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Traduction, terminologie, rédaction

The Role of Sound in Film Translation: Subtitling Embodied

Aural Experience in Aki Kaurismäki’s Lights in the Dusk
Sari Kokkola

Traduction, textes, médias Article abstract

Translation, Texts, Media The purpose of this article is twofold. First, by adopting a film studies-oriented
Volume 27, Number 2, 2e semestre 2014 approach to AVT it seeks to build common ground between translation studies
and film studies—two disciplines that have remained curiously distant from
URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1037744ar each other, even though the film and translation industries are closely
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1037744ar interrelated at the practical level. Second, by introducing study of the aural
dimension of audiovisual texts—in particular film sound—to AVT, this article
presents a new concept of text for AVT research that allows for the analysis of
See table of contents
audiovisual texts as dynamic entities consisting of the visual, the aural and the
verbal. These are seen as equally important constituent parts of audiovisual
texts; they do not simply coexist but transform each other at the moment of
Publisher(s) perception. The role of sound in film translation is examined by applying
phenomenologically informed theories of film sound, mainly Michel Chion’s
Association canadienne de traductologie
(1994) theory of audio-vision, to the context of film subtitling. According to
Chion, film viewing is based on cross-modal perception, i.e. synchronous sound
ISSN and image are experienced as a unit, a “synchresis” (ibid., p. 63). Chion argues
0835-8443 (print) that filmic image and sound transform each other at the moment of perception,
1708-2188 (digital) producing added value (ibid., p. 5). These audiovisual combinations not only
address the viewer at the conceptual level but also contribute to the intensity
and flow of the viewing experience that is to a large extent conveyed
Explore this journal
non-verbally. This paper argues that the translator’s decisions influence the
added value created by image and sound and direct the viewer’s perception of
a film, often overemphasizing the verbal element, thus narrowing the film’s
Cite this article non-verbally conveyed meanings and decreasing its emotional and esthetic
appeal. These points are illustrated by presenting examples of the English and
Kokkola, S. (2014). The Role of Sound in Film Translation: Subtitling Embodied
German subtitled versions of Aki Kaurismäki’s film Laitakaupungin valot
Aural Experience in Aki Kaurismäki’s Lights in the Dusk. TTR, 27(2), 17–47.
(Lights in the Dusk).
https://doi.org/10.7202/1037744ar

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The Role of Sound in Film Translation:
Subtitling Embodied Aural Experience in
Aki Kaurismäki’s Lights in the Dusk

Sari Kokkola
University of Tampere

Abstract
The purpose of this article is twofold. First, by adopting a film studies-
oriented approach to AVT it seeks to build common ground between
translation studies and film studies—two disciplines that have remained
curiously distant from each other, even though the film and translation
industries are closely interrelated at the practical level. Second, by
introducing study of the aural dimension of audiovisual texts—in particular
film sound—to AVT, this article presents a new concept of text for AVT
research that allows for the analysis of audiovisual texts as dynamic entities
consisting of the visual, the aural and the verbal. These are seen as equally
important constituent parts of audiovisual texts; they do not simply coexist
but transform each other at the moment of perception. The role of sound
in film translation is examined by applying phenomenologically informed
theories of film sound, mainly Michel Chion’s (1994) theory of audio-
vision, to the context of film subtitling. According to Chion, film viewing
is based on cross-modal perception, i.e. synchronous sound and image
are experienced as a unit, a “synchresis” (ibid., p. 63). Chion argues that
filmic image and sound transform each other at the moment of perception,
producing added value (ibid., p. 5). These audiovisual combinations not only
address the viewer at the conceptual level but also contribute to the intensity
and flow of the viewing experience that is to a large extent conveyed non-
verbally. This paper argues that the translator’s decisions influence the added
value created by image and sound and direct the viewer’s perception of a
film, often overemphasizing the verbal element, thus narrowing the film’s
non-verbally conveyed meanings and decreasing its emotional and esthetic
appeal. These points are illustrated by presenting examples of the English
and German subtitled versions of Aki Kaurismäki’s film Laitakaupungin
valot (Lights in the Dusk).
Keywords: subtitling, film, sound, phenomenology, experience, embodiment

Traduction, textes, médias / Translation, texts, media 17

 Sari Kokkola

Résumé
Le présent article a un double objectif. Premièrement, en abordant
la traduction audiovisuelle d’un point de vue basé sur les études
cinématographiques, il cherche à établir des points communs entre la
traductologie et les études cinématographiques, puisque, curieusement,
ces deux disciplines restent éloignées alors qu’en pratique, les industries
du cinéma et de la traduction sont étroitement liées. Deuxièmement, en
proposant comme objet d’étude en traduction audiovisuelle la dimension
orale des textes audiovisuels, plus particulièrement le son au cinéma, l’article
énonce une nouvelle conception du texte, qui permet l’analyse des textes
audiovisuels en tant qu’entités dynamiques composées de trois éléments
d’égale importance : le visuel, l’oral et le verbal. Ces éléments ne sont pas
simplement coexistants ; ils se transforment mutuellement au moment
de la perception. Pour comprendre le rôle du son dans la traduction
cinématographique, des théories phénoménologiques du son au cinéma,
notamment la théorie de l’« audio-vision » de Michel Chion (1994), seront
appliquées au contexte du sous-titrage. Selon Chion, le visionnement d’un
film implique une perception intermodale, c’est-à-dire que le son synchrone
et l’image sont ressentis comme une unité, comme une « synchrèse » (ibid.,
p. 63) ; les occurrences visuelles et sonores se transforment mutuellement,
produisant une valeur ajoutée (ibid., p. 5). Ces combinaisons audiovisuelles
vont non seulement rejoindre le spectateur au niveau conceptuel, mais
aussi contribuer à l’intensité et au flux de l’expérience de visionnement, qui
s’effectue en grande partie sur le plan non verbal. L’article soutient que les
décisions du traducteur influent sur la valeur ajoutée créée par l’image et
le son ainsi que sur la perception du spectateur. Souvent, trop d’accent est
mis sur l’élément verbal, ce qui a pour effet de limiter les significations
exprimées non verbalement et, par conséquent, l’attrait émotif et esthétique
du film. Ces points sont illustrés par des passages tirés des versions sous-
titrées en anglais et en allemand du film Laitakaupungin valot (Lights in the
Dusk) d’Aki Kaurismäki.
Mots-clés : sous-titrage, film, son, phénoménologie, expérience, embodiment

