The following is a synthesis of a speech given by Giuseppe Bertolucci at “Voci nella tormenta – Reflections on Dubbing” Film Conference in Bologna, Italy in February 2002.

“A film is an audio-visual text based on an inseparable relationship between sound and image. Sound, in turn, is traditionally divided into three main areas, two of which are always associated together (noise and music) while the third area (dialogue) involves a historically well-defined and controlled aspect: language.

The problematic issue of understanding a film has so far been resolved in three ways, all of them offering incomplete and unsatisfactory solutions.

1. Subtitling: this method maintains the audio-visual integrity of the original film but also adds a visual disturbance in the form of the written language on screen. An unexpected element is thereby introduced and forces the viewer to decode two sets of instruction – audio-visual and written.

2. Simultaneous translation: this solution introduces the element of an outside voice and forces the viewer to form a relationship with a third party, a type of unexpected, casual and undesired narrator. However, careful use of this method allows the audience to still be able to follow the film visually.

3. Dubbing: the use of dubbing destroys the audio-visual aspect of the original film but – through a simulated medium – offers viewers complete comprehension of it in its adapted form.

These solutions are, as previously mentioned, both incomplete and unsatisfactory methods. However, the only remaining alternatives would be completely unrealistic i.e. that all viewers all over the world would be able to understand all the languages of the world or that the whole world would only speak one language.

The two most common solutions – subtitling and dubbing – have enjoyed differing degrees of success in various parts of the world owing to commercial, political and cultural factors. As a result of these factors two alternative schools of thought have emerged.