>
> Then, too, there's the Russian tradition of redubbing even native-Russian
> dialog. In Soviet days, dialog was redubbed because of bad sound recording
> equipment. The Soviets could bug embassies but Mosfilm didn't have a lot in
> the way of good shotgun mikes. Plus, redubbing meant that Barbara Brylska
> (Polish) and Donatas Banionis (Lithuanian) could have accentless film
> appearances in Russian.
>
> -Rich
>
> On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 1:47 PM, Hugh Olmsted <hugh_olmsted at comcast.net
> >wrote:
>
> > Colleagues--
> >
> > About film dubbing in Russia.
> > Many Russian интеллигенты (intelligenty) are fed up with the
> near-universal
> > practice there of dubbing; they try hard to get foreign films with
> subtitles
> > (титры) so they can hear the original language, voices, accents, the
> whole
> > original integral oeuvre d'art. But it's not easy.
> > And I when resident in Russia, spoiled by my foreign background,
> certainly
> > have no patience for this universal dubbing (one of whose manifestations
> is
> > retention of the original sound track in the background, creating a
> serious
> > sort of interference). When I ask Russians for interpretation and
> > explanation of the practice, I'm frequently told that it's driven by the
> > demands and momentum of the dubbing profession, whose members need work.
> I
> > don't know whether that's a serious explanation...
> > I wonder whether any one has insight or experience about the mechanisms
> at
> > work in this issue, and/or possible movements for change in the direction
> of
> > titry.
> > Thanks for any contributions.
> > Hugh Olmsted
> >
> >
> > On Oct 19, 2009, at 1:23 PM, Richard Robin wrote:
> >
> > Dear colleagues,
> >>
> >>
> >> I am happy to see responses on Russian dubbing. My own contribution is
> >> this:
> >>
> >> In 2006, I was invited to watch a cartoon dubbing session at Nevafilm at
> >> their Vasilievsky Ostrov studios. Nevafilm mostly dubs cartoons,
> including
> >> some major movie house releases as less noble Cartoon Channel fare.
> >>
> >> The firm employs local actors who specialize in voice work. Of course,
> >> dubbing cartoons into a foreign language reverses the normal animation
> >> process in which the voices are recorded first and the actual animation
> is
> >> then fitted to the recorded voices. Here the actor (doing all the
> voices)
> >> looked at the screen and tried to match his voice to the cartoon’s
> >> original
> >> sync dub.
> >>
> >> I was surprised that the dubbing director really ran roughshod over the
> >> poor
> >> actor. (e.g. Опять опаздываешь! Неужели нельзя внимательнее?) The
> >> опоздание might
> >> have been plus-minus a fifth of a second. The director insisted on take
> >> after take after take. During a break I asked the script editor why the
> >> director insisted on so many takes. After all, on takes that were so
> >> close,
> >> any discernible lip flap could be fixed in post production — much more
> >> quickly than the time it took to do 10 takes. The script editor’s
> answer:
> >> “У
> >> нее подход традиционный”.
> >>
> >> This episode reinforced my original impression that dubbing in Russia is
> >> very much an old school skill which commands respect but which places
> >> great
> >> demands on the dubbers.
> >>
> >> -Rich Robin
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sun, Oct 18, 2009 at 11:58 PM, Prof Steven P Hill
> >> <s-hill4 at illinois.edu>wrote:
> >>
> >> Dear colleagues, Kayiatos, Robin:
> >>>
> >>> Just occurs to me that Detfil'm's occasional actress Galina
> Vodianitskaia
> >>> (Vodyanitskaya, 1918- ) in her years at that studio may have
> specialized
> >>> as a voice actress i.e., may have specialized in dubbing. I once
> >>> interviewed
> >>> the famous Detfil'm director Il'ia Frez, who'd begun at Detfil'm as an
> >>> assistant, including on the famous WW2 film "Zoia" ("Zoya"), in which
> >>> young
> >>> Vodianitskaia starred. Mr Frez may have mentioned about
> Vodianitskaia's
> >>> frequent work
> >>> in dubbing. (She was seen ON screen very few times.) -- Steven P Hill,
> >>> U. of Illinois.
> >>>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> >>>
> >>>
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> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Richard M. Robin, Ph.D.
> >> Director Russian Language Program
> >> The George Washington University
> >> Washington, DC 20052
> >> 202-994-7081
> >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >> Russkiy tekst v UTF-8
> >>
> >>
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>
>
> --
> Richard M. Robin, Ph.D.
> Director Russian Language Program
> The George Washington University
> Washington, DC 20052
> 202-994-7081
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Russkiy tekst v UTF-8
>
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--
Anthony Anemone
Chair & Associate Provost of Foreign Languages
The New School
212-229-5676 ex. 2355
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