Behaving Multilingually: Polyglot Film Production and Translation

The days of English as the hegemonic language of cinema are slowly disappearing. Nowadays, more and more filmmakers from different film industries embrace a multilingual shooting where languages coexist and play a key role within a film’s diegesis. However, little attention has been paid to the production of these original polyglot films and the role of translation in this process. Similarly, the implications of the presence of several languages when distributing films to other film markets poses interesting questions for the field of Translation Studies, where concerns have revolved mainly around textual problems. This paper overcomes this linguistic approach by focusing on extra-textual issues surrounding the production of polyglot films and the early stages of the dubbing process.

Through the analysis of four polyglot films in which it is difficult to determine a predominant language, this paper applies a descriptive methodology with two aims. Firstly, it examines the role of translation in the production of original polyglot films from script production to the design of part-subtitles. Secondly, and in relation to dubbing, it assesses the influence of some of these elements on the pre-dubbing stage as well as others such as the filmmakers’ instructions, the use of intermediary translations and the decision making process regarding the use of AVT modalities. To this end, the descriptive paradigm is further complemented by para-textual information and semi-structured interviews, which provide essential information as to the reasons of certain decisions.