Part of
Reassessing Dubbing: Historical approaches and current trendsEdited by Irene Ranzato and Serenella Zanotti
[Benjamins Translation Library 148] 2019
► pp. 17–39
Edited by Irene Ranzato and Serenella Zanotti
[Benjamins Translation Library 148] 2019
► pp. 17–39
Chapter 1Undoing dubbing
Singin’ in the Rain
Focusing on the film industry’s transition to sound in the late 1920s, canonical musical Singin’ in the Rain is, foremost, a dubbing narrative. This chapter revisits this film classic in order to bring into focus lesser-known histories relating to screen translation, and to think specifically about the importance of talk and inter-lingual translation to the development of film culture broadly. Singin’s emphasis on dubbing as domestic operation invites reconsideration of the transition era’s ‘language crisis’ and the artificial voice/body combinations integral to foreign-language dubbing. Precisely because Singin’ does not deal directly with issues of inter-lingual translation, it demonstrates how sound technologies catapult issues of language difference and transfer to the very heart of film production, prefiguring the inter-lingual in the everyday.
Keywords: dubbing,
Singin’ in the Rain
, screen translation, talkies, voice, film sound, film history, indirect recording, synchronisation, lip-sync
Article outline
- Tracing origins
- Dubbing deconstructed
- Sounding foreign
- Conclusion
-
Notes -
References -
Filmography
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Filmography
Allo Berlin? Ici Paris!/Hallo Hallo! Hier Spricht Berlin
. Julien Duvivier. FRA/GER 1932.
The Canary Murder Case
. Malcolm St. Clair. USA 1929.
Footlights and Fools
. William Seiter. USA 1929.
His Glorious Night
. Lionel Barrymore. USA 1929.
Hollywood Cavalcade
. Irving Cummings. USA 1939.
The Jazz Singer
. Alan Crosland. USA 1927.
The Lady Lies
. Hobart Henley. USA 1929.
Looking for John Smith
. Wallace McCutcheon. USA 1906.
Melodie des Herzens
. Hanns Schwarz. GER 1929.
My Fair Lady
. George Cukor. UK/USA 1964.
The Trespasser
. William Goulding. USA 1929.
Singin’ in the Rain
. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. USA 1952.
Smiling Irish Eyes
. William Seiter. USA 1929.
Weary River
. Frank Lloyd. USA 1929.
Vi Två
. John W. Brunius. SWE. 1930.