MovieChat Forums > Central do Brasil (1998) Discussion > Translation

Translation

posted 20 years ago by fefcr
7 replies | jump to latest

I am Brazilian and watched this movie first in the original portuguese, and then after living for four years in America I watched it again with English subtitles. It just made me sad how much of the sensibility of the movie is lost in translation, so many connotations and little subtleties in the diction that make the script great are lost, as is a lot of the colloquial language that helps characterize the protagonists in their respective socio-economic classes that are unique to Brazil.

On the other hand, I have watched so many other movies in foreign languages I don't speak with English subtitles and I thought they were incredible works of art ... I guess that if I saw them in their original so much would change/improve in terms of my appreciaiton for these movies.

- Felipe

[–] 20 years ago

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[–] joeb_uk 20 years ago

:D dubbed is the worst! i would rather watch a movie subbed

[–] 20 years ago

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[–] gradientrobot 18 years ago

You're right!

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Raksha_Keller 18 years ago

You got some totally screwed up subs man. The UK version that I watched had great subs.

[–] Kinematico 17 years ago

I am agree with you fefcr. Subtitles sometimes are awful but they are a necessary evil. It's always better to watch a movie with subtitles (even if they aren't perfect) than a dubbed version where all the magic and beauty of the original language gets lost completely.

Portuguese is not my first language but I can understand it pretty well, and some of the lines weren't translated correctly (I am talking about subtitles on Sony DVD region 1) but IMO it won't affect dramatically the experience of the audience.