Deutsch!
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Spy in Black
yoo — 12 years ago(June 17, 2013 12:25 PM)
What a difference! In most of today's movies and TV shows, actors speaking German obviously do so by imitating the sound, almost nobody knows the language. (Basterds being the obvious exception.)
In this piece, the Germans actually speak German! Nice difference in quality. -
Steve Crook — 12 years ago(June 18, 2013 05:31 AM)
One of the many indications of the quality in depth in Powell & Pressburger films is that many of them have people speaking in other languages, often for quite long and important sequences, but they never used subtitles.
Both having a history in silent films they knew how to convey a meaning apart from just using the words. They treated the audience as intelligent and knew that people would understand the gist of what was being said by body language, context and the reactions of other people
Steve -
yoo — 12 years ago(June 18, 2013 09:09 AM)
Good point about the silent movies! That is one skill that is mostly lost.
I remember a scene near the beginning of
African Queen
, where the reverend pleaded to the German soldiers, in English of course, and just got the response "Ich verstehe Sie nicht!". Of course he wouldn't, that's the point. I always wondered how they covered that in the German dub.
Depending on the situation on screen, I wouldn't even mind to
not
understand the situation. The characters aren't, so why should I? That was used to great effect in one Episode of
Coupling
, using Ivrit and some made-up language. -
Steve Crook — 12 years ago(June 18, 2013 09:50 AM)
Episode "The Girl with Two Breasts" of
Coupling
(episode 1.5) has Jeff in conversation with an Israeli girl. We see the conversation from both sides, with both of them not understanding the other
But that was written by the great Steven Moffat, 2nd only to Emeric Pressburger as a story teller
Steve