Multilingualism and Translation on Screen

The chapter explores the different ways devised by audiovisual translators to deal with the presence of different languages in films. After examining the main functions played by multilingualism on screen (portraying multilingual reality, producing conflict and/or generating confusion), the chapter moves on to analyse the different translational solutions available to help audiences cope with so-called “secondary languages” present in multilingual films (part-subtitling, diegetic interpreting, contextual translation). The second part of the chapter is then devoted to critically discuss the restrictions and capabilities of both dubbing and subtitling when dealing with multilingualism. The analysis finally leads to define a number of possible further developments in the audiovisual translation of multilingual products.