Translaboration in a film context: Stanley Kubrick’s collaborative approach to translation

Serenella Zanotti

Abstract

This study explores the notion of translaboration in the context of audiovisual translation using Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987) as a case study. Specifically, it explores the dynamics of translaboration in the Italian version of Kubrick’s film by drawing on archival methods and sources to examine the material traces left by the translation process. The study aims to unveil the translaborative dimension that characterized Kubrick’s approach to film translation, pointing to the specificity of a collaborative interaction in which one participant holds ultimate authority. Findings gleaned from translation-related material in the Stanley Kubrick Archive (University of the Arts, London) are combined with insights from working documents found among the personal papers of Riccardo Aragno, who translated Kubrick’s last five films into Italian for both dubbing and subtitling. Archival documents show that Kubrick was involved in collaborative work with his translators, sometimes adopting an interventionist approach.

Keywords:
Publication history
Table of contents

Film translation is a context where forms of collaboration are particularly prominent. As Nornes (2007, 221) reminds us, in dubbing the “translator” is in fact a collective entity rather than an individual, comprising “the team of technicians, translators and actors” who all take part in the process. In subtitling, where significantly fewer agents are involved in decision-making, translators are nevertheless “a link in a chain” (Díaz-Cintas and Remael 2007, 81). Di Giovanni (2016, 6) also highlights this collaboration in pointing out that “subtitlers hardly ever work alone on the linguistic operations involved in the overall subtitling process,” as the workflow entails at least two stages, one of which involves the intervention of proofreaders who revise the main translator’s work and who may impose a different interpretation of the source text.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

References

Filmography

Kubrick, Stanley
1971A Clockwork Orange. UK and USA: Polaris Production, Hawk Films.Google Scholar
1987Full Metal Jacket. USA and UK: Hawk Films.Google Scholar
Zierra, Tony
2017Filmworker. USA: Dogwoof.Google Scholar

Archival sources

Continuity and Spotting List
Full Metal Jacket. The Stanley Kubrick Archive. The University of the Arts, London. SK/16/4/2/12.
Audiocassette
Scotch 6090m. Riccardo Aragno Papers. Private collection.
Sony HF 60. Riccardo Aragno Papers. Private collection.
Sony HF 120. Riccardo Aragno Papers. Private collection.
Corrected subtitles
Full Metal Jacket. The Stanley Kubrick Archive. The University of the Arts, London. SK/16/4/2/19.
Final dubbing script
Full Metal Jacket. The Stanley Kubrick Archive. The University of the Arts, London. SK/16/8/6/13.
French subtitles
Full Metal Jacket. The Stanley Kubrick Archive. The University of the Arts, London. SK/16/4/2/17.
Italian subtitles – first draft
Full Metal Jacket. The Stanley Kubrick Archive. The University of the Arts, London. SK/16/5/3/42.
Italian dubbing script – first draft
Full Metal Jacket. The Stanley Kubrick Archive. The University of the Arts, London. SK/16/4/2/19.

Other references

Alfer, Alexa
2015 “Transcending Boundaries.” The Linguist 54 (5): 26–27.Google Scholar
2017 “Entering the Translab: Translation as Collaboration, Collaboration as Translation, and the Third Space of ‘Translaboration’.” In Translaboration, edited by Alexa Alfer, special issue of Translation and Translanguaging in Multicultural Contexts 3 (3): 275–290. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Anokhina, Olga
2017 “Vladimir Nabokov and His Translators: Collaboration or Translating under Duress?” In Collaborative Translation: From the Renaissance to the Digital Age, edited by Anthony Cordingley and Céline Frigau Manning, 111–129. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Aragno, Riccardo
1999Interview with GR Rai 12 March. Accessed January 2, 2020. http://​www​.archiviokubrick​.it​/testimonianze​/persone​/aragno​.html
Bollettieri, Rosa Maria, and Serenella Zanotti
2017 “The Avant-textes of Translations: A Study of Umberto Eco’s Interaction with His Translators.” Translation Studies 10 (3): 263–281. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ciment, Michel
2001Kubrick: The Definitive Edition. Translated by Gilbert Adair. New York: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Cordingley, Anthony, and Céline Frigau Manning
eds. 2017Collaborative Translation: From the Renaissance to the Digital Age. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Cordingley, Anthony, and Chiara Montini
eds. 2015Towards a Genetics of Translation. Special issue of Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series – Themes in Translation Studies 14.Google Scholar
De los Reyes Lozano, Julio
2015 “Genética del doblaje cinematográfico: La versión del traductor como proto-texto en el filme Rio .” Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series – Themes in Translation Studies 14: 149–167.Google Scholar
De Higes Andino, Irene
2014 “The Translation of Multilingual Films: Modes, Strategies, Constraints and Manipulation in the Spanish Translations of It’s a free worldLinguistica Antverpiensia, New Series – Themes in Translation Studies 13: 211–231.Google Scholar
Díaz-Cintas, Jorge
2001 “Striving for Quality in Subtitling: The Role of a Good Dialogue List.” In (Multi)Media Translation: Concepts, Practices and Research, edited by Yves Gambier and Henrik Gottlieb, 199–211. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Díaz-Cintas, Jorge, and Aline Remael
2007Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling. Manchester: St Jerome.Google Scholar
Di Giovanni, Elena
2016 “The Layers of Subtitling.” Cogent Arts & Humanities 3 (1): 1–15. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eisenschitz, Bernard
1999 “La parole écrite: Extrait des mémoires d’un traducteur.” In L’image et la parole, edited by Jacques Aumont, 29–45. Paris: Cinémathèque Française.Google Scholar
2013 “Sous-titrage mon beau souci: Notes sur une pratique.” Mise au point, 5. http://​journals​.openedition​.org​/map​/1481. DOI logo
Hersant, Patrick
2017 “Author-Translator Collaborations: A Typological Survey”. In Collaborative Translation: From the Renaissance to the Digital Age, edited by Anthony Cordingley and Céline Frigau Manning, 91–110. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Heymann, Danièle
1987 “Le Vietnam de Stanley Kubrick: Un entretien avec le réalisteur de Full Metal Jacket .” Le Monde 20 October.Google Scholar
2005 “Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam.” In The Stanley Kubrick Archives, edited by Alison Castle, 476–479. Hong Kong: Taschen.Google Scholar
Jansen, Hanne, and Anna Wegener
2013 “Multiple Translatorship.” In Authorial and Editorial Voices in Translation 1: Collaborative Relationships Between Authors, Translators, and Performers, edited by Hanne Jansen and Anna Wegener, 1–38. Montreal, QC: Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre, collection Vita Traductiva.Google Scholar
Jiménez-Crespo, Miguel A.
2017Crowdsourcing and Online Collaborative Translations: Expanding the Limits of Translation Studies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Krämer, Peter
(2015) “ ‘Complete total final annihilating artistic control’: Stanley Kubrick and Postwar Hollywood.” In Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives, edited by Tatjana Ljujic, Peter Krämer, and Richard Daniels, 48–61. London: Black Dog.Google Scholar
Letawe, Céline
2017 “Günter Grass and His Translators: From a Collaborative Dynamic to an Apparatus of Control?” In Collaborative Translation: From the Renaissance to the Digital Age, edited by Anthony Cordingley and Céline Frigau Manning, 130–144. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Massidda, Serenella
2015Audiovisual Translation in the Digital Age: The Italian Fansubbing Phenomenon. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matamala, Anna
2010 “Translations for Dubbing as Dynamic Texts: Strategies in Film Synchronization.” Babel 56 (2): 101–118. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McAvoy, Catriona
2015 “Creating The Shining: Looking beyond the Myths.” In Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives, edited by Tatjana Ljujić, Peter Krämer, and Richard Daniels, 282–307. London: Black Dog.Google Scholar
McQuiston, Kate
2013We’ll Meet Again: Musical Design in the Films of Stanley Kubrick. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mendes, Regina
2015 “Dubbing Directors and Dubbing Actors: Co-authors of Translation for Dubbing.” In Audiovisual Translation in a Global Context, edited by Rocío Baños Piñero and Jorge Díaz-Cintas, 253–265. Palgrave Macmillan: London.Google Scholar
Molina Foix, Vicente
1999 “El artista maniático.” El País 8 March. Accessed August 21, 2018. https://​elpais​.com​/diario​/1999​/03​/08​/cultura​/920847607​_850215​.html
2005 “El Director Exquisito.” El País 6 March. Accessed August 21, 2018. https://​elpais​.com​/diario​/2005​/03​/06​/eps​/1110094011​_850215​.html
Munday, Jeremy
2012Evaluation in Translation: Critical Points of Translator Decision-Making. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 “The Role of Archival and Manuscript Research in the Investigation of Translator Decision-Making.” Target 25 (1): 125–139. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Naremore, James
2006 “Stanley Kubrick and the Aesthetics of the Grotesque.” Film Quarterly 60 (1): 4–14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nornes, Abe M.
2007Cinema Babel: Translating Global Cinema. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
O’Brien, Sharon
2011 “Collaborative Translation.” In Handbook of Translation Studies, vol. 2, edited by Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer, 17–20. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Orrego-Carmona, David, and Yvonne Lee
eds. 2017Non-Professional Subtitling. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Palmer, William
1995The Films of the Eighties: A Social History. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Richart-Marset, Mabel
2014 “La caja negra y el mal de archivio: defense de un análisis genético del doblaje cinematográfico.” In Última tendencias en la investigación sobre traducción para el doblaje, edited by Rocío Baños Piñero, special issue of TRANS: Revista de traductología 17: 51–69.Google Scholar
Romero-Fresco, Pablo
2013 “Accessible Filmmaking: Joining the Dots between Audiovisual Translation, Accessibility, and Filmmaking.” Journal of Specialised Translation 20: 201–223.Google Scholar
2018The Accessible Filmmaking Guide. London: BFI.Google Scholar
2019Accessible Filmmaking: Integrating Translation and Accessibility into the Filmmaking Process. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Seddon, Emma
2019 “Exploring the Social Complexity of Translation with Assemblage Thinking.” In Complexity Thinking in Translation Studies: Methodological Considerations, edited by Kobus Marais and Reine Meylaerts, 104–127. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Turquety, Benoît
2015 “Orality and Objectification: Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, Filmmakers and Translators.” SubStance 44 (2): 47–65. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Whitman-Linsen, Candace
1992Through the Dubbing Glass: The Synchronization of American Motion Pictures into German, French and Spanish. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Woods, Michelle
2006Translating Milan Kundera. Clevendon: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zanotti, Serenella
2014 “Translation and Transcreation in the Dubbing Process: A Genetic Approach.” Cultus: The Journal of Intercultural Mediation and Communication 7: 107–132.Google Scholar
2019a “Investigating the Genesis of Translated Films: A View from the Stanley Kubrick Archive.” Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice 27 (2): 201–217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2019b “Auteur Dubbing: Translation, Performance and Authorial Control in the Dubbed Versions of Stanley Kubrick’s Films.” In Reassessing Dubbing: Historical Approaches and Current Trends, edited by Irene Ranzato and Serenella Zanotti, 79–100. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar