The Canadian Press reports that the MPAA will be called before a Quebec legislative committee to explain why so few films are dubbed into French.
Quebec Presses Hollywood on Lack of Movie Dubbing
3 Comments
Law Bytes
Episode 65: My Ian Kerr Memorial Lecture – Privacy and Zambonis in the Age of COVID-19
Search Results placeholder
Recent Posts
Guilbeault’s Bogus Billion Dollar Claim: What the Data Actually Says About Canadian Film and TV Production 
“Get Money from Web Giants” Grows: Canadian Heritage Minister Guilbeault Says Government Working on a New Data Tax 
An Anti-Digital Agenda: Forget the Digital Policy Reboot, the Government Just Hit Delete Instead 
“Get Money From Web Giants”: Why Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s Top Legislative Priority is Risky Business 
Why It’s Time to Reboot Canada’s Failed Digital Agenda
I don’t live in Quebec, but I’m a native French speaker. I’d never noticed this was an issue. Normally, when I see an American movie, I watch it in the original English. It just seems so much more natural to me, exactly like watching a French movie in the original language. Then again I’m also the type of person that watches ‘foreign’ movies with subtitles, like The Devil’s Backbone.
There’s an important precision that neither this post nor the article itself seem to make. The problem isn’t so much about the availability of movies in French, but the availability of movies in “Quebec French”. Most Hollywood movies are dubbed in French, but it’s done in France where the accent, the terms and the expressions are way different.
That being said, I tend to watch movies in their original versions anyway.
Dialects
Speaking as an Anglais who may not have even a micron of a clue here, I can’t say that I have much of a problem with the idea myself. Quebecois-Français is evolving into its own, and if the audience wants the dubbing…well, they’re paying the admission charges and DVD purchase orders, right?