Introduction: The Absence of Sound from the Study of

Audiovisual Translation
While many approaches to audiovisual translation address the
relationship between the visual and the verbal, little importance
has been attached to the role of the aural dimension in translating
multimodal wholes such as films. This article starts from the
assumption that the limited attention paid to sound in research
on audiovisual translation may be indicative of conceptual and
methodological constraints that influence the range in which we
can think about multimodal translation as a phenomenon.

18 TTR XXVII 2
 The Role of Sound in Film Translation

In her book Enlarging Translation, Empowering Translators,

Maria Tymoczko discusses the epistemological aspect of translation
research and argues that the current concept of translation, which
is based on the Western notion of translation emphasizing literacy
practices and written texts, fails to account for certain types of
translation and leads to their marginalization or even exclusion
from current theorization of translation (2007, p. 310). As an
example of marginalized translation types, Tymoczko mentions
translation in various oral contexts, in which the primary criterion
of what constitutes a good translation is “a story well and truly
told, rather than a close verbal or cultural fidelity, largely because
there is generally little or no value accorded to a fixed text per se
as there is in literate cultures” (ibid., p. 61). Tymoczko calls for a
reconceptualization of translation, an enlarged concept that allows
for examination of all translation types (ibid., pp. 55-58) and argues
that “research that changes the concept of translation will change
how translators, translation scholars, and translation teachers
habitually act with reference to that concept” (ibid., p. 314).
Following the ideas presented by Tymoczko, this article sets
out to rethink, epistemologically and methodologically, the concept
of film translation by discussing the limitations of the current
concept and by proposing an enlarged concept of film translation
that fully considers both sound and image. Currently, there is no
methodology to sufficiently address sound from a translational
perspective, which has led to its marginalization as an object of
study within translation studies. The present article addresses
this methodological gap by proposing a phenomenologically
informed method of audiovisual analysis developed within film
studies by Michel Chion (1994) as a tool for subtitlers, translation
students and scholars. Chion’s model was originally developed
for analyzing films, not language or translation, and it has an
emphasis on the audio and visual dimensions of film. Its primary
objective has been to enable research on film sound, and it does
not discuss the verbal dimension of film in any significant detail.
However, the study of audiovisual translation has a plethora of
existing theories, methodologies and established practices for
dealing with the verbal element of film, as well as a growing
body of knowledge on the relationship between the visual and
the verbal, and in time, this knowledge can be integrated into the
larger audiovisual framework developed here. Chion’s model has

Traduction, textes, médias / Translation, texts, media 19

 Sari Kokkola

been chosen for this study in order to draw scholarly attention to

the ways in which sound and image create filmic worlds to engage
the viewer physically, emotionally, aesthetically and intellectually,
and to demonstrate how subtitles influence the way these large
audiovisual structures are experienced.
In addition to producing knowledge about the topic of
inquiry itself—the role of sound in film translation—this article
has an epistemological goal of discussing how knowledge of
audiovisual translation is acquired. This goal involves casting aside,
temporarily, the dominant notion of text and textuality as the
centre of translational thought and approaching sound and image
as categories in their own right, as forms of expression that are not
reducible to texts. This does not, however, mean restricting sound
and image to non-verbal purposes or denying the possibility of
analyzing them as texts or codes by semiotic means. Rather, the
idea is introduced that a more profound understanding of the role
of the aural and the visual in film translation might be accessible
by some other means.
Chion’s audiovisual analysis emphasizes the relationship
between sound and image, and thus, this article does not address
sound in isolation, but in relation to the multimodal whole in
which it is embedded. Applying Chion’s method to the context
of film translation requires adopting a phenomenological attitude
towards the object of study, i.e. casting aside, temporarily, every
preconceived idea of what film translation is and concentrating on
what is actually seen, heard and experienced in a film. In order to
develop an in-depth understanding of how subtitles fit into the film
as a multimodal whole, it is necessary to cast aside preconceptions
such as “translation is predominantly a verbal activity,” or
“dialogue is the most important sound element in a film for the
subtitler” (or any other similar preconceptions that translators or
translation scholars might have), since such ideas predetermine
what we will see and hear in a film and prevent us from seeing
the possibilities beyond them. Instead, we should open up towards
the experienceable and approach image, sound and word as equal
forms of expression forming an audiovisual instrumentarium that
can be used to create a whole range of meanings and effects. In
this way, it becomes possible to analyze all film styles, including
marginal productions employing less conventional audiovisual
strategies, from a translational perspective.

20 TTR XXVII 2
 The Role of Sound in Film Translation

From Text to Experience

Translators are increasingly dealing with material that is
quintessentially multimodal, i.e. consisting of combinations of
different modalities: verbal, audio and visual. Yet the audio and
visual dimensions of multimodal texts continue to receive less
attention than the verbal dimension in research on multimodality
and translation. Yves Gambier notes:
Although many kinds of texts with different types of signs
are dealt with in Translation Studies (AV, advertising,
theatre, songs, comics), the focus tends to be limited to
their linguistic features. There is a strong paradox: we are
ready to acknowledge the interrelations between the verbal
and the visual, between language and non-verbal, but the
dominant research perspective remains largely linguistic.
The multisemiotic blends of many different signs are not
ignored but they are usually neglected or not integrated
into a framework. (2007, pp. 6-7)
Patrick Zabalbeascoa, who has developed a model for analyzing
multimodal audiovisual texts and argues for “the importance of
considering non-verbal items as part of a text rather than part of
its context” (2008, p. 37), also adopts a critical stance towards the
current patterns of knowledge construction within translation
studies by pointing out several obstacles constituting a hindrance
to theory formation within AVT:
Another problem in making general claims about
translation is lack of awareness of the existence of other
text-types or, similarly, when there is an attempt to shove
square pegs through round holes. Sometimes the theory
is built around a single text or text type, e.g. the Bible.
Another damaging practice, especially for a unified
account of audiovisual translation (AVT) is to isolate
literary theories of translation and non-literary theories,
the implication being that it is not interesting or possible
to theorise about both at the same time. A similarly
problematic attitude is to start at the core, whatever that
may be (usually novels, religious texts, legal documents,
scientific papers, news reporting), and then use that as an
excuse to put off studying more peripheral instances of
translation, whatever they may be (e.g. poems, songs, small
talk). (ibid., p. 23)

Traduction, textes, médias / Translation, texts, media 21

 Sari Kokkola

Due to the scope of this article, it is not possible to make

generalizations about the treatment of image and sound in
research on multimodality and translation, but the above
quotations from research literature on translation studies
illustrate the fact that approaches to multimodality and
translation are being criticized for privileging certain text types
or certain aspects of multimodal texts at the expense of others.
This suggests that the current concept of multimodal translation
is too narrow to include audio and visual materials to a full extent.
In my view, the subject of multimodality has not been, to date,
fully broached within translation studies, which might be due to
the fact that the methodologies employed are not adequate for
analysis of audio and visual dimensions of multimodal texts. This
more general methodological question is related to the theme of
this article in that it sheds light on the potential reasons why the
role of sound has been absent from the study of film translation. I
argue that one reason for the absence of sound is that translation
studies is immersed in the paradigm of textuality which tends
to see its object of study in terms of language and reading. This
means that, in the semiotic sense, multimodal entities such as
films or advertisements are seen as texts that can be read. The
expressions text and reading are seen metaphorically, implying
that encountering a multimodal entity is an activity that, to
some extent, resembles reading a written text. This view is also
underlying semiotics-based approaches to multimodality and
translation, e.g. Christopher Taylor’s multimodal transcription
model developed for subtitling (2003, pp. 191-205; see also
Taylor, 2009). To what extent, however, do we read images? How
about sounds? Is an encounter with moving images that are co-
presented with synchronous sound an act of reading? In my view,
methodology that centres on the concept of text and reading
reflects a narrow conceptualization of multimodal translation that
excludes the essential differences between reading words, viewing
images and listening to sounds. Films are complex, dynamic
audiovisual entities that include moving images and synchronous
sound. Watching a film is an experience fundamentally different
from reading a written text. As Carl Plantinga puts it,
[t]he phrase “reading a film” mischaracterizes the viewing
process as literary, with the effect of distracting us from the

22 TTR XXVII 2
 The Role of Sound in Film Translation

medium’s sometimes disavowed quality, namely that film

is a powerful sensual medium. Film gains its particular
power from its direct appeal to sight and hearing. (2009,
p. 112)
The textual orientation of translation studies partly explains why
the role of sound in film translation has been virtually ignored.
Sound has been equated with the verbal content—dialogue, song
lyrics—it mediates (sound-as-text) and it has been examined
from the perspective of semiotics. What has been ignored is the
materiality of the speaking voice, music, noise and silence (sound-
as-experience), which belongs to the domain of phenomenology.
The materiality of sound—e.g. volume, texture, continuity,
speed—always tells more about the sound event than the verbal
message the sound mediates. When concentrating on the verbal
message sound conveys, some other important functions of sound,
such as emotion elicitation, are downplayed. Another reason why
research on film translation has largely reduced film to interplay
between image and word might be connected to the historical
development of film studies. Film studies was long dominated by
study of the visual, which together with the dialogue propelled
the narrative. Sound was treated as a mere add-on and there was
no vocabulary to talk—let alone theorize—about it (Chion, 1994,
p. 143). In the recent decades, interest in the study of film sound
and the related embodied aspect of cinema has increased rapidly,
and nowadays the wealth of research literature on film sound
provides a fascinating resource for the interested translation
scholar. It is these resources that the present article draws on, in
the hope of shedding some light on the role of sound in film
translation.
In order to be able to theorize the affective, sensory, and
embodied dimensions of the film viewing experience described
by Plantinga above, this article adopts a phenomenologically
informed film studies approach to subtitling that tries to reach
beyond the text metaphor and the related representationalist view
of translation based on semiotics. Without suggesting that the
semiotic approach should be replaced, the objective of this article
is to develop an embodied approach to film translation that is
intended to be complementary to it. The notion of embodied
experience will be discussed in greater detail later in this article.

Traduction, textes, médias / Translation, texts, media 23

 Sari Kokkola

Translation from a Film Studies Perspective

There has been surprisingly little interdisciplinary activity between
translation studies and film studies despite the fact that the film
industry and translation industry are closely interrelated at the
practical level. However, there have been some valuable recent
contributions towards bridging the gap between translation
studies and film studies, among them the notion of accessible
filmmaking by Pablo Romero-Fresco (2013), an approach that
integrates translation to the filmmaking process itself, and
Carol O’Sullivan’s book Translating Popular Film (2011).
One reason for the lack of interdisciplinary co-operation
between translation studies and film studies might be that there
are differences in the underlying concept of translation between
the disciplines, for which reason translation scholars and film
scholars/filmmakers focus on different aspects of film. While the
methodologies translation scholars usually apply to films (e.g.
approaches based on semiotics) emphasize the nature of film as
a text and focus on the verbal and textual aspect, filmmakers and
film scholars, when they mention translation, tend to talk about its
influence on larger audiovisual wholes of the film instead of seeing
it as predominantly a verbal or textual activity. The cinematic
concept of translation will be illustrated below by examples from
film studies research literature.
The subject of translation is not usually discussed explicitly
within film studies, and people working in the film industry
are usually not familiar with theories of translation developed
within translation studies. However, there are some works by
film studies scholars and filmmakers on translation, for example
Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film, edited by Atom Egoyan and
Ian Balfour (2004), and Beyond the Subtitle: Remapping European
Art Cinema by Mark Betz (2009). Ethnographic filmmaker
David  MacDougall devotes a chapter to the problematic of
subtitling ethnographic films in his book Transcultural Cinema
(1998), and he sees subtitling as a part of the filmmaking process.
The subject of translation is mentioned in several other film studies
publications (e.g. Naficy, 2001; Marks, 2000). Film scholarly
writing on translation is more audiovisually oriented than in
translation studies, and translation is seen as affecting many
aspects of the film. Translation itself is also used as a filmmaking

24 TTR XXVII 2
 The Role of Sound in Film Translation

strategy. In particular, independent filmmakers are often involved

in the translation of their own films and employ unconventional
translation strategies to further their goals. Sometimes, as is often
the case with filmmakers from marginalized cultures, these goals
can be more political and ideological, and sometimes, as with
art film, they can be oriented towards examining philosophical
questions and aesthetic innovation. As Laura Marks points out,
one translation strategy used by filmmakers is “to eschew full
translation into English (or the language of the original culture)”
(2000, p. 37). This strategy is known as partial translation and
refers to presenting films without translation or with a clearly
incomplete translation. This is, however, not to be confused with
omissions that are inevitable due to the space and time constraints
of the medium. The purpose of partial translation is to defy the
viewer’s conventional expectations that “the image is a window
onto the culture” (ibid., p. 39) and to work against “the impression
that it is possible to know others without effort—that the whole
world is inherently knowable and accessible” (MacDougall,
1998, p. 175). In her film Surname Viet Given Name Nam,
Trinh  T.  Minh-ha uses audio/visual disjunction as a strategy
that undermines the sense of authenticity of documentary film
by revealing its representational character. The film depicts
Vietnamese women speaking, but the speech is out of sync with
the images, and likewise, the subtitles are deliberately out of
sync with the speech (Naficy, 2001, p. 122). Atom Egoyan’s film
Calendar, the story of a Canadian photographer of Armenian
descent who, alienated from his ancestral culture, travels to
Armenia to take photographs of churches to make a calendar,
also problematizes the notion of translation. Marks argues that
Calendar is “structured around the losses that take place in acts
of translation” (2000, p. 39). The film includes several lengthy
scenes in foreign languages that are not subtitled. Moreover, the
main character does not speak Armenian, and his wife acts as an
interpreter between him and their Armenian driver during the
photography trip, and thus, large portions of the film consist of
instances of interpretation within the film.
The above indicates that filmmakers participate actively in
discussion on translation and are aware of the fact that translation
can influence the reception of their work. The importance of
translation to filmmakers is also illustrated by the fact that, in

