MovieChat Forums > Cobra Verde (1987) Discussion > Language of the film ??

Language of the film ??


I recently watched a version of the movie in which the spoken language was english. However i see that imdb categorises it as a german-spoken film. The english lines seemed to fit pretty well to the africans but not to Kinsky's lips. Could someone inform me which is the orignal language heard in the film ? Thanks

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I was wondering the same. I watched the Anchor Bay dvd and there were two sound selections in German and one in English. Tested all of them out, but they didn't fit very well with the lip movements or even the pauses. The hunch-backed bar owner and captain Pedro Vincente didn't seem to fit either. Maybe these two spoke Spanish (or possibly Portugese); some of the Africans, English; and Kinski, German. Sounds like the editors either disapproved of the multi-lingual approach and ditched it in favor of a general language track or the preserved original was lost under a deluge of copies earmarked for illiterates.

Then again, the subtitles were awful and there were blue sprites dancing along the left edge of the screen; I'm inclined to believe the Anchor Bay dvd was just a poor transfer.

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probably portuguese..the names are portuguese, and if the film was shot in brasil...well, there's the answer

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I was also wondering the same thing!

I was watching in English, and it had obviously been dubbed. I tried the other languages(German, French and Spanish (no Portuguese)), but they all seemed dubbed too. I thought that it might have been shot in Spanish, given that the title is in Spanish and the location- (I thought it was set in Venezuela?)... so I tried watching in Spanish but the dubbing was worse than in the English version!

I normally hate watching dubbed films (I'm a subtitles man) and I find it irritating to watch the movement of the mouths and the dialogue out of sync, (amongst other quibbles like losing half the performance of the actor). I found this especially annoying when the dwarf gave his speech in a strange little voice... but then, after realising that there was nothing I could do about it, I actually began to enjoy the dubbing, and the dwarf's creepy voice.

My query is how did the director intend the film to be seen? What was the "original"?


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It's set in the Brazil. The flag is seen clearly in quite a few shots.

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Only the beginning is set in Brazil. Most of it takes place in West Africa. The flag you saw was an old Portugeuse flag - not the modern Brazillian flag - and it's only in one shot.

In the scene with the bartender especially, even Kinski's lips don't sync. I have a feeling that a lot of the filming was done in Spanish, since Kinski spoke Spanish. Herzog recently re-released the film as part of his mondo boxed set, so I would imagine the definitive place to look for the proper language track would be there.

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The bar owner is totally misinterpreted because of the horrible dubbing. The short guy wasn't meant to sound creepy at all (heard parts of the original soundtrack through commentary). Remember that they, him and Cobra Verde, eventually become friends.

I think the characters with disabilities are really the only characters in the movie who don't double cross Cobra Verde.

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try and read this one:
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=10542

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First, this was not an easy film to make, involving production crews in Bahia (Brazil, where the language is Portuguese), Colombia (where the language is Spanish), and Ghana (where English is the official language, but there are several African languages), and the director and several actors speaking German...
The production unit managers in Colombia were a German lady and a Brazilean man, and probably it was not difficult for the Brazileans and local supporting cast to understand each other, as Portuguese Brazilean (spoken with softened tones) and Spanish is not very different.
English was used throu-out the production, and it was the film's main language. Except for the introduction, a poem sung by a poor blindman, and a couple of dialogues between the nobles and the bourgeois of Brazil and Pedro Vicente, that are in Brazilean Portuguese, the rest of the film is originally in English, or dubbed in English for some Ghanan actors.
When the hunch-backed bar owner, a small man with a long name (Euclides Alves da Silva Pernambucano Wanderley) and Francisco Manoel da Silva, later known as Cobra Verde (green snake) are talking, they do so in Portuguese; both are dubbed because Euclides is played by Guillermo Coronel (Spanish speaker) and Manoel da Silva is played by Klaus Kinski, a German.
In another scene, captain Pedro Vicente is played by Antonio Steffanelli (Italian actor, who would speak English) needed Portuguese dubbing for the scene.
All the lovely Amazons and the troupe of singers by the end express themselves in English or other dubbed. I don't recall hearing African dialects in the film, but it's a long time since I watched this video.
The title Cobra Verde was used in Brazil and Portugal (the Portuguese VHS is in English, with Portuguese subtitles) and runs at 106 minutes, very close to the origial 111 minutes, which may mean a couple of editing cuts to promote it for 12-year-olds, as Werner Herzog is quite graphic at times...

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The movie was shot in many languages having as a base english. But several members of the cast didn't speak neither English nor German, specially those from Colombia and Brazil who most of them only spoke spanish or portuguese.
About the african actors, since most of them were from Ghana I suppose many if not all of them could speak english but not german.

so it's a multi-language film that was dubbed into german.

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Bruce Chatwin, who wrote the book that is at the ground of the film, gives a very interesting, and amusing report fom the Ghana shoot in his posthumous collection What Am I Doing Here. Seems the reality behind the camera was even more chaotic than what landed on screen: to mention one thing, the amazons went on strike to get better pay and accomodations.
Chatwin was aware that the film would look amazing but would not have a lot to do with his novel.

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BOTH the English and the German language versions are dubbed.
Kinski doesn't speak himself in either one.

I'm German but to me the English version is to me by far superior.
All characters gain in the English version - even Kinski (who is like stated above dubbed by others in both versions).


Here is is even more clear as in Fitzcarraldo where Kinski dubbed himself in both the German and the English version.
All other main characters and supporting actors (right to the Extras) are better in the English version of Fitzcarraldo but Kinski is stronger in his native language.
So it comes to taste.

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I've looked for a source confirming the statement above about Kinksi not providing his voice to the German soundtrack, but without success. I believe it is his own voice but can't tell for sure.

Anyway, I watched the German version and enjoyed it. Having previously seen Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo in German it would have seemed odd to listen to an English speaking Kinski.

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A quick note to confirm that jikx_svemyr is correct.
It is Kinski's voice in the German version. Why on Earth wouldn't it be?
He is dubbed in the English version.
Best to watch the German version with English subtitles. Obviously there is a lot of German dubbing (which you are then watching subtitled) but, hey, that's Herzog for you.
Whatever version you watch there are going to be lip synch issues.

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I want to believe that the German voice is Kinski's voice entirely; however Kinski's German voice in this film is a bit deeper and raspier than Kinsksi's actual voice. Kinski had a much higher voice than this. Although for some bizarre reason, whenever Kinski's raises his voice to yell it's definitely Kinski's voice since it's at a much higher pitch than the rest of his voice. For some odd reason is seems that Herzog may have dubbed Kinski's German voice due to problems with the soundtrack but kept his natural voice for the parts where's yelling (even though he's yelling in German). For instance, take the scene early on in the film when he murders his foreman who cheats him out of his pay. His speaking voice doesn't sound like Kinski, except for the part where he elevates it to a higher pitch when he screams whilst killing the man.

I could be wrong and it could very well be that Kinski was able to bring his voice down to a much deeper, gruffer pitch; except for the parts where he yells and his actual higher pitched voice shines through.

My theory is that the German voice for Kinski may have been dubbed by the German actor in Nosferatu The Vampyre who plays the town official that arrests Jonathan Harker at the end of the film; this actor sounds exactly like Kinski's German voice in Cobra Verde.

I met Werner Herzog, earlier this year when I attended his Rogue Film School in Los Angeles - damn, I should have asked him this question.

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