Sopranos at the cinema in Munich and Düsseldorf

Just spotted this TV Serien im Kino website and started to get real excited about the prospect of seeing the Sopranos on the cinema. The problem is that it could very well be a dubbed version. From what I've heard The Sopranos kinda bombed here as it was broadcast at some ungodly hour and, of course, massacred with German dubbing. How does Tony Soprano sound in German? Stupid.
Well if you would rather see it in the original New Jersey English you can vote here. At the time of writing the vote seems to be 75% in favour of it being played dubbed, about 25% original version with German subtitles.
So do the right thing and vote.

N.B. I haven't seen the second part of season 6 so please don't post any spoilers here... please.

+1 for english, and its starting to look like its going back the other way... we'll see though.

Madonn, who the f**k would want to watch this dubbed? The only reason it's leaning the wrong way is you have to choose an image of an Ami flag over Schwarz-Rot-Gold to vote for the right soundtrack.

Now, how many Germans do you know who would actually do that?

Okay, it looks like a 60 - 40 split at the moment. Keep voting!!

+8 or +2 for English (not sure exactly how it works and may have accidently clicked several times from different IP addresses)

+1 for English

+1 for English. And, I love the invitation on the Web site: "Jetzt Voten!"

Alright, looks like it's starting to swing, only a slim margin separates the original version from the dubbed version.
55% in favour of Die Sopranos, 45% in favour of The Sopranos.
So c'mon! Help out the guys from the old neighborhood!

VOTE NOW!!

50/50 at the moment.
Just a couple more votes should do it.

I live in Hamburg so I wont see it, but the thought of this dubbed makes me sick so +1 vote for english.

(On a side note my friend was watching a german dubbed version of band of brothers... thats kind of unsettling too)..

another one for English... but actually I always watched it dubbed, in Italian (being an Italian and living in Italy at the time...)

I voted for English too, I hate dubbed versions. Obviously won't be able to see it but I hope y'all who are going will get to see it in English. Looks like English is winning for now.

The original version has taken the lead. It's about a 60/40 split at the moment so if anyone hasn't voted yet please do.

Sorry for constantly bumping this but the vote seems to be swinging back in favour of a dubbed version so if you haven't voted - please do now. Just think of that moment when your favourite film of all time comes on Pro7 or whatever and you realize it's dubbed. Imagine what it would be like to change that - now's your chance!!

We've cast our votes. Now let's get this show started, already. Oh, Madonn'!

And for those who'd like a refresher on the entire series, here's all six seasons of The Sopranos in nine minutes:

I promise that this is the very last bump. The vote now stands at 50/50. Voting is still ongoing and they said that if it remains at 50/50 they will play it in dubbed German.
So please vote for the original version now before it's too late!!!

This is what Tony thinks of him being dubbed.

I reckon we ought to whack a few Germans who plan on voting the dubbed version of The Sopranos:

The bastards played the dubbed version.

In German, huh? Oh, fuck it! Whaddya gonna do? That's enough to make even a psychiatrist depressed.



Oh well. Despite that, was there a good-sized crowd? (I couldn't make it tonight.)

I called in advance to check if it would be OV. or dubbed. Once they told me it would be in German I didn't go. I'd love to know how many people actually turned up. What I find weird is that for Germans who are fans of The Sopranos I just can't believe that they would watch it dubbed. I mean it's not on TV here so the only ways they could see it would be;
1) Downloading it. (Fat chance downloading a German dubbed version)
2) Renting it at a special OV rental place like Missing Image. (If they frequent a place like this they must be fluent in English and enjoy OVs)
3) Buying the DVDs. (How did they get into it in the first place?)

I don't buy it. I think it was a set-up.

Of course it was a setup – by you. The people who wanted to actually go and watch it mostly voted in favour of German. Your campaign here got a lot of people who had no intention of going to vote in favour of English, but happily it wasn't enough.

I am baffled as to why you are so shocked that Germans, in Germany, would want to watch it in German. Why on earth would they want to watch it in a foreign language? I agree that it's always good to enjoy something in its original language, but understanding what is happening is better still. The Sopranos is shown in Germany (dubbed into German) on Premiere, it is easily available on DVD (dubbed into German) and there are countless torrents available for the dubbed version, so, contrary to what you state above, it's not exactly difficult to find.