Traduction, textes, médias / Translation, texts, media 25

 Sari Kokkola

film studies research literature, filmmakers sometimes criticize

the translations of their own work. The two quotations below
illustrate situations in which filmmakers have expressed their
wishes regarding translation of their work, although they were not
fulfilled:
(1) Experimental filmmaker Petri Kuljuntausta writes about
the subtitling of his film Texas Scramble (1995):
The only detail which could be considered a concession
was the addition of subtitles to the TV1 Finnish television
broadcast. The film includes an English language text,
which the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation wanted
translated into Finnish. This was contrary to our wishes
since the primary purpose of the text was not to provide
denotative information. The text in question runs in three
levels across the screen. It would be impossible for the
spectator to read everything on the screen and this was
the intention. (2007, p. 78)
Here, the filmmaker’s wish was to present words running on
screen in a way that emphasizes their materiality over the content
they convey. However, instead of employing the unconventional
subtitling strategy proposed by the filmmaker, the Finnish
Broadcasting Corporation decided to include subtitles in the
scene.
(2) In the example below, Claire Denis discusses a scene from
her film Friday Night in an interview with Atom Egoyan. The
scene depicts a woman, the film’s main character, sitting in her car
outside a café, observing a man who is inside, talking with another
woman. Their discussion is not heard clearly on the soundtrack.
The purpose of the scene is to create a sense of exclusion felt by
the main character by limiting her access to the dialogue that goes
on inside the café, and that is why the dialogue has been made
inaudible for her. The problem is that the subtitles make clear
what the characters inside the café are talking about. This is not
consistent with the point of audition of the main character who
is outside and cannot possibly hear the conversation that is going
on inside.
EGOYAN: It is interesting that you bring this scene up,
because this is exactly the scene that got me most excited.
In that scene you can barely hear the dialogue in French.

26 TTR XXVII 2
 The Role of Sound in Film Translation

But last night as I watched the film, the subtitle made

absolutely clear what was being said.
DENIS: I was actually against that. I asked the guy who
did the subtitles if we could perhaps print them with one
letter missing or one word missing – as artists, you know…
And he said that that doesn’t exist in subtitles. Either we
have subtitles or we don’t have subtitles.
EGOYAN: So why did we need to subtitle that scene?
DENIS: I don’t know, I was too weak to say.
(Denis, 2004, pp. 74-75)
Díaz Cintas and Remael suggest that people from the film
industry “feel that the more literal a translation is, content-wise
and formally, the better it is” (2007, p. 57). This might be the case
with filmmakers and scholars who do not deal with translation
in their work, but if we consider the above quotations and the
translation strategies employed by the filmmakers mentioned
earlier in this section, they reflect the idea that the translation unit
these filmmakers are concerned with is not the word or the line of
dialogue, but a larger audiovisual unit that transcends the verbal
level of the film. Instead of seeking to mediate the verbal message
itself, the act of translation is targeted at larger audiovisual
structures and more abstract themes of the film, and non-verbal
materials can be emphasized over verbal ones. In the examples
from Friday Night and Texas Scramble, the act of subtitling has
been targeted at the verbal level of the film without considering
the function of the verbal within the audiovisual whole. This has
clearly altered the original audio/visual relationship, and thus, the
intended experience of the scene.
While the above examples do not make clear whether these
were individual translators’ decisions or dictated by the subtitling
guidelines of the company they were working for (Denis refers
to “the guy who did the subtitles” and Kuljuntausta mentions
“The Finnish Broadcasting Corporation”), the subtitling activity
has nevertheless produced a result significantly different than
what was originally intended by the filmmakers. In my view, this
reflects the idea that, in translation studies, the verbal dimension
(as language) is seen as the core of film translation, and it is
foregrounded with regard to the audio and visual dimensions.
However, making dialogue clear, audible and accessible to the

Traduction, textes, médias / Translation, texts, media 27

 Sari Kokkola

viewer is characteristic to most filmmaking, and as Chion points

out, directors who wish to deviate from this norm often face
difficulties, because intentional lack of intelligibility can easily be
confused with technical ineptitude by professionals and audiences
(1999, p. 81). However, the use of filmic devices depends to a
great extent on the film style employed. As David Bordwell points
out, the classical narrative is based on unproblematic access to
reality and does not address questions of representation as such,
whereas art film narration sees the notion of representation itself
as problematic and seeks new ways of representing the world and
subjective experiences of characters (1985, p. 212). Art films are
characterized by a degree of uncertainty and ambiguity, and the
notion of truth they represent is relativistic. The intelligibility ideal
of classical narration does not apply to art film—in fact, to some
extent, art film works against the classical tradition. Thus, these
two film styles require different subtitling strategies. For example,
the scenes from the films by Denis and Kuljuntausta discussed
above, clearly deviate from the notion of classical narration, and
thus, require different subtitling strategies. And it is not only art
films that require different translation strategies. National cinemas
(in the absence of a better term) around the world have their own
styles that, each in their own way, challenge the Western world
view by presenting the world through different audio, visual and
verbal strategies (see e.g. Mottahedeh, 2004; Longfellow, 2004).
These examples indicate that not only the verbal but also the
visual and the aural as forms of expression are culture-specific and
meaningful in translation, and classical narration is only one way
of representing the world.
Phenomenology and Embodied Experience
Simply put, phenomenology studies experience from the
perspective of the individual in a situation. This is done by casting
aside “natural attitudes,” i.e. taken-for-granted assumptions and
usual ways of perceiving things. Phenomenologically informed
approaches work well in bringing issues that normally remain
hidden to the surface. In the words of Don Ihde, phenomenology is
“a probing for what is genuinely discoverable and potentially there,
but not often seen” (1986, p. 26). The ability of phenomenology
to discover what is potentially there makes it a suitable method
for examining the role of sound in the context of film translation.

