Would foreign films do better in North America, if they were dubbed?

A lot of my favorite movies are foreign films, and I don't mind reading subtitles at all. However, if I see really good ones, I try to get my friends into, they hate subtitles, and movies should be a visual medium experience, etc.

So I wonder, if more foreign films were dubbed, instead of subtitles, do you think they would do better here in North America, in comparison?

I think it's better to watch and miss some written dialogue if you have to then to watch and see somebody else's voice come out of somebody's mouth. I don't have any trouble trying to get friends and family to watch movies I want. There's plenty of things to talk about dubbing and we have done so here at MoFo.

__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

NO!!!!! NO!!!!! NO!!!!!!


DO NOT SUB THEM!! DO NOT MAKE THE INTO ENGLISH SPEAKING FILMS!!

LEAVE THEM ALONE!!!!!

Yeah that but then a lot of people won't watch them if they are not dubbed, so it's better to have people watch them and build a bigger audience though. A bigger audience for a movie, is better than leaving the movie alone, if it means less people will see it as a result.

Bigger audience means the movie is more mainstream, and therefore worse. Every hipster knows that! Keep them movies as obscure and inaccessible as possible! I propose one basement screening for just 10 people and then destroying the negative.

__________________
Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

I consider that as their loss. We, who enjoy them, will not be able to. I have tried with a german friend of mine with "Lore", the WWII film, and with him knowing German and English, the dubbing is way off.

I still think Foreign films (non-English speaking) should stay the way they were made. Do not remake them into English films and definitely do not dub them.

Agreed, if a person has a Hangup over sub titles, that is their problem.

I once read that Americans don’t like to read when they watch movies.

Dubbing is evil. Will never watch something that’s dubbed.

I love subtitles & will not watch anything without them. Even if it’s in English.

__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

I don't think dubbing will make foreign movies any more popular in the states than they are already. I can't think of anybody who prefers to watch live action foreign films dubbed in English. They either watch them with subtitles or not at all. The only movies that seem to fair well dubbed are animated ones, where it tends to be less obvious that the words and mouth movements don't quite match.

__________________

Well I don't mind subtitles at all, it's just people I know say they will only watch a foreign language movie if it's dubbed, which makes me think that dubbing is the more popular preference therefore. As for dubbing being distracting or done badly, three movies I like that I have only seen dubbed, are the Dollars trilogy, and I never found the dubbing in those distractedly bad.

Gert Frobe was also dubbed in Goldfinger and it never took away from it I don't think.

This isn't going to shift the fundamental nature of the films of course, your not going to have mainstream audiences watching Bela Tarr just because its dubbed into English.

The reality is that in the US/UK you tend to get comparatively few foreign films with mainstream appeal released and when you do with say Ghilbi they are dubbed into English.

Two things I hate about dubbing:

When you watch a Bergman movie in Swedish with subtitles you really get a feel for the country & the language. Totally disappears if the movie is dubbed. And are these movies dubbed in American English or British English? How absurd to watch a Bergman movie where everyone has a British accent.

The other thing is I once watched a movie/documentary about Mongolians living on the steppes in yurts. All filmed with real people. Lovely to watch this movie with subtitles. Second time I saw this documentary some idiot had dubbed it into American English & everyone had an American accent. So ridiculous.

Well those are good point, but I think only us movie buffs, who really are open-minded are into subtitles, where as the majority audience, does not want to read, and therefore, why not dub to appease the majority. It's supply and demand, isn't it?

I think the point is that the majority of people living in [fill in the blank] have zero interest in watching the complete works of Ingmar Bergman even if they’re dubbed into English. Ditto for Béla Tarr, Fellini, Truffaut, et al.

Only works with Kung Fu films, mischievous Buddhist monks MUST have a chirpy cockney accent.

Well I've noticed that Europeans and Latin Americans are more into dubbing though. When I visited a couple of Latin American countries, are the American movies were dubbed and not subtitled. When I talk to friends of mine from Europe, they say the same thing, and that dubbing is preferred. So if Europeans and Latin Americans are more open to it, than why do American audiences find it so jarring in comparison?

Foreign films always with subs. Dubbed movies just feel like trash. Somehow the actors ability to express emotions through dialogues gets lost.

But maybe it may help a lot of people get their feet wet. Most of my friends just miss out on so many great works just coz they have to read the conversation.

__________________
My Favorite Films

Maybe they would do better at the box office but I hate dubbed movies UNLESS they're older kung fu or spaghetti westerns. In those cases dubbing is a requirement and adds to my enjoyment. A lot of times I just like to hear different languages because some of them sound pretty cool. I also like to try and pick out the swear words, match the dialogue with subtitles, for future reference.

It seems to me definitely - yes! I also love a lot of foreign films. They are completely different, they have a different "life". But it’s much more pleasant to experience this atmosphere not with subtitles, but in the case of dubbing

Yes, and I find dubbing more distracting than subtitles. I think i watched a dubbed version of "The Last Metro" and I felt it noticeably detracted from the viewing experience. it is like watching old Godzilla Movies. I don't see any problems producing dubbed versions for audiences who won't see it any other way, but don't take away my subtitles.