Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2021 February 12

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February 12

two different versions of a French film

I used to browse around at Blockbuster Video from time to time. In the Foreign film section, there were two different versions of the French film Three Men and a Cradle. One was dubbed, the other was subtitled. What's the difference between the two?142.255.72.126 (talk) 04:44, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

• The dubbed version would have had the French-language audio replaced with English-speaking voice actors speaking a translation of the film's dialogue. The subtitled version would have kept the original French-language audio, but an English translation of the dialogue would have been printed on screen as the French dialogue was spoken. See Dubbing (filmmaking)#United States and English-speaking Canada and Subtitles. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 04:57, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

For U.S. Audiences, Foreign Cinema’s ‘One-Inch’ Wall of Subtitles Seen a Mile High.

In the UK, I'm not sure that non-English language films are any more popular, but they are almost never dubbed. In eastern Europe, they just have a man reading out a translation of the script over the top of the original dialogue, which is barely audible. Alansplodge (talk) 12:09, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

...which is called voice-over translation. Double sharp (talk) 14:38, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks Double sharp, it seems to me to be the worst possible solution, but I expect it's cheaper. Alansplodge (talk) 16:34, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

I once channel-surfed onto a Russian newscast overdubbed in Vietnamese, or so I believed at the time. —Tamfang (talk) 01:55, 13 February 2021 (UTC)