Life is Beautiful for Dummies
Even excepting for the tracking problems inherent in outdoor audio projection, the always busy New York traffic, and the sound bouncing around the skyscrapers, watching and listening to Life Is Beautiful in English was a disorienting, disappointing experience. The superbly hilarious moment in which Guido intentionally screws up in translating orders from a German soldier was an incoherent, linguistic muddle. Many of the audience were baffled by an Italian speaker translating German into English while his lips were out of synch as in a cartoon. Benigni's wonderful play on words while posing as a waiter were a classic in the original language but a dud in the dubbed version.

Missing in action was Benigni's inimitable voice, the playful dialogue not replicable in any other language, and flavorful regional color. The subtitled version gave viewers the opportunity to appreciate the film's original form without sacrificing understanding. In its place was a cloying mix of Italian and English that ultimately compromised an extraordinary film. Maybe viewers should take the advice of new full-page advertisements suggesting they leave their reading glasses at home -- where they can listen to the award-winning music of Nicola Piovani without interruption and dream about what five-star meal the comic genius Roberto Benigni will serve up next.

Say What?
Do English-dubbed versions compromise the artistic and creative integrity of foreign-language films? Or do they make more films accessible to the English-speaking public by eliminating distracting subtitles? Post your comments on the Italian Language Bulletin Board and cast your vote!

Dubbing is Beautiful? > Page 1, 2

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