MovieChat Forums > Dossier K. (2009) Discussion > 'Dutch' subtitles

'Dutch' subtitles

posted 14 years ago by jasper-56
6 replies | jump to latest

I went to see "Dossier K" in my local cinema in Ostend (Coastal city if Belgium)...

Some scenes are in Albanian which are very good! I love the acting of those guys and allthough the little dutch sentences they have to produce might be a bit off... they get the job done.

But the most irritating thing about the film can be found underneath these scenes... As Albanian is not an official Belgian language (yet ;) ) it is subtitled in dutch. In dutch? No. In "flemmish". But what the producers don't seem to understand they narrowed their so called "flemmish" down to the Antwerp dialect. I was amazed when I read (quoting) "Gij zijt nen vuilen hond".

Am I the only one who thinks this is so wrong? For some reason the producers chose to translate the Albanian in an unofficial language spoken by only a minority of the flemmish part of Belgium. No wonder so many kids speak/type foolish dutch on internet these days... Well, it's not the main reason offcourse, but it surely doens't help.

An argument could be "the rest of the movie is in Antwerp dialect as well". Not helping though, I would like to see those movies subtitled as well... think of all the hard-hearing among us.

Yes? No?

[–] esg2006 14 years ago

I agree, I thought the subtitles in informal Flemish weren't a brilliant idea either. I guess the translator wanted to be consistent with the spoken Dutch - it is a choice he/she made.

[–] Demarates 14 years ago

Unless you are suggesting that the Antwerp dialect is so foreign to you, you are unable to read it...

IMO, if anything the (spoken) language was too generic Flemish instead of the actual dialect one would expect to hear from a police man, a lab researcher, an Albanian imigrant, etc in Antwerpen.

I mean, just about every outside shot told you where the story was set, so why not have the main characters speak the explicit dialect of that location ?

Aanrijding in Moskou was set in Gent and had characters using the proper dialect of Gent. But here it was like people in Glasgow speaking some sort of polished Oxbridge-speak.

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[–] jasper-56 14 years ago

In an educational way of thinking your statement makes no sense. There are no official written rules on how to write dialect + it's not an official language, period. Subtitles should be in a correct and understandable language for everyone.

I agree on spoken dialects though, it makes movies or series more authentic... this goes further in west and east flemish based series: The Ghent dialect was bearly heard in Flikken/code37 or West-flemish in Sedes & Beli/Aspe.

[–] Demarates 14 years ago

What makes no sense is phrasings like "in an educational way of thinking".

But at least we agree on spoken dialects making things more realistic.

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[–] BroOnTheGo 14 years ago

Spoken yes. But subtitles should be not be in dialect imo.

[–] 14 years ago

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