Ron Hoffman wonders:


> In showing my classes "foreign film" videos I always choose subtitled
> versions.  However, I need some advice concerning Fellini's La Strada.  As
> I understand it, the film was made with a cast speaking both Italian and
> English, e.g. Masina--Italian, Basehart--English.  What about Quinn?  Is he
> speaking English or Italian.  The problem I face is that if Quinn is
> speaking English and the Italian version of the film is dubbing the
> Italian, and further, since Masina speaks very little throughout the film
> (her great performance being essentially mime), then the majority of the
> dialogue is in English, and it would make sense to use the dubbed-in
> English version rather than the subtitled one.

I'm not sure if it makes much of a difference.  It's my understanding
that it was (and maybe still is) standard practice in Italy to post-dub
*all* dialogue.  Fellini was famous for exploiting this, at least in
later films, when he would simply have the actors *count* during their
scenes and then speak the dialogue later.

Don Larsson


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Donald Larsson
Minnesota State U, Mankato
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