Posted by aurel42 at cache2-2-dus.arcor-ip.net on July 22, 2001 at 17:08:44:
Kevin,
among the few things that remind me that I'm actually aging, is the
fact that my list of personal heroes gets shorter when people like
Frank Zappa or Douglas Adams pass on. People with creative output that
changed the way I look at life, universe and everything. But then,
occasionally, there's someone new who has a similar effect.
I first saw Clerks when it was on German TV. It must've been one of a
handful of movies from the 90's that were not dubbed for release in
German-speaking Europe and still made it to the TV screen.
For more than fifty years now, virtually everything in German theatres
and on German TVs is lip-synchronized by German actors, and, if I may
say so, more often badly than not. While our neighbours in the
Netherlands or Sweden seem to live comfortably with *subtitled* movies
and TV shows - and get a free lesson in living English, German or
whatever with every hour spent in front of foreign content, Germans
get an abridged version of every piece of dialog (the German language
needs about 30% more syllables for the same thought). And Germans have
no chance of getting in-jokes, because the translators simply *never*
get them. Hard time for KS movies, huh?
The fact that nobody did want to spend the money to dub an independent
b/w movie was actually a blessing to the German KS possee. I never
wasted time with German releases of your movies. I got the British
video releases of Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy. I have to admit
that I only got aware of Chasing Amy when I saw Jay & Silent Bob on
the cover in the video store. I loved all of them.
Dogma was the first KS movie I actually saw playing in German
theatres. Well, I mean, I noticed that it was on, but I just couldn't
stand the thought of seeing one of your movies in German. I knew that
nothing would be left.
So I got a DVD player, the cheapest one was the one I could afford,
and got the first German DVD release of Dogma with original audio
track. It's one of those video-store only releases, the English audio
track is locked with German subtitles (I just don't know why they do
that kind of shit, it always takes me a while to remember the buttons
to turn off 'Playback Control' and to switch them off anyway). Well, I
like the movie, in a way. Just a matter of taste, I guess.
After Dogma, I had to rewatch Clerks so often that the tape got worn
out. A good excuse to upgrade my DVD to get rid of that fucking RC
limitation and to get Clerks on DVD. And the animation (I like the 5th
episode best... just kidding... #4+#6 rule!). And the bonus material
found there (especially the commentary) made me order all the other
DVDs, including the Dogma SE. I'm waiting for them now.
Don't expect too much from J&SB in Germany, unless it is *much* more
visual than its predecessors. I'm looking forward to its dutch theater
release or the DVD, whatever comes first. Or both.
Keep it real, man.
Thanks,
Marc