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Sound is a phenomenon that has been, to date, largely ignored

in film translation because it has been overshadowed by the
language that it mediates. If we cast aside the preconception of
translation as a predominantly verbal activity, we might arrive
at new understandings of the different functions of sound in a
film. Sound itself is closely related to the experiential (affective,
sensory, embodied) aspect of film, and within film studies, it
is often examined through a phenomenologically informed
method. Phenomenology offers an excellent pathway into the
non-verbal dimension of film. It opens up a new perspective on
film translation, a way to discuss the non-verbal film elements to
a larger extent than before and to understand their function as
embodied structures of seeing and hearing in which all signs are
embedded.
Film scholars working within research traditions as diverse
as phenomenology (see e.g. Sobchack, 1992; Chion, 1994;
Marks, 2000) and cognitive film studies (see e.g. Grodal, 2009;
Plantinga, 2009; Fahlenbrach, 2007) share the view that film
viewing is based on what is referred to as embodiment. As Marks
argues, “film is grasped not solely by an intellectual act but by
the complex perception of the body as a whole” (2000, p. 145).
The notion of embodiment has been commonly associated with
phenomenology, particularly Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s work on
the phenomenology of perception arguing that the body is an
existential ground for all meaning (2002 [1962]). This means that
the body is not an object or a mere instrument of the rational
mind, but the source of meaning. We can only be in the world
through the body, and having a body means being in a certain
position (e.g. a certain angle of vision) with regard to the objects
we perceive.
In the field of cognitive science, Lakoff (1987) and Johnson
(1987) have pointed out that human thought is by nature
embodied, i.e. knowledge of abstract phenomena is structured
metaphorically through concrete, physical, embodied experiences.
In order to make sense of more abstract concepts (e.g. time), we use
concrete metaphors (e.g. “Time is money”). Thus, expressions “to
waste time” or “to invest one’s time in something,” “to spend time”
and “to save time” are all based on the “time is money” metaphor.
Different languages use different metaphors. Similarly, audiovisual
media are based on embodiment. Applying Merleau-Ponty’s

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 Sari Kokkola

phenomenology to the context of film studies, Vivian Sobchack

refers to film as “an expression of experience by experience” (1992,
p. 3). By this she means that the structures of cinema imitate our
embodied experience of being in the world, i.e. film uses our sight
and hearing to create an audiovisual structure that resembles
human experience of space and time, perception of movement,
relations to objects in space, and physical and social encounters
with people in the world. In the broadest sense, films can be seen
as worlds constructed by the filmmaker that the viewer can relate
to in the same way as he or she relates to the real world. Films,
therefore, are not only texts that we can read but also entities that
we can experience through our senses and bodies. Film viewing,
then, cannot be sufficiently characterized as looking at the film as
an object, but rather resembles Merleau-Ponty’s “looking with, or
looking according to” (voir selon) an image (2012 [1964], p. 425), an
act whereby a sense of reciprocity is created between the viewer
and the film. The cinematic apparatus expresses abstract ideas
by imitating concrete experiences of seeing, hearing and being
situated in the world. For example, in Claire Denis’ film Friday
Night discussed earlier, the main character’s position as an outsider
is expressed by concretely limiting her hearing experience in order
to make the viewer identify with her position. Film is especially
effective in mediating such physical and emotional experiences
through concrete experiences of seeing, hearing and being situated
in space. These are things that are difficult, if not impossible, to
mediate by language to the same extent.
Materiality and Meaning
In addition to embodied experience, another key concept in
the phenomenologically informed approach to film sound is
materiality. Michel Chion describes the material, sensory aspect
of cinema as follows:
Cinema is not solely a show of sounds and images; it
also generates rhythmic, temporal, tactile, and kinetic
sensations that make use of both the auditory and visual
channels. And as each technical revolution brings a
sensory surge to cinema it revitalizes the sensations of
matter, speed, movement and space. (1994, p. 152)
Materiality refers to the physical characteristics of sound
and image that the film viewer always encounters before arriving

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at anything that can be referred to as “meaning.” Every sign has

a material form. According to David MacDougall, “[f ]irst and
foremost, a film is a collection of materials of which it is made”
(2006, p. 270). Therefore, before a film tells the viewer anything, it
puts the viewer in a particular relation to the audiovisual materials,
creating a starting point from which to interpret and understand
the film’s themes. The materiality of signs inevitably influences
the way in which their meanings are interpreted. Thus, before
arriving at any interpretations about what a film might “mean,”
the translator, too, encounters the film at the material level. Of
course, film translators do engage with the materiality of films
every time they watch and translate films, but this is a step that has
to be made visible in translation studies in order to create concrete
tools for the analysis of the visual and the aural dimensions of
audiovisual texts.
In the following section, sound as an object of study in the
context of film translation is discussed, and Michel Chion’s model
of phenomenologically informed audiovisual analysis is proposed
as a tool for analyzing the visual, the aural and the verbal in the
context of film translation.
Sound as an Object of Study in the Context of Film Translation
Defining sound as an object of study in the context of film
translation is a complex task for several reasons. I will briefly
discuss the roots of the problematic of sound as an object of
academic study in general and end this section by presenting a
dynamic concept of film text that allows for examining the role of
sound from the perspective of film translation, as well as the role
of translation in shaping the film as a multimodal whole. For the
sake of clarity, I am using the word “film text” here to refer to the
multimodal whole the film translator is working with, even though
the enlarged concept includes the embodied and experiential
aspects not normally treated under the notion of textuality.
Sound as an object of study is by its very nature elusive, which
might be one of the reasons why it has been long ignored in many
disciplines, despite its clear relevance to these. In the words of
Walter Ong, “Sound only exists when it is going out of existence”
(2002 [1982], p. 70). Due to its evanescence, sound as an object
of study is impossible to pin down without countering its own
essence. For example, a sound represented as static data, such as

