The Translation of Films, 1900-1950

Edited by Carol O'Sullivan and Jean-François Cornu

Proceedings of the British Academy

The first book-length study of the international history of audiovisual translation which includes silent cinema
Uses a wide range of primary material to examine the history of dubbing and subtitling
Offers discussions on film from both academic and industry figures
Explores translations in films from across the globe

The Translation of Films, 1900-1950

Edited by Carol O'Sullivan and Jean-François Cornu

Proceedings of the British Academy

Description

This 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 volume shows how silent films, far from being straightforward to translate, went through a complex process of editing for international distribution. It also closely tracks the ferment of experiments in film translation during the transition to sound from 1927 to 1934 and later, as markets adjusted to the demands of synchronised film.

The Translation of Films, 1900-1950 argues for a broader understanding of film translation: far from being limited to language transfer, it encompasses editing, localisation, censorship, paratextual framing, and other factors. It advocates for film translation to be considered as a crucial contribution not only to the worldwide circulation of films, but also to the art of cinema.

The Translation of Films, 1900-1950

Edited by Carol O'Sullivan and Jean-François Cornu

Proceedings of the British Academy

List of illustrations
List of tables
Notes on Contributors
Foreword, Paolo Cherchi Usai
Acknowledgements
1:Introduction, Carol O'Sullivan & Jean-François Cornu
2:Titles and Translation in the Field of Film Restoration, Bryony Dixon
3:Early Film Titling Practices: Pathé's Innovative and Multilingual Strategies in 1903, Claire Dupré la Tour
4:Intertitles, Translation, and Subtitling: Major Issues for the Restoration of Silent Films, Dominique Moustacchi
5:'Don't Mention the War': the Soviet Re-editing of Three Live Ghosts, Charles Barr
6:Confessions of a Film Restorer, Thomas C. Christensen
7:Universal Language, Local Accent: Music and Song in the Early Talking Film, Geoff Brown
8:Silence, Sound, Accents: Early Film Translation in the Spanish-speaking World, Adrián Fuentes-Luque
9:'A Delirium Tremens': Italian-language Film Versions and Early Dubbings by Paramount, MGM, and Fox (1930-33), Carla Mereu Keating
10:Dubbing in the Early 1930s: an Improbable Policy, Charles O'Brien
11:The Significance of Dubbed Versions for Early Sound-film History, Jean-François Cornu
12:The Reception of Dubbing in France 1931-33: the Case of Paramount, Martin Barnier
13:Creativity under Constraints: The Beginning of Film Translation in Mandatory Palestine, Rachel Weissbrod
14:Film Translation in Sweden in the Early 1930s, Christopher Natzén
15:'A Splendid Innovation, These English Titles!': The Invention of Subtitling in the US and the UK, Carol O'Sullivan
16:Conclusion, Carol O'Sullivan & Jean-François Cornu
Bibliography
Index

The Translation of Films, 1900-1950

Edited by Carol O'Sullivan and Jean-François Cornu

Proceedings of the British Academy

Author Information

Edited by Carol O'Sullivan, Director of Translation Studies, University of Bristol, and Jean-François Cornu, Professional subtitler and translator, Independent film researcher

Carol O'Sullivan was awarded a PhD in Modern and Medieval Languages by the University of Cambridge in 2002. Prior to taking up a post at the University of Bristol in 2013, she taught at the Universities of East Anglia and Portsmouth. She has published articles and book chapters on audiovisual translation, multimodality, translation history, and literary translation, and is the author of Translating Popular Film (2011). Her current project is on the history of subtitling in English-speaking territories. She is a past Board member of the European Society for Translation Studies, and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the journal Translation Studies.

Jean-François Cornu is a professional translator specialising in subtitling and the translation from English into French of books on cinema and art. A former Senior Lecturer at the University of Rennes-2, France, he is also an independent film researcher focusing on the history and practice of film translation, and the work of Alfred Hitchcock. In 2014, he published Le doublage et le sous-titrage : histoire esthétique (Dubbing and subtitling: history and aesthetics). He is a member of ATAA, the French association of audiovisual translators, and co-founder of its online journal L'Écran traduit.

Contributors:

Martin Barnier, University Lumière Lyon 2
Charles Barr, University of East Anglia
Geoff Brown, De Montfort University
Paolo Cherchi Usai, George Eastman Museum, University of Rochester, & the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
Thomas C. Christensen, Danish Film Institute
Jean-François Cornu, Independent Film Researcher
Bryony Dixon, British Film Institute National Archive.
Claire Dupré la Tour, Utrecht University
Adrián Fuentes-Luque, Universidad Pablo Olavide
Carla Mereu Keating, University of Bristol
Dominique Moustacchi, Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC, French Film Centre)
Christopher Natzén, National Library of Sweden
Charles O'Brien, Carleton University in Ottawa
Carol O'Sullivan, University of Bristol
Rachel Weissbrod, Bar-Ilan University

The Translation of Films, 1900-1950

Edited by Carol O'Sullivan and Jean-François Cornu

Proceedings of the British Academy

Reviews and Awards

"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