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 ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]