WTI Magazine #33    2014 June, 4
Author : Simone doc Bracci      Translation by:

When you want to enjoy a movie, is it better the dubbed version, or the one in the original language? Surely it is better to watch it in the original language, maybe subtitled, not to miss the hidden meanings, the gags and the typical idiomatic expressions.

But there are many who are not that skilled or trained in understanding English, and it is for this reason that the dubbing was born: just to allow everybody to watch their favorite movies, in Italian. It is also true, however, that certain films deserve to be seen in the original language.

This is Gabriele Muccino's battle, currently in the U.S. to shoot his fourth film in English language, "Fathers and Daughters". Muccino bluntly stated that "Watching a dubbed film is like to shoot oneself in the mouth, because months of work of the director are destroyed". "I've seen thousands of movies in my life. I happened to watch many movies dubbed in Italian movies and then, after years, in English: the experience was incomparable".

The film that sparked the dispute with a very popular Italian blogger, Selvaggia Lucarelli, who felt the duty to intervene in defense of the Italian dubbing system, was "Her" by Spike Jonze. According to Muccino, dubbing Scarlett Johansson, who gives voice to the computer Samantha, made the audience lazy and had them losing all the charisma that the actress showed in the film, adding that it was like seeing Modugno singing "Volare" dubbed in German or Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni and Anna Magnani recite dubbed in Persian.

That was enough to trigger a controversy between the Italian dubbing actors, who were offended for a work that they have been doing for decades, and the director, who in defense of his thesis then responded on his Facebook profile: "Mine is just a speech of a cultural kind, to allow the thousands of foreigners living in Italy to go to the theaters and see movies in their own language or subtitled, and Italians to see how seriously do recite the actors that they think they know, but actually don't, because they hear the voice of the same dubbing actors who play on so many actors that is almost like these foreign actors are always the same actor".

The first experience of Gabriele Muccino with American cinema dates back to "The Pursuit of Happiness", a big success at the box office. After that, "Seven pounds" and "Playing for keeps" followed. With "Fathers and Daughters", the director admits he rediscovered his passion for cinema: "This film gave me back my life", he said.

The movie will be on the big screen in 2015, with a cast of international stars like Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Jane Fonda, Diane Kruger, Octavia Spencer, Aaron Paul and finally Quvenzhané Wallis, the young Oscar-nominated in 2013 for acting in "Beasts of the Southern Wild".