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 Sari Kokkola

a spectrogram, cannot be seen as an adequate representation of

the sound as a phenomenon, because, firstly, it is a sound that we
can no longer hear and become immersed in, and secondly, the
sound is isolated from the spatial and temporal context in which
it was produced. It is, therefore, of vital importance to analyze
sound in such a way that preserves its dynamic development and
the original context of signal propagation (Augoyard and Torgue,
2005, p. 9).
To be able to grasp sound as an object of study, scholars
(e.g. Chion, 1994; Augoyard and Torgue, 2005) have opted for a
phenomenologically informed approach to sound that allows for
examination of sounds as events that unfold in space and time
and are, therefore, inextricably intertwined with the physical
characteristics of a specific context of signal propagation and
human experience in the context. So far, translation studies
approaches to film have tended to focus on the interplay between
the visual and the verbal, and film has not been studied as a total
experience that includes the aural dimension.
According to Chion, film viewing is based on cross-modal
perception, i.e. synchronous sound and image are experienced as
a unit, a “synchresis” (1994, p. 63). Chion argues that filmic image
and sound transform each other at the moment of perception,
producing added value (ibid., p. 5). Chion points out that cinematic
image and sound are dependent on each other and their meanings
change considerably if they are separated. He uses the distinction
between “onscreen” and “offscreen” sound to illustrate the point: If
the image is temporarily removed and we are listening to sound
only, there is no longer such thing as onscreen or offscreen sound,
since it is the image that defines whether a sound is onscreen or
offscreen. In Chion’s definition, film consists of a place for images
(the frame) which is shaped by sound (ibid., pp. 66-69).
When theorizing about the role of sound in the context of
film translation, it is important to note that spoken words, too,
are sounds in the sense that they are mediated by sound. In
addition to speech, a film soundtrack can have music, noises as
well as silences. It is, of course, necessary to take the verbal into
account as a means of expression in its own right, in its function
as a mediator of conceptual meanings, but this should be done
without forgetting that words as sounds relate to other sounds—
music, noise and silence—and thus, a film soundtrack always has

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a consistency that defines which sounds are the most salient (ibid.,
p. 189). Spoken words exist as sound, which, in its materiality,
evokes certain effects, emotions and impressions in the listener.
It is this materiality that Chion seeks to explain through his
method of audiovisual analysis. Chion describes the objective of
audiovisual analysis as follows:
audiovisual analysis is descriptive analysis; it should avoid
any symbolizing interpretations of a psychoanalytic,
psychological, social, or political nature. Interpretation
may of course follow, based on the findings of the analysis.
Here, for example, it is not the symbolism of water and
waves that interests us, but rather the wave as a dynamic
model. (ibid., pp. 197-198)
For the purposes of analysis of the role of sound in the
context film translation, I propose an enlarged concept of film
text. According to this new definition, a film is:
(1) A multimodal whole consisting of the visual, the aural, and
the verbal as forms of expression in their own right, capable of
expressing partly similar meanings but also ones that the other
forms cannot convey. The relevance of each element of the
audiovisual whole within a film sequence can be determined only
by analyzing the relations between the elements. There is no fixed
order of importance between the elements, even though certain
combinations are more common than others.
(2) Dynamic and event-like, because it is of crucial importance
to preserve image, sound and word in their original context in
order to be able to examine their relationship on the basis of
their materiality (physical characteristics) with the objective of
understanding their role in forming the total experience.
Adopting a dynamic concept of text and an analysis method
based on human experience is by no means uncomplicated. The
main obstacle is that when discussing films in this way, concrete
examples—film clips—become indispensable. To be able to
provide proof of the total experience produced by co-presentation
of sound, image and word, the researcher has to have access to
the original film, along with permission to present it in a research
or teaching context. However, when making decisions about how
to translate films on the basis of the physical characteristics of
sound and image, the translator has concrete proof that supports

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 Sari Kokkola

certain decisions. For example, if dialogue in a scene is only partly

audible, and on the basis of the audiovisual analysis, the translator
concludes that the dialogue was not meant to be heard fully, the
translator might render only the parts that are actually audible on
the soundtrack and refer to the partial inaudibility (as a physical
fact) as grounds for leaving some parts out. This approach makes
explicit the way in which the aural and the visual are treated in
film translation.
The rest of this article presents an analysis of Aki Kaurismäki’s
film Lights in the Dusk and sets out to show how the filmmaker
has used various embodied aural strategies to give expression to
some underlying abstract themes of the film (loneliness, social
isolation), and how effectively these are conveyed via the English
and German subtitled versions of the film.
Subtitling Lights in the Dusk
Lights in the Dusk (Laitakaupungin valot, 2006) is a story of a
socially isolated security guard, Koistinen, who works night shifts
at a shopping mall in Helsinki. He is constantly being bullied at
work by his colleagues and even by his supervisor, and his social life
is virtually non-existent. He lives in a modest basement apartment
and, due to his work schedules, has to sleep during the day, which
further exacerbates his isolation. He is represented as an outsider
who exists at the fringes of society. Koistinen meets an attractive
woman and becomes infatuated with her. The woman, however, is
a gangster’s moll and Koistinen unwittingly becomes part of a plan
to rob a jewellery store that is located at the shopping mall where
he works and to which he holds keys. The rest of the film depicts
the downward spiral that begins when Koistinen is imprisoned,
then released and tries to get back on his feet. It is important to
note that the crime storyline, which constitutes the film’s principal
plot, is only one aspect of the film. Large portions of the film
concentrate solely on characterization in the form of lengthy
scenes depicting Koistinen leading his estranged existence. The
film repeatedly depicts situations in which Koistinen experiences
social rejection (peer rejection, romantic rejection), which results in
a social isolation cycle that affects all aspects of his life. Although
parenthetical to what could be considered the film’s main action,
these scenes are crucially important in creating the impression—in
embodied terms—of the existence of a socially isolated individual

