Sensibility and the Senses - Media Bodies Practices

The NECS 2017 Conference, 29 June - 1 July 2017, Paris

Thursday 29 June, 11.30am-1.15pm,

Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3, room D27

CinEcoSA Panel 1: Mediating Voices - The Role of Audiovisual Translation

Audiovisual translation is not only about translating words, it is also about offering the spectator the possibility to access the intonation and meaning the actor or actress gave to those words. Issues of how to convey a subtle choice of intonation or the specific quality of a voice are thus fundamental to the audiovisual translation process. When it comes to performance issues, choices are not made by the translator, but by other players: the distributor, the marketing director, the dubbing director, the dubbing artist, etc. 

After two previous research cycles on film marketing and film policies around the world, French Research association CinEcoSA (cinecosa.com) is launching a new research project on the Audiovisual Translation industry. In order to open discussion on these topics, two CinEcoSA members are proposing panels for the 2017 NECS Conference. 

The present panel proposes to explore the way choices made by diverse players (dubbing directors, film directors, but also state authorities and lobbies) influence the version that the audience experiences, and, as a consequence, their perception of the characters, the plot and the film’s atmosphere. Charlotte Bosseaux will examine the impact of dubbing on performance and characterization through the example of Julianne Moore’s French voices. Serenella Zanotti will study Kubrick’s role in the dubbing of his film and his relation with Italian dubbing director Mario Maldesi. Joël Augros will bring to light the specificities of translation for the deaf and hard-of-hearing as well as the blind. All three papers will foreground the role, issues and challenges of audiovisual translation choices in mediating a film’s original stories, bodies and voices.

Chair : Nolwenn Mingant (University of Nantes)

Charlotte Bosseaux (University of Edinburgh) : Deconstructing and reconstructing Julianne Moore

Serenella Zanotti (Roma Tre University, Italy): (Dis)embodied voices in dubbed auteur films: an archival perspective

Joël Augros (University of Bordeaux): Disabled Bodies at the Movie Theater