Cornu, Jean-François (2014). Le doublage et le sous-titrage. Histoire et
esthétique. Rennes: PUR, pp. 440, €23, ISBN: 978-2-7535-3386-8.
Jean-François Cornu’s Le doublage et le sous-titrage is an ambitious study
which aims to look at the over eighty-year-old practices of dubbing and
subtitling from a historical, technical and aesthetic viewpoint. An exciting,
yet demanding endeavour, attempted previously by only a handful of film
and translation scholars (most recently by Nornes (2008) and O’Sullivan
(2011). With many years of experience in the French subtitling and
publishing industry and in academia, Cornu has what it takes to produce
an influential work where research scholarship and the insider’s technical
know-how play in perfect synchrony. No disappointing surprises will await
the curious reader, but a zealous search into the introduction,
technological advancements and aesthetics of film translation practices in
France.
The study embraces a wide chronological time frame, starting from the
late 1920s-early 1930s - the crucial phase which sees the diffusion of the
talking film in France and in other countries worldwide (Part I, Chapters 1,
2, 3) - and arriving at current practice. It is a long journey that brings us
from modernity to digital culture (and from inflammable nitrate film to the
Digital Cinema Package) where Hollywood steals most of the show, even if
throughout the book Cornu accounts for the presence and translation of
other non-English-language films in France.
Balanced attention is given to the simultaneous diffusion and
establishment of dubbing and subtitling in the national theatrical circuit.
Unlike the three other major dubbing countries in Europe (Germany, Italy
and Spain), which, until recently, have endorsed almost exclusively
dubbing, in France, both dubbed and subtitled pictures were allowed
distribution to mainstream cinemas, even though some governmental
restrictions were put as to the number of theatres in which subtitles films
could be shown. Cornu describes first the steady evolution and
establishment of dubbing as the main translation mode (Part II) and then
focuses on the continuous technological innovations affecting subtitling
(Part III). These two solutions are analysed with copious translation
examples (for example, extracts taken from films such as Mädchen in
Uniform, Citizen Kane, The Pillow Book and many others) while avoiding
sterile comparative value judgement.
The readers interested in the historic point of view will be captivated by
the short account of the state of the AVT industry in occupied and postWorld War II France (in Chapters 6 and 8), a critical phase for this cultural
industry in France and elsewhere in Europe. Translation students and
practitioners can treasure a wealth of examples on the composite and
dynamic nature of a film’s aural atmosphere and its verbal treatment. Film
aesthetes may find satisfaction in Cornu’s bipartisan analysis of the formal
interplay between dubbing or subtitling, the moving image and the human
voice (Part IV, Chapters 9 and 10).
Cornu makes extensive use of specialised film press, in particular La
Cinématographique française and Variety, published between the end of
the 1920s and the 1940s. The industry’s contemporary point of view is
also presented, thanks to the interviews that the author conducted
personally between the 1980s and the 2000s with adapters, subtitlers and
directors of French dubbing and subtitling companies (e.g., Nina Kagansky
and her Titra Film). The bibliography is organised by subtopics and is a
useful point of reference for students and scholars in both Film and
Translation Studies. It features major French and American studies on film
history, the diffusion of sound, the voice in cinema, film case studies and
the few existing historical and aesthetic analyses on dubbing and
subtitling.
The archive-worm in me was fascinated to learn of the technological
evolution of subtitling techniques (e.g., optical, chemical, laser, digital)
and to understand better how different superimposition methods can
significantly affect the quantity and quality of the written text that goes on
to the screen, and, as a consequence, the readability of the subtitles and
the impact on a film’s overall reception. It is a shame that only few stills
were included in the publication to accompany these detailed physical
descriptions; in my opinion, additional visual references would have
enriched enormously the author’s ground-breaking research into the field.
I also felt that the fansubbing phenomenon could have been
acknowledged more in the part dedicated to subtitling, at least for its
creative, non-canonical contribution to present-day practice. But perhaps,
the phenomenon does not have the same aesthetic, cultural and political
significance for the French public that it has had in other countries
dominated by dubbing.
Although French in language and subject, Cornu’s long-awaited work has
an impact that reaches beyond national and linguistic boundaries. It is a
comprehensive study that does not just make do with existing film and
translation historiography, but one that, instead, leads the way to ‘new’
avenues of research in audiovisual translation (namely, AVT History).
Finally, in revealing the ‘archaeological’ challenges that the film translation
historian face when working with damaged, untraceable if not
irremediably lost, dubbed or subtitled film footage, Cornu’s research
underscores a preservation and conservation issue that needs to be
confronted urgently.
References
•
Nornes, Markus (2008). Cinema Babel: Translating Global Cinema.
Minneapolis: UMP.
•
O’Sullivan, Carol (2011). Translating Popular Film. Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Carla Mereu Keating, PhD
University of Reading
carlamereu@hotmail.com