34 TTR XXVII 2
 The Role of Sound in Film Translation

and his daily struggle for survival in the margins of society. The
main function of these scenes is to make the viewer experience
the film’s events from the subjective perspective of Koistinen in
order to feel what it is like to lead such an existence. In general,
elicitation of subjective feelings in the viewer becomes possible
through limiting the viewer’s access to a scene to the perspective
of a character instead of giving the viewer an unimpeded access to
the scene in its entirety. In Lights in the Dusk, this effect is achieved
by using different embodied audiovisual strategies that accentuate
the feeling of being on the outside.
Lights in the Dusk makes ample use of aural strategies that
Michel Chion refers to as relativized speech (1994, pp. 178-183).
In general, the function of these strategies is to present speech in
a film in such a way that the content of the dialogue is displaced
from the center of the scene, whereas non-verbal elements and
the materiality of speech are emphasized. Chion distinguishes six
strategies of relativized speech. Three of them are discussed below,
illustrated by examples from Lights in the Dusk. The strategies
discussed below can have other functions in different contexts,
and here they are discussed to the extent that they are relevant to
this particular film.
(1) Multilingualism and use of a foreign language: Speech is
relativized by use of a foreign language that is not understood by
most viewers. Blocking the viewer’s access to content of dialogue
in this way creates an effect of being on the outside.
The main function of the opening sequence of the film is to
introduce Koistinen to the viewer as an isolated and displaced
individual. He is depicted doing his duties in the shopping
mall where he works as a security guard. Carlos Gardel’s Volver
is being played from the loudspeakers of the shopping mall.
The transmission of the music is not entirely smooth, which
accentuates subjective experience, and the music is intertwined
with the monotonous grinding of the escalator and the cold,
metallic sounds of Koistinen’s keys. The images are dark,
dominated by concrete buildings and shades of grey. All visual
and aural elements work together to establish an impression of
Koistinen’s dismal existence. Some moments later Koistinen is
shown outside the shopping mall in the dark night as male voices
speaking Russian are heard coming from offscreen. The image
implies that Koistinen has heard the voices since he looks in the

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 Sari Kokkola

direction of the voices and takes a step back as if in reaction to

them. Then the image reveals the sound source: a group of three
men approaching. They are immersed in a spirited conversation,
gesticulating vigorously to give emphasis to their words. Two of
the men walk in friendly terms arm in arm, which underlines
their togetherness. They pass Koistinen by, very close, without
paying attention to him. Their voices are still heard from offscreen
when they have disappeared from the frame. Koistinen is shown
standing next to the wall, lighting a cigarette.
Audiovisual analysis of the development of the image and
sound in terms of their physical qualities helps open up the
function of this scene. Importantly, the Russians are depicted from
Koistinen’s point of view and audition. In other words, the events
are depicted as he hears and sees them, which means that the
viewer is invited to identify with him. This is rendered visually by
framing Koistinen all the time in medium shot or medium close-
up, looking in the direction (offscreen) of the voices, and then
turning his head towards the direction in which the sound source
moves. Presenting alternating shots of Koistinen’s face and the
group of Russians creates the impression that he is observing the
passers-by. The development of the sound also reflects Koistinen’s
point of audition. The sound comes from offscreen, becomes
gradually slightly louder, then moves onscreen, and as the men
pass, goes offscreen again and diminishes somewhat in volume.
Both the sound and the image develop dynamically and indicate
movement with regard to Koistinen’s static position. When the
Russians first enter the image, they are shown from the front in
long shot, then as they near Koistinen, they are shown in profile
in medium shot. They pass Koistinen by and we see their backs
in medium shot, and finally, they go offscreen again and are only
heard as voices. The framing indicates that they are rather close to
Koistinen when they pass him by, but they don’t pay any attention
to him. Importantly, despite the slight changes in volume, the
dialogue is clear and audible throughout the scene. The effects of
translation on this scene are discussed below.
The film’s original language is Finnish, but the dialogue of
the scene discussed here is in Russian. The original version of
the film has no subtitles in this scene, and subtitles have been
omitted from the German dubbed version as well. The English
and German subtitled versions, however, have subtitles for this

36 TTR XXVII 2
 The Role of Sound in Film Translation

scene. The translators’ decision to include subtitles changes the

scene profoundly. The absence of subtitles in the original film
implies that Koistinen does not speak or understand Russian
and he is, therefore, excluded from the conversation altogether.
The warm togetherness of the group of Russians is juxtaposed
with Koistinen’s loneliness. Without subtitles, the foreign tongue
becomes one of the sounds of the nocturnal city and immerses
the viewer in the non-verbal dimension of the scene. In this way,
the viewer can sense and experience what it is like to be on the
outside. However, when subtitles are added, the dynamics of
the entire scene change. The viewer concentrates on following
the conversation between the Russians—the subtitles indicate
that they are talking about Russian authors and other cultural
figures—and the focus shifts onto the verbally conveