To be specified published in:
English Text Construction
Vol. 10:1 (2017) ► pp. 21–36

La Classe américaine

Film collage and dubbing

| University of Namur
On 31 December 1993, French pay TV channel Canal+ broadcast a 70-minute film called La Classe américaine, directed by Michel Hazanavicius and Dominique Mézerette. They took excerpts from about fifty Warner Bros. productions, edited them to build a story and had the characters (played by A-list actors such as John Wayne and James Stewart) dubbed over by well-known French voice actors, resulting in what is known technically as a ‘détournement’, combining the techniques of film collage and dubbing. This paper sketches the origins and the production context of this very unusual audiovisual object, relying on insights from film theory, with particular reference to adaptation techniques like remixes and collages. The analysis also shows how meaning and humour are created through the montage of originally completely disconnected scenes and the addition of funny or crude dialogues that one would not expect from cinema legends like John Wayne. A final part highlights the film’s cult status and its influence on the creation of more détournements.
Keywords: adaptation, détournement, dubbing, film collage, film remix


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 15 June 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.10.1.02lab

Full-text

La Classe américaine
Films cited

Films cited

Aldrich, Robert
1963 4 for Texas.Google Scholar
Allen, Irwin
1974 The Towering Inferno.Google Scholar
Allen, Woody 1966 What’s Up, Tiger Lily?Google Scholar
Annakin, Ken
1965 Battle of the Bulge.Google Scholar
Boorman, John
1972 Deliverance.Google Scholar
Burton, Tim
1989 Batman.Google Scholar
Cooper, Stuart
1975 Overlord.Google Scholar
Fleming, Victor
1939Gone with the WindGoogle Scholar
Hazanavicius, Michel & Dominique Mézerette
1993 La Classe américaine.Google Scholar
Kershner, Irwin
1980 Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.Google Scholar
Kosakowski, Michal
2006 Just Like The Movies.Google Scholar
Lucas, George
1977 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.Google Scholar
1999 Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.Google Scholar
2002 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.Google Scholar
2005 Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.Google Scholar
Marquand, Richard
1983 Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.Google Scholar
McEveety, Vincent
1968 Firecreek.Google Scholar
Milestone, Lewis
1960 Ocean’s 11.Google Scholar
Nichols, Mike
1967 The Graduate.Google Scholar
Nichols, Mike J.
2000 The Phantom Edit.Google Scholar
Nolan, Christopher
2008 The Dark Knight.Google Scholar
Pakula, Alan J.
1976 All the President’s Men.Google Scholar
Peckinpah, Sam
1977 Cross of Iron.Google Scholar
Reiner, Carl
1982 Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.Google Scholar
Rydell, Mark
1972 The Cowboys.Google Scholar
Scorsese, Martin
1995 Casino.Google Scholar
2013 The Wolf of Wall Street.Google Scholar
Siodmak, Robert
1952 The Crimson Pirate.Google Scholar
Spielberg, Steven
2002[1982] E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.Google Scholar
Taniguchi, Senkichi
1965 International Secret Police: Key of Keys.Google Scholar
Guangqi, Tu
1972 Crush.Google Scholar
Viénet, René
1973 La Dialectique peut-elle casser des briques?Google Scholar
Welles, Orson
1941 Citizen Kane.Google Scholar
Winner, Michael
1974 Death Wish.Google Scholar
Yates, Peter
1968 Bullitt.Google Scholar

References

Barnier, Martin
2004 Des films français made in Hollywood. Les versions multiples 1929–1935. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
Boillat, Alain
2013 Le doublage au sens large: De l’usage des voix déliées. Décadrages 23-24: 52–79. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bovier, François
2013 Doublage et détournement: Un film peut en cacher un autre. Décadrages 23-24: 126–140.Google Scholar
Cornu, Jean-François
2014 Doublage et sous-titrage: Histoire et esthétique. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.Google Scholar
Debord, Guy & Gil J. Wolman
1956 Mode d’emploi du détournement. Les Lèvres nues 8.Google Scholar
Deprieck, Matthieu & Clément Sautet 2009  La Classe américaine . Histoire d’un film pirate devenu culte. L’Express. 〈http://​www​.lexpress​.fr​/culture​/cinema​/la​-classe​-americaine​-histoire​-d​-un​-film​-pirate​-devenu​-culte​_752975​.html〉 (Last accessed on 19 January 2017).Google Scholar
Détournement
2017 In Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc 10 January 2017 〈https://​en​.wikipedia​.org​/wiki​/Détournement〉 (Last accessed on 19 January 2017).Google Scholar
Labate, Simon
2010 The French dubbed versions of the simpsons and family guy. MA dissertation, KU Leuven.Google Scholar
Le Nouvel, Thierry
2007 Le Doublage. Paris: Eyrolles.Google Scholar
Marie, Michel & François Thomas
(eds) 2008 Le Mythe du ‘director’s cut’. Paris: Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle.Google Scholar
Morreall, John
2016 Philosophy of humour. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University. 〈https://​plato​.stanford​.edu​/archives​/win2016​/entries​/humor/〉 (Last accessed on 19 January 2017).Google Scholar
Sahiri, Léandre
2013 Le Bon Usage de la répétition dans l’expression écrite et orale. Paris: Mon Petit Éditeur.Google Scholar