I once spent a summer in Europe with the excuse of interviewing

filmmakers and scholars about dubbing vs subtitling.  There was

no consensus there, any more than here.  A couple of observations:

In Germany in 1987 the same actor who dubbed John Wayne's voice

also dubbed Jimmy Stewart's.  So the two sound the same on their

classic westerns.  (I should have asked about Liberty Valance!)

Furthermore the actor who did major dubbing thought he could improve

performances and would change line readings/meanings.  The John Ford

club members in western Germany used to travel to Paris to see American

films.   Also, it is the small countries that have subtitling because

dubbing costs more and is only available in countries with large enough

markets to justify the costs.  In general Europeans are much less

obsessive about precise lip sync than Americans, so are less bothered

by it.  This is partially because so many more of their own films are

shot m.o.s.    liz weis  cuny

 

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