Friday 15 January 2016

Not Lost In Translation





I so rarely seem to watch any TV in ‘Real Time’ anymore- everything is recorded to be watched later. Currently I am following three different series which are all European and subtitled. I am no linguist, and can manage a bit of French – but I do need to read what is on the screen [so cannot sew at the same time, which is a bit frustrating for a multi-tasker like me] Channel 4 is focussing on Euro drama this spring – moving south from the Scandiwegian woolly jumpered police towards the chic French and brusque Germans. BBC4 stays in sunny southern Italy.  At least BBC1 returns to Dougie Henshall in Shetland tonight [fortunately no subtitles needed for that]
Deutschland 83 – Channel 4 - is a very clever German espionage drama, set 33 years ago in the Reagan/Stasi era. Martin Rauch is an East German army officer, recruited to work as a spy in West Germany. He clearly didn’t have to learn a new language to move from East to West, but he does have to learn the tiny differences in vocabulary that had developed over the four decades since the war. 


While West Germans shopped at Supermarkts, East Germans went to the Kaufhalle. He’s not a very good spy, and his efforts seem very naïve and ill-considered at times, yet you somehow want him to succeed against the West [which is us!] The sense of period is evoked brilliantly [I remember the early 80s quite clearly] and use of contemporary news footage and background music adds to that. There was a clip from Reaga’s ‘Evil Empire’ speech, where he quotes CSLewis, who wrote that the greatest evil is ordered "by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice". I am avoiding all spoilers, I don’t know how this one will work out, but I am enjoying it!

Spin [les hommes de l’ombre] – again from Channel 4 – is a French political thriller. It’s a sort of ‘House of Cards’ meets ‘Borgen’. One of the main actors is Grégory Fitoussi, who I thought was brilliant in ‘Spiral’ last year. Bob found it tedious, and gave up early on. So I am catching up in the evenings when he is upstairs working in his study. It has seemed slow and you do need to concentrate but I think the plot is beginning to come together. 

Young Montelbano on BBC4 – this is a different kettle of fish completely. A lot of fish, in fact – this detective series is set in sunny Sicily and as well as policing, Salvo, the hero, really enjoys his food. It is a prequel to the original stories of Andrea Camilleri, and has been skilfully cast. You can really believe the characters are the younger selves of those we got to know in the programmes about the older Montelbano. 

The mannerisms, and language traits are all there. It’s like an Italian Midsomer, but with a much lower body count, and much higher calorie count.

Do you watch any of these Euro-dramas? Or do you think it is too hard to concentrate on the subtitles? And can anyone explain why Bob insists we have the sound at 'normal' volume, even though we have no idea what we are hearing?

11 comments:

  1. I will share a little anecdote about subtitles which we have discovered since having our foreign students here! One of them insists on having English subtitles on when we watch a film, which isn't a problem, and helps her to understand the storyline better, apparently. However, on one occasion, the girls were watching Pirates of the Caribbean, I think, and they had DANISH subtitles on [for the Danish girl] although the spoken language on the screen was English. Do you know, we were so taken up with watching [you can't say we were reading it!] the Danish subtitles, that we couldn't understand the English speech! It was as if our brains couldn't process it all at once....it was very strange!
    TO answer your question, no, I have watched any of these shows, although the adverts and trailers for the German one did look appealing. I am very much looking forward to Shetland tonight and have the TV booked for that xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is so funny. When we were at a friend's house in Belgium once, the girls were watching Friends - which was in English, with Flemish subtitles, and we too got caught up with the words on screen, rather than what we were hearing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I haven't watched any of those. in France there was a time when only French TV was available, and we had to work very hard to stay abreast of the programme, mainly due to the speed of the speech!

    ReplyDelete
  4. don't have that sort of thing here in Canada.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. oh, but you do have such lovely pulses to eat!!

      Delete
  5. I don't have a tv therefore I don't have any experience of new things like thus. I'd like to see the Deutschland one!x

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm liking The Young Montelbano much better than the older model! The 'foodie' parts remind me of my days in Sicily. I watched 'Shetland' last night and so want to like it but it's so dreary in parts. Thank goodness for the scenic views!Good weekend to you, Angela. You must be getting super-excited about the imminent arrival.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for doing a rundown of all the foreign dramas. I love Montalbano and always listen to the dialogue as well as the subtitles, not because I speak any Italian but in the hope of learning a few words of the language. You can also sense when the subtitles are missing some of the actual dialogue which makes for a richer experience. I also enjoyed the Swedish detective series set in the 1950s - it was wonderful to see a Princess cake which had been featured in Bakeoff appear on the table at a wake! I liked Borgen but didn't get into the Bridge. I love Shetland and "enjoyed" last night's episode although it was scary and my knitting faltered. Interestingly I can knit to Swedish subtitles, but not Montalbano - the Swedish ones seem to stay longer so I can look away and not miss anything!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I liked the 1950s swedish one too - whatever was it called?

      Delete
    2. 'Crimes of Passion' - I remember one of the characters was called 'Puck' - very Shakespearian!

      Delete
  8. Agree that Young Montelbano does not resemble his older counterpart, but enjoy series. Although prefer original. Deutschland 83, is really enjoyable especially for its humour, which I didn't expect. Shetland isn't really a foreign language series but seems darker this time. Not yet watched Spin and feel I'm missing out, especially as recently discovered Gregory Fitoussi is in this, catch-up TV is about to be utilized. There was a french series about the dead involved in bus accident coming back years after accident, first series was interesting but second seemed lost as if writers did not know what to do with storyline.

    ReplyDelete

Always glad to hear from you - thanks for stopping by!
I am blocking anonymous comments now, due to excessive spam!