Languages and dubbing


I watched this movie in Spanish without the subtitles and understood it fine. But I´m just wondering why Isabel was speaking in English to everyone the entire time (you could read her lips despite the dubbing), including her very Spanish mother, while everyone else was talking to her in Spanish (sound and mouth-movement coincided!)... and the same with Federico... I imagine he was actually speaking in French but dubbed into Spanish... how did they manage to pull that off while filming? Wasn't it confusing? I am fully aware of the censorship that was happening during Franco's dictatorship, but it would be difficult for actors to work together if they have to speak and respond to eachother in different languages. I'm just confused!

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Yes, it can be annoying if you work in a movie with those problems, but it's something you have to bear if you want an specific actor that unfortunately speak other language.
Betsy Blair was perfect for the role, but she was American, and I suppose she had no idea about Spanish. If she would try to speak in Spanish we didn't understand her anyhow, and she wouldn't sound very Spanish, with American accent, and to be dubbed equally, it's better if she acts in her own language, to act better. The same about Yves Massard, Dora Doll and Lila Kedrova. There are always exchanges of actors between countries; there are several Spanish movies with French and Italian actors.

But really, being an actor and being acting with someone who doesn't speaks your language has to cause lost of concentration, sure.

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This is not the only film in which several players speak several languages, and then some of them are dubbed; look at "The leopard" (Visconti, 1963)and other european co-productions (many spaghetti-westerns, for instance). The key to understand how they could manage the situation is that every player know the script, so they completely know what the other is saying, even if they don´t understand it. The thing has nothing to do with Franco´s dictatorship, I think. By the way, this is an unusual film for that years in Spain (I´m spanish); I know no other in which, for instance, you can see a prostitute .

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