Just saw Femme Fatale (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos & Antonio Banderas) which was really a French film, with nearly all French cast and crew. It probably would play better in Europe than the US, because the entire film is in France and it has the feel of a French film throughout.
Half the dialog was in French with subtitles, but the main characters’ key lines were in English…so I was thinking…
Would they just have made an all-French movie while they were at it? No need to dub, just say the line again in French and have a clone of that scene.
The extra cost wouldn’t have been a problem for Brian De Palma.
His choice to place the opening scene at the Cannes Film Festival was a blatant bid to get attention there next year.
Maybe this is done, and maybe it’s even common?
Especially when a movie has a bilingual backer like the Canadian film board, etc.
We’ve had discussions about this before, with many informative posts It used to be a common practice, although the 1931 Dracula was about the only one people could think of. Atlantida was shot in three languages.
This was while back. But I know that in 1979 Herzog shot Nosferatu in both German and English. The English version was never released, though, because it was so stilted that test audiences laughed it off the screen. So they released it in German with English subtitles over here.
You can get Nosferatu with the English dialogue. The DVD release has both versions, each on their own disc, and when I rented it the first time I saw it they had both copies on VHS. Actually, the English is not the worst I’ve ever heard, but I think the movie works better in German.
Sorry, I don’t have any examples in mind, but I know that it’s still done for some french movies intended for an international release. I read/heard references to that several times for different movies, but never really wondered how they do it. I doubt they shot twice the same scene, so I suppose they use one language or another (or perhaps both when there are actors from different countries) and then the actors dub themselves in the other language.
I just make a quick search with “tourne en francais et anglais” (filmed in french and english), and it turned up several references, like :
“Les liaisons dangereuses”, filmed in french and english during the spring 2002…"
“Joan of Arc should have been (or was intended to be, not sure) filmed in french and english”
“Vercingetorix has been filmed in french and english, but only the french version is available on DVD”
“Ronnie, les dents de l’egoine” will likely be filmed in french and in english, hence the need for bilingual actors…"
So, there was many references to such films, but none was explaining how they proceed. I found a brief reference which could imply that they actually shot twice the scenes :
“Napoleon is not only a movie but two times four movies since we filmed it in french and in english” (“Napoleon” was an awful thing intended for TV in four parts, hence the reference to “four movies”…John Malkovitch was great in it as Talleyrand, though…)
I’m not sure of anything written above. I just translated and quoted what I found on some websites about movies “tournes en francais et en anglais”
I checked again the site, and it actually says “it has been filmed in french and in english but only the french soundtrack is available on the DVD”. So, they’re probably refering to the DVD sold in France.
Actually, they seemed to be more interested in saying how ridiculous and laughable the dialogs were. According to them “one of the most hilarious movies ever produced” (it was supposed to be a historical drama).
I just bought the tape last week, in English. Maybe you should look it under its Canadian title, Druids ?
And yes it’s laughable. They tried to do a French Braveheart, obviously it 's not a success, but would make a nice candidate for MST3K. BTW, for SF fans, Norman Spinrad has screenwriter credits on this one.
How about movies that are completely computer animation.
The characters could reanimated to make an identical performance but with the mouth moving differently.
I don’t know if this has been done though.
Hmmm…I never thought about that. Since Vercingetorix is a well-known figure in french history, I just assumed they made this movie because the main character was popular here. But you’re probably right when you say they have been inspired mainly by the success of Braveheart.
I’ve no opinion because I never watched the movie. I intended to when it has been released, but it soon dissapeared from the theaters… And since the critics weren’t exactly lauding it…