On our first trip to the local library, Chris and I got a DVD with Top Hat, the old 1930s movie musical with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It was a version which had been dubbed in German – the name of the movie in German is Ich tanz’ mich in dein Herz hinein, “I dance into your heart”. Since it’s one of our favorite movies, which we’ve seen many, many times, we figured it might be fun a fun way to practice our German.

BTW, it’s not only all the big things in life that you need to figure out when you switch countries, it’s all the little things, too. For example, how to renew a DVD online when you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. Even though you get a fairly generous 2 week checkout period for DVDs from the library here, the 2 weeks went by and we’d still not had time to watch it. So, I needed to figure out the German interface to the library’s online catalogue to try to renew it. And I did it! While that’s not a huge triumph, it was my first foray in using a German website completely on my own, without Chris’ assistance. Progress in German gets measured in the small steps.

But I digress. When we did finally have a chance to watch the film, it was both fun and unexpectedly interesting in a couple of ways:

Subtitles

The languages offered on the DVD English (the original language) and German (dubbed soundtrack), with optional German subtitles.  We opted for listening to the dubbed spoken German, but we also turned on the German subtitles. I was thinking that perhaps the subtitles could help to reenforce the spoken German, to make it easier to follow. So, it was a complete surprise to discover that the dubbed spoken German did not match the German subtitles.  It was like they were written by 2 different people, who had their own ideas of how to translate the original English.  It was really quite odd to hear German, and to see German, but to have them not match. The vocabulary, phrasing, and expressions were all a bit different in the two things.

Chris speculated that perhaps the subtitles more closely matched the original English, and that the dubbed version was closer the way the dialog would have been written in German. Since we are familiar with the film, it did seem like the subtitles often matched what we remember of the original English dialog, which made Chris’ idea seem plausible. The following day, I briefly checked out that idea, listening to some scenes in English, but with the German subtitles turned on. I’d say that indeed the German subtitles do follow along with the English dialog fairly closely. But I never would have thought that the dubbed version would follow a different translation of the dialog. Rather, I would have thought that a film’s dialog would be translated once, and then the same translation used for both the audio dubbing as well as the subtitles. I don’t know if it’s standard to have the two things be different, or if it was just accidental that it happened with this film. If we ever find time to watch another film, I’ll update you whether or not it happened again.

Re-filming

It was also interesting to see that some of the film had been edited and new “bits” inserted. For example, in the original movie, the opening title sequences (with the actors names, etc.) are shown on top of what looks like a picture of a top hat. After the final credit rolls by, the camera pulls back and you see that it’s not a picture of a top hat alone, as it appeared, but in fact it is a top hat being worn by a man standing in a crowd outside a men’s club. It’s a nice touch; a subtle yet effective bit of editing.

However, in the German version of the movie, they actually cut from the credits to a generic scene of a London street, and then an added title card that says “London, 1933”. I am fairly certain that title card – and indeed that whole shot – isn’t in the original movie.

They then cut back to the front of the men’s club and that man in the crowd, but it’s not nearly as nifty a piece of editing. I would assume that it was deemed important somehow in the German language version to establish where in the world the action was taking place. Why American audiences would have known by the signs on the outside of the men’s club building that the action was in London isn’t clear to me, but maybe 1930s audiences recognized London scenes in movies? I’m not sure.

However, if it was the English signage that gave away the location, then they would have a problem in the German version of the movie, since all the signs that you see in the movie have all been re-shot, the words on the signs replaced with German.

Orchestrations

In the movie when you’re watching Fred and Ginger dance, it’s always really Fred and Ginger, even if they suddenly speak in difference voices and are also now fluent in German. Which is good – it’s the dancing, more than the singing you come to see. However, it is intriguing that they sing in German – the lyrics have all been translated into German, and the singing voices are therefore also dubbed, just like the speaking voices. I find that fascinating – think how long it takes a lyricist to come up with the lyrics to a song, and then someone else (presumably not the original lyricist) has to come up with new lyrics in the other language.

An unexpected consequence of dubbing the singing was that they also re-recorded all the music, not just the voices. As a result, the music sounded a bit off to us in spots, either too fast or too slow. I’d have to get out a copy of the original movie to identify the problems more precisely, but the music just seemed wrong, somehow. There was also much more  background music inserted under dialog in scenes where I could swear there wasn’t obvious music playing in the original. Rather distracting.

Now, this was a movie made during the heyday of the Hollywood studios, so I found myself wondering if it was the original studio that managed the process of making the German language version. I’d never considered the matter before, having only thought about the voice dubbing, not all the other things that would be involved in making a foreign language version of an American musical-comedy film. Interesting to consider that the major studios perhaps had  entire “foreign language” departments which took care of dubbing and orchestrations … as well as writing new lyrics to songs.

BTW, if you look in the dictionary, the translation for the term “top hat” is Zylinder, but the title of this post comes from the translation of this song in the movie. Here’s a clip of the song in the movie, but unfortunately, it’s not from the German version. So you’ll just have to take my word for it than in the version we watched, Fred Astaire sings about putting on his  Hut (“hat”) and brushing off his Frack “tails”.