I don’t know what I’d do without the Cineclub in Granollers.
At the top of the new programme you can see it says Cinema V.O.
That is the magic code for Original Version (the other way round in Catalan) and means the film will not be dubbed.
Dubbing is something I’ve had to come to terms with here. It can be quite cleverly done with the lips seeming ….almost…. to move at the same time as you hear the words spoken. It can also be completely askew and you have to enter a special part of your brain which can ignore weird behaviour such as someone mouthing silent words, or continuing to speak with their mouthes shut, while taking seriously the content of the actual speech.
Also there seem to be no more than a couple of women who perform the dubbed parts in Catalan and one of them in particular has a very strange dramatic slightly creepy way of talking.
Watching a film that is clearly set in Scotland, or Australia, or, as a few nights ago in St Trinians school for Girls, with people speaking Catalan while their mouths move independently is interesting but not always relaxing.
On the television is one thing and in the cinema is another. There are cinemas that specialise in V.O. like the Alexandra in Ramble de Catalunya in Barcelona. Or the Verdi in Cardedeu which is a small cinema in a lovely town about 10 minutes drive from here. But Granollers although it is the capital city of the Valles Oriental with a large and prosperous (take a look at the shopping street) population has only a cinema complex with films either dubbed or in Castellano. I think there is one day every month or so when they show a film in V.O. but have never been able to find out when it is.
So, big thanks to the people who run the cine club, which shows films every Friday and Sunday.
Obviously sometimes I am watching a film with Spanish subtitles, or a Catalan film with no subtitles at all but still I prefer this to dubbed versions. It’s usually pretty busy and when the film ends sometimes I come back to consciousness and think I am in the film club in Penzance. There is a similar feeling of like-minded people streaming out onto the street and discussing the film.
Of course as English is my first language I have been sheltered from the dubbing experience. So many films are in English that historically there was no need to provide another language. Those of us who want to see films from different parts of the world were happy to both read and listen although I am sure there are still many people in the UK and USA who wouldn’t watch a film with subtitles.
But here it was a different story. The dominance of English speaking films has created an industry of dubbing to allow the majority of people to watch British and American films and TV programmes.
And then there is the question of Catalan language films, with or without dubbing into Castellano. And should films in castellano have subtitles in Catalan?
All very interesting and I will write more another day.
