Description
Book SynopsisThis rich collection of articles and essays by film historians, translation scholars, archivists, and curators presents film translation history as an exciting and timely area of research. It builds on the last twenty years of research into the history of dubbing and subtitling, but goes further, by showing how subtitling, dubbing, and other forms of audiovisual translation developed over the first fifty years of the twentieth century.This is the first book-length study, in any language, of the international history of audiovisual translation which includes silent cinema. Its scope covers national contexts both within Europe and beyond. It shows how audiovisual translation practices were closely tied to their commercial, technological and industrial contexts. The Translation of Films, 1900-1950 draws extensively on archival sources and expertise. In doing so it revisits and challenges some of the established narratives around film languages and the coming of sound. For instance, the vo
Trade ReviewThe Translation of Films, 1900-1950 is a truly remarkable achievement, illustrating the potential of archival research in AVT (audiovisual translation)studies. Aiming "to set the agenda for research on the history of film translation" (11), this ground-breaking book makes a significant contribution to both AVT and Film Studies, opening up truly multidisciplinary perspectives and marking a radical change in our understanding of film translation history. * Serenella Zanotti, Journal of Specialised Translation *
Across all chapters presented in this collection, the value and importance of archive-based research is consistently brought to the fore, and several chapters present valuable models for approaching primary materials relating to audiovisual translation... While this volume is not the first to cover this territory, it may well prove to be a focusing point, and in some senses a leveller, for future archive-driven studies into the topic. * Peter Walsh, Journal of Film Preservation *
The collection's comparative spirit of challenging and probing, of stimulating the contact zone between disciplines ... cover[s] old ground in new ways: as essays from archive and academy shed light on each other's disciplinary emphases, early film translation in all its incarnations is revealed at once to be an engine of international circulation, a site of artistic experimentation, and an inextricable part of the story of cinema ... proves that translated films ... are eminently worthy of preservation and study ... The Translation of Films' accumulative potential to change how films are preserved, distributed, studied, and seen, such that the archaeological puzzle of film translation history, with all its missing pieces, may start to look more complete. * Daniella Schütze, Oxford Comparative Criticism & Translation *
O'Sullivan and Cornu's book is highly recommended to anyone with an interest in film translation. In fact, it should be read not only by film and audiovisual translation historians, but also by practitioners. While today's film translation techniques may be a far cry from what the book describes, understanding the origins provides immense help in appreciating the current constraints and guidelines of good practice. * Lukasz Bogucki, Target *
Table of ContentsList of illustrations List of tables Notes on Contributors Paolo Cherchi Usai: Foreword Acknowledgements 1: Carol O'Sullivan & Jean-François Cornu: Introduction 2: Bryony Dixon: Titles and Translation in the Field of Film Restoration 3: Claire Dupré la Tour: Early Film Titling Practices: Pathé's Innovative and Multilingual Strategies in 1903 4: Dominique Moustacchi: Intertitles, Translation, and Subtitling: Major Issues for the Restoration of Silent Films 5: Charles Barr: 'Don't Mention the War': the Soviet Re-editing of Three Live Ghosts 6: Thomas C. Christensen: Confessions of a Film Restorer 7: Geoff Brown: Universal Language, Local Accent: Music and Song in the Early Talking Film 8: Adrián Fuentes-Luque: Silence, Sound, Accents: Early Film Translation in the Spanish-speaking World 9: Carla Mereu Keating: 'A Delirium Tremens': Italian-language Film Versions and Early Dubbings by Paramount, MGM, and Fox (1930-33) 10: Charles O'Brien: Dubbing in the Early 1930s: an Improbable Policy 11: Jean-François Cornu: The Significance of Dubbed Versions for Early Sound-film History 12: Martin Barnier: The Reception of Dubbing in France 1931-33: the Case of Paramount 13: Rachel Weissbrod: Creativity under Constraints: The Beginning of Film Translation in Mandatory Palestine 14: Christopher Natzén: Film Translation in Sweden in the Early 1930s 15: Carol O'Sullivan: 'A Splendid Innovation, These English Titles!': The Invention of Subtitling in the US and the UK 16: Carol O'Sullivan & Jean-François Cornu: Conclusion Bibliography Index