I never understand the language snobbery of English speakers not getting that people like to watch and hear things in their mother tongue language dubbed or not. If Hollywood was not American - I am sure that we (English speakers) would be use to watching dubbed TV and films but just because we have that luxury (thanks to the Americans by the way) we should still not forget that world does not speak English still...

Call me an English language turn-coat but I watch 85% of my movies and TV in German now...including Hollywood. I am watching reruns of Buffy in Spanish and Six-feet-under in German...I even recognized Ruth's dubbed voice (Six Feed Under) on German TV the other day but it turned out to be the same actress dubbing for Brigit Jones' Mother!!! Last night, I watched Ratatouille in English (had no choice) and I found it strange because I am now not used to sitting and watching films in English with my wife... so at the end of the day it is just a state of mind...

Stanford.
The Turncoat and dubbing loving guy who likes Buffy...

I don't like tv shows that have been dubbed into German because it sounds like they use the same 10 voice actors for everything. It's just distracting, especially when I know what the actor's voice is supposed to sound like and it's been replaced with Generic German Voice #3. What I can't understand is the German opposition to subtitles. Even my podunk hometown in the Midwest had a theater that regularly showed foreign movies in the original language. Over here, if I want to see any movies in English, I have to go across the border to Holland.

Sorry but subtitles are a redherring in large language populations. Neither Spain, Italy, France nor Germany have a large subtitling tradition because they are large enough markets for the media to cater for them successfully in their own languages.

We in the English speaking world have a subtitling tradition, I bet, because we do not need to dub more than 0.5% of films or TV programmes and so subtitling is cheaper and quicker... There are some smaller markets coupled with local tradition that take the version original with subtitles i.e. Holland and Sweden but these are the exceptions not the rule.

I think you are being too hard on the dubbing industries in the big countries because the big actors get their dedicated voices it is for the lower leagues where voices are used across the board. Also there are advantages as well...I mentioned once on TT before that they can even improve an actors voice. As my x-Spanish girlfriend explained that Arnold Schwarznegger and Sylvester stallone Spanish voices sounded better...

Stanford
Somecome to Bart Simpson in German...

Just to add.

The trick to enjoying dubbing heaven is to forget all the natural voices of your favourite stars...and replace them with their new German versions... As though the English version never existed...

The problem with subtitles is that you spend most the time reading the text rather than looking at the picture. And because it takes longer to read than to listen, subtitles are always edited. Try watching Amelie with subtitles – the dialogue is so fast that you spend the entire time reading the subtitles rather than looking at the images, which misses the point of the film since the cinematography is magical.

It's also a question of frequency. In Britain foreign films are never dubbed, but then how often do we watch foreign-language films? People go to the cinema because they want to relax and enjoy a film; reading subtitles is too much like hard work. That's precisely why foreign-language films never hit the big time in Britain or America.

I personally couldn't give a shit if they dub the Simpsons(the last six or seven seasons bored me anyway) or any of the blockbuster bullshit pumped out on a daily basis by the yawn factory that is Hollywood. Even the fun stuff like Die Hard 4 - dubb the shit out of it and enjoy the explosions! The Sopranos on the other hand is a completely different kettle of fish.
STB or stanford, what I want to know is if ye watch The Sopranos, and please be honest. This series is one of the best, if not the best, to come out of the States. The series is a product, and an examination of, modern American society. The use of language is incredibly layered, complex and intense. The acting talent assembled for this series is phenomenal. One example is Edie Falco, who plays Carmela, she has consistently delivered one of the greatest television performance seen yet. And a vital acting tool is her voice. Her voice and the particular accents, phrases, etc. written for the character cannot be replicated or translated without destroying the already fragile original performance.
I recently got my hands on Das Leben der Anderen on DVD with English subtitles. I waited to get this as I knew that the performance from the late Ulrich Mühe was going to be something special, and it was. I couldn't imagine trying to watch a disjointed almost schizophrenic dubbed version of such a performance.

TV or film such as The Sopranos and Das Leben der Anderen deserve to be watched as the makers intended, they will never become so widely viewed as pulp like Friends or Scream, dubbed or not.

I asked people to help make sure that the original version would be the one played. Some people who voted OV wanted to go and some didn't, I'm sure the same applies for people who voted dubbed.

I called the voting a set-up because my girlfriend(German and big fan of OV Sopranos) called at about 4 o'clock yesterday, when the voting stood at 60/40 in favour of the OV, to ask if it would be OV or dubbed. They told her that it was 99% sure that the dubbed version would be played. That's a set-up if I ever saw one.

I personally would actually watch something in OV (English) rather than a German dubbed version any day, but I know most Germans wouldn't. I usually have no problems finding someone who will watch something in English with me in Munich, because my friends and I usually always go to the Cinema, but in Heidelberg not all of my friends like watching movies in English.

By the way, The Sopranos used to be shown on ZDF back in the days, and I am sure some people still remember it from then, besides you can buy the DVDs etc.

jamie, I don't think it was a setup... it seemed to me like not actually too many people did vote, so even a few votes would change the percentage a lot.

US Native here...question regarding German Language Overdub..

Based on your experience, is dubbing more popular than simply subtitling a film/TV Programme?

In speaking w/ many German exchange students here in the US, they were quite surprised with the amount of foreign language that was subtitled in American as well as "Foreign (to America)" film...

They stated it would just be dubbed back home.

Is this really the case?

Go an download a dubbed copy of Betty Blue. Utter, utter, utter fucking bollocks. Some things should not be translated, and the Sopranos is in that class. I'm hardly surprised that Germans want to see it in German - it is like schoolkids reading a translated copy of a Marcel Pagnol book. Easier, but ultimately, you lose a large part of what made it good in the first place.

Because, as someone who watches alot of subtitled asian movies, dubbing generally sucks. You miss the tone people speak in which becomes a big part, plus the dialogue is often butchered in dubbed versions to fit the scene (i.e. sentences are drastically changed because what can be said in 3 words in one language can take 10 in another). Especially in something like the Sopranos. Its authenticity.. Most people don't care, I do.

Didnt see me watch Das Boot in English.

I watched the first 10 minutes of O Brother, Where Art Thou on German tv a while back and ended up turning it off. It was just tragic. Count me in as one of those apparently rare people who prefer subtitles, no matter which language the movie's in. After watching a few movies that way you get used to it and it barely even registers that you're reading all the dialogue.

It's true, jhassler. Trying to find a theater nearby that's showing the movie you want to see in the original language is an exercise in frustration. And as for tv, once in a blue moon they'll show a subtitled movie on Arte.

I just can't imagine watching a dubbed version of "Rashomon" or "Wild Strawberries"...

sacreligious...

Yes.


Except your average German would not understand that large part that made it good in the first place along with most of the rest. I also wish they only did subtitles, but well, they don't. In the end the irony is that whenever movies are subtitled instead of dubbed it is to save money, not to keep the original sound... it is a lot cheaper to subtitle a movie than to dub is, which is why this is what is prefered in most smaller countries (where less people would see a movie / TV show and the revenue would be smaller). Since the German language market is relatively big (Germany, Austria and part of Switzerland), TV shows and movies get dubbed.

Of course acceptance also plays a role in this... I have never seen Heroes on German TV but I read that they also dub the parts where Hiro & Co. are speaking Japanese. Someone from a group on StudiVZ (about Heroes) then e-mailed RTLII about this, and they replied saying that the experience has shown that the average German TV watcher cannot be exposed to even a few minutes of subtitling - that they would switch the channel at this point.

This is the e-mail that person received after asking about why Hiro's Japanese is dubbed into German (while in the original it is Japanese with English subtitles):


Sad but true. That is why I download my favorite TV shows instead of watching them on TV and only see movies at the Cinema in Munich (or Mathäser sometimes), and when I am in Heidelberg take the 1 hour trip (one-way) to Mannheim (on public transport) to see movies in its original version.