It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
I completely disagree.
I have watched dozens of american/english movies in their original versions and then dubbed in italian (which is my language), and I have to say that italians do it even better than english/americans.
Not only italian dubbers get rid of certain actor's terrible accents (like Connery's "sh" or Lazenby's australian accent), but they even act way better than the original actors (which is weird, since most of italians actors can't act at all, whereas most of italian dubbers act in superb ways).
I have heard a lot of critiscm towards Lazenby, Brosnan, Denise Richard or Halle Barry, and I can assure you that Bond movies improve a lot when dubbed in italian.
I got home, guzzled a six pack of Budweiser as fast as I could & put on Highlander to erase this dreadful memory.
So, worst OO7 theatrical experience... not nearly as bad as Highlander 2, MR in 1979. Just silly. Jaws bit the boat & Dolly sunk it for me.
Possibly the worst experience I had was when I first tried to see Casino Royale. I went on the first Saturday it was open, and went to one of the later showings, maybe a 9 or 9:30 showing. Theater was packed and rather loud and unruly. There was quite a bit of talking during the PTS, but I managed to shut it out since I really wanted to see the film. After the title song, however, things just turned bad. During the parkour chase, there was just a lot of shouting at the screen, people cheering Bond on and such, but in a manner that made it literally impossible to watch the film. And it wasn't just one person, it was the whole theater. It just wouldn't stop and then there was a good deal of talking over the scenes immediately following that, at which point the friend I was with had already left the theater to go talk to the manager. About the time when M and Villiers are exiting the hearing Bond Bond's embassy activities, I got a tap on the shoulder from my friend who had had enough and said he was leaving, so I left as well, having seen not much of Casino Royale, but having been very impressed with what I had seen, but disappointed that I hadn't been able to enjoy it.
Went the next day to a showing just after noon and had no trouble, as there weren't that many people in the theater.
I've had some other, absolutely awful experiences in the cinema, but this was one of only two or three times I've walked out of a theater, and it happened to be Bond related.
Batman & Robin was at least a funny throwback to the Sixties, and Arnold was hilarious.
Both should never have been made, but B&R was way more enjoyable for me.
I had some occasions where I had the feeling I was the only one in the cinema interested in the film, but luckily my town is full of cinemas, and long years of thorrough practical research enable me to chose the right cinemas and the right screening times :-).
I guess sometimes one has to have just dumb luck. When I wet to see World War Z, I thorroughly enjoyed a tense atmosphere. The same week a friend told me when she went to see it the whole cinema laughed at the zombies, which I would have found more horrible than any zombies could ever be.
Firstly, the place was nearly sold out. My friend and I found two empty seats in the VERY FIRST ROW, at the very right of said row. Watching a found footage film from a ridiculous angle, with the camera going up and down, shaking left and right, I developed a sense of nausea. So after about 45 minutes I had to go to the men's room to expel some ugly coughs and splash some water in my face. I did, but believe it or not, I accidentally used the wrong door to get back in. So when I suddenly found myself back in the ally behind the building, I knew something was wrong. And of course that door was one of those you cannot open from the outside. I had to pass by the ticket control again, had to search all my pockets for my ticket to prove I really wasn't trying to sneak in and lost more minutes doing all this.
Finally, having lost about 10 minutes by now, I got back in. Fortunately, I managed to finish the movie and see the bits I still think are the strongest.
After some years of pondering about this and discussing about it with some French fellow moviegoers, I have now strong opinions about it. But I'll make only one comment : many people talk about good dubbing vs bad dubbing, and of course it is important to acknowledge that bad dubbing can destroy something.
But why is the problem with "bad" subtitles almost never talked about ?
They have sometimes only a dozen of words to transcribe what's been said in a few seconds on the screen, and miracles do not exist when Basil Exposition is spouting lots and lots of words.
One example I give to French moviegoers who are so sure that dubbing can never live up to subtitling, is to look at "The Sting" with French subtitles on and French dubbing on. Surprise, surprise, sometimes the biggest loss is not where it seems.
FYI, Moore had a very good dubber here in France - for instance The Persuaders' dubbing is ace, even if it takes some liberties with the original material.
On the other hand, starting from Goldeneye, the French dubbing of the last Bond movies
is not very good I'm afraid. One of the weirdest dubbing I've ever heard in a movie ever is actually in Goldeneye (in the DB5/Ferrari scene : Let's put that behind us, shall we? = Jetez votre bonnet par-dessus les moulins! = Throw your bonnet over the windmill !). A very rare way to say that, it makes Bond sound like an old French teacher !
All the online piracy may destroy the subtitle industry... Free subtitles are more and more available, done by fans, why would one bother to pay translators to do a good job ? I even used to contribute to a French/English translation forum (for the French native speaker part, don't worry), and we could see amateur dubbers who came and wanted very fast answers to very short sentences without any context (ie : they're translating the subtitles files without even knowing yet what's happening on the screen !)
Finally, if you think, as an US or UK readers, that all this subtitles/dubbing debate is irrelevant for you, I'm not so sure... The typical Hollywood blockbuster uses a very simple English and cast actors who have no strong accents, mostly because it can give the foreigners some illusions they are bilingual and they can understand the original movie :)
Do you think Steven Spielberg is overrated, underrated, ...?</font></center>
Well, I think he proved himself as a true film artist as early as Dual, which was a TV Movie. Pioneers like Griffiths, Hitchcock and Welles were lauded because of their ability to push boundaries back and create moving images that no one else had managed to do.
Spielberg did much the same, but at a time when less was more and directors like Altman and Scorsese were creating sparse, moody and dangerous dramas. So clever camera work in Jaws was admired but he wasn't considered a great artist.
Now of course he is considered one of the greats, especially after Schindler's List. I still think he is underrated to a certain degree, and should be mentioned in the same breath as the early directors I mentioned earlier.
Spielberg is also one of my favourite film critics / analysts / ... in making-ofs, documentaries, ... When he speaks about Stanley Kubrick, he can do so in not just the voice of preprogrammed admiration, but as a true connoisseur, an expert, a teacher almost. Spielberg's commentaries are my favourites because of how insightful and deliciously educational they almost always are.
Steven Spielberg will turn 70 in 2016. By then he will have directed 32 movies and produced many more.
I praise the likes of Lang, Welles, Hitchcock, ... People know I simply adore Kubrick and Mann. But Spielberg is my generation's Mozart: quite simply THE greatest.
/fanboy mode
Cubby was an idiot for not letting him direct a Bond film. Although if he had done we might not have had Indiana Jones so I think it all worked out for the best in the end.
Recently I´m waiting patiently to be wowed again. Wouldn´t mind him directing a Bond, as long as he doesn´t put any kids in.
Some of his work will remain classics forever.
Jaws and Raiders are and will remain two of the most perfectly crafted films of all time.
Spielberg can be mentioned up there with the "greats" like Frank Capra, Hitchcock, and others.
What is your favourite Hitchcock film?</font></center>