MovieChat Forums > Fitzcarraldo (1982) Discussion > Subtitles messed up in R4 release

Subtitles messed up in R4 release

posted 15 years ago by Gorgasm
17 replies | jump to latest

Does anyone here have the R4 release of Fitzcarraldo from the Umbrella Herzog/Kinski boxset? If so, can you tell me if the subtitles are messed up in your copy, as in a whole bunch of lines from the movie not subbed at all? I couldn't watch it because the gaps in the dialogue were so frustrating, and the subs would pick up halfway through a sentence and you just know you're missing out. If anyone else has had this speak up? I wanna know whether it's my copy or the DVD player or whether I gotsta talk *beep* with Umbrella. It seemed like a great movie from what I could glean from it. Cheers.

"The only door you know how to open..."

[–] arnold-30 15 years ago

It's exactly the same on mine. Very frustrating. I speak some German so I could pick up some of it but not everything.

[–] Gorgasm 15 years ago

It's good to know it's not just my copy

"The only door you know how to open..."

[–] daveysnoek 15 years ago

Same problem here. Even though I don't own the R4 but the R2 version. Annoyed the hell out of me, very unfortunate because it is quite a magnificent film. I was torn between watching it with gaps in the subtitles or choosing the English audio track....which is really out of the question. Luckily I'm Dutch and understand a bit of German (both languages have similarities) But some bits I didn't understand at all. So the rewind button was needed more than once. It slightly spoils the experience....

[–] felixthekatt 15 years ago

The same happens on my region 2 copy, I'm surprised they didn't fix it.

[–] bunnyscream 15 years ago

Awful subs. It doesn't make sense... I mean, there is the english version. All they had to do was type it up!

Personally, I actually prefer the English version, in the same way I prefer listening to Herzog speak English.

[–] kverachtert 15 years ago

Huh? I didn't know the original was in German!
IMDB says "English".

I wanted to watch this film in it's original language, thought it was English, and it did not bother me at all.

[–] erobertson-6 15 years ago

If you just start watching it, press play and begin, you are watching it in German, which is a bit confusing as film is actually shot in English, so you're watching actors speaking English, dubbed into German and subtitled (badly)back into English. Ionly reaslised this towrads the end. Very irritating.

[–] hagaroz 14 years ago

The film is made in English. Go to special features/audio-setup in the menu and choose English, and you'll see this pretty clearly.
I think the trouble is that, when you put the disc in your player, the default is the German version (dubbed from English) with scrappy English subtitles.
Enjoy!
Hagaroz

[–] halleluja_lock_and_load 14 years ago

Fuyck! I watched the whole thing with *beep* English subtitles, unaware there was an english track... Fail.

[–] amy-852 14 years ago

I watched half of it last night in german with english subtitles, before the crappiness of the subtitles made us go back to the menu in frustration - a theory was that we had 'censored' subtitles on? Stupid I know.. but we only then discovered that the film was actually in English, with German dubbing. Duh!

[–] steerpike_2002 14 years ago

The weird thing is that the English soundtrack at times seems to be a dub as well. The performances of some of the extras is certainly not in English (the priests that they meet certainly speak another language, Spanish presumably), so it seems to me that both audio tracks on the DVD are dubs, one in English and one in German. Why they couldn't just use the original audio track, with English and Spanish spoken, with English subs when necessary is beyond me. It's the same with other films from the same box-set, like Cobra Verde.

[–] ted777 14 years ago

I don't think it was ever easy to get an original soundtrack when filming in the conditions this film required. The script was likely in English for all but the natives' parts, so having the Dutch captain speak Dutch, the Spaniards speak Spanish, and the Brazilians speak Portuguese would have made no sense for the continuity. At least when this film was made, filming outdoors always required dubbing. Fellini pretty much dubbed everything - into his favorite dialect. Kinski is clearly speaking English, so the dubbing into German would make for less of an authentic view. It is confusing to see all the German titles go by, then seeing that the film is in English.

On my R2 disc I selected the German 5.1 audio, and aside from a couple of words by Kinski as he is dragging Molly to the opera, and the natives, everything was in English. I think Anchor Bay messed up. The 2.0 is the German, while the 5.1 is the English, regardless of what the menu says.

[–] mxjgr 14 years ago

Yes, this was indeed the case.

When you watch the documentary "Burden of Dreams", you can sometimes hear the original soundtracks with the actors speaking during filming.

Kinski and the captain both speak English, while the actor of Huerequeque speaks Spanish.
It does sound a little bit weird to listen to this mix in dialogues.

[–] magnuspetersson72 13 years ago

The subtitles was messed up on my Region 2 copy as well, but i understand German pretty well, i'm Swedish and there is some simularities between Swedish and German, plus that i learnt some in school. And for Fitzcarraldo in German vs. English i would say pick what you like, cause its both dubbed versions, as they didnt record sound while filming, i prefer the German dub as its a German film, i always tend to watch films in the language they speak in the country the film is made in even if its a dub, American/British/Irish/Australian etc films in English, Russian films in Russian, Swedish films in Swedish, Italian films in Italian, German films in German and so on.

[–] paulalexburns 12 years ago

I think everyone has the same problem. At points it verges on unwatchable.

http://www.imdb.com/list/X6KH2AZjg30/

[–] lolmail911 10 years ago

I was surprised as well - I have the R2 25th anniversary edition (that includes Burden of Dreams). It wasn't all bad, but some key scenes are clearly missing subtitles.

"Burden of Dreams" have none, so I just downloaded some perfectly working subs from the internet instead.

[–] different-drummer 10 years ago

I've just been to a screening of this film and noticed quite early on that the subtitles were rather poor. People who don't know any German would have missed some important information.