MovieChat Forums > Salamander (2012) Discussion > do the Belgians make each series in 2 la...

do the Belgians make each series in 2 languages? or what

posted 10 years ago by ib011f9545i
5 replies | jump to latest

I know that Belgium has 3 languages (French,Flemish and a small number of German speakers?)but looking at the credit for this I saw that an actress is mentioned as being in the French version of this drama.

I wondered if the 2 wings of Belgian tv made 2 versions of big shows or do they make their own and not expect the other group to watch it?
This was a Belgian story but of course some stories would not be of interest to the other side?

I used to live in Wales,and live in Scotland and it always seems a waste to me to send a tv crew on an expensive foreign trip to film in a minority language and not make a majority language version while they are there.

It might be a bad idea for most dramas because it is often about the setting.

[–] readerf61 10 years ago

I'm not sure if this answers your question, or even if I properly understand your question, but here is my story for what it is worth.

While visiting Belgium, I saw there was an American movie (I am American) that I wanted to see, but I was afraid it was dubbed. I found that it was subtitled in both French and Flemish.

So, it seems they deal with language issues by subtitles rather than creating a movie dubbed in Flemish and one in French.

Does that make sense? Or am I hopelessly confused? It wouldn't be the first time.....

[–] ib011f9545i 10 years ago

Thanks for the reply.
I am an English speaker (I am British)and have seen English language films in non English speaking countries,in Netherlands or Sweden so many people speak English that they are laughing at the jokes before the subtitles have shown them.
In other places the subtitles are required more.

But my original question was pretty stupid now that I think about it,it assumed that all the actors spoke both lanaguages (doubt it).

[–] psdhart 9 years ago

Only cartoons are dubbed, for obvious reasons, and you can choose whether to see the dubbed version or subtitled, in Brussels at least

Flemish never dub, I think (except cartoons), but most cineams in the French speaking Wallonia dub

As for Salamander it was made by a flemish tv station (één), however it has never been shown in Wallonia

I think they must have filmed in both languages as politicians would speak both

[–] Mhzfan 9 years ago

I could be very wrong about this, but it seemed like a lot of the characters/actors were bilingual and whatever language the first person in the scene spoke, the next one responded in the same language even if he had been speaking another one in a previous scene.

Wouldn't you guess that most people who deal with the public are bilingual (or trilingual)? I'm just thinking that if you call, say, the Dept of Transportation, and they answer in French but beyond "Allo" you only speak Dutch, it would cause a whole lot of problems if you had to keep holding on the line for someone who could understand you. So, I was just thinking that shopkeepers, insurance salesmen, actors, whatever, would probably be able to switch languages fairly well.

Again, I'm not claiming any knowledge here, just suggesting.

[–] Mhzfan 9 years ago

I didn't see "The Lion King" thread posted before. That thread seems to explain it all pretty well.