MovieChat Forums > Hannah Arendt (2013) Discussion > Good movie, bad dubbing

Good movie, bad dubbing

posted 11 years ago by infoed
10 replies | jump to latest

The movie was good and the central performances were dynamite but sheesh, the obviously dubbed smaller roles dubbed by Americans (or people who could do American accents) were terrible. They sounded like they were reading from scripts, most notably in the New Yorker party scene where "Norman" keeps needling Arendt and when Hannah faces the three mean in her department before speaking to the classroom at the end. I wouldn't have minded having the entire film in German with subtitles, even when they were in New York.

[–] ganubis 11 years ago

That wasn't all dubbing. A lot of that was just the combination of an atrocious script and terrible acting. The film was a massive disappointment for me. It felt very amateurish.

"the roman empire never died, it just turned into the catholic church"

[–] pmalt 10 years ago

I wanted to admire this film --- and I do admire it, but I'm afraid the script was indeed amateurish in places. The strongest parts were her lectures and of course the actual trial footage. It's fiendishly difficult to embody these complex conflicts and relationships in a fictionalized script without it appearing contrived or didactic. To achieve natural, authentic and unforced dialogue that raised the issues and evoked deep emotion was perhaps beyond the screenwriter's capabilities, but I salute the effort and the intent. These people in real life were academics and intellectuals --- rather dry and not particularly cinematic in affect; to err in the other direction and make them slick would have been far worse.

[–] sc_taylor 7 years ago

Yes, I think you have expressed the problem perfectly.

The central performance was excellent, but there were some truly dreadful supporting performances. Very wooden. And the script is terribly clunky in places. Despite this, I think the film largely succeeds in telling a very important story about a very courageous woman who insisted on telling the truth as she saw it.
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My God, it's full of stars!

[–] tim-downie 11 years ago

You should have seen it in its original form then. That scene mentioned was in German. The version I saw had speech in English, German and Hebrew.

[–] timlin-4 10 years ago

The OP isn't talking about translation dubbing, but dubbing synced with the lips. There definitely was something strange going on with the audio track of the minor douchebag dude characters

[–] jlambright1 10 years ago

it was really poor quality a.d.p. yikes!

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] meerschweinchen_freunde 9 years ago

Actually, Janet McTeer and Nicholas Woodeson are British. I felt that they did a fantastic job portraying Americans. It wasn't dubbed.

[–] benman46 9 years ago

Great movie, no dubbing at all.

[–] 9 years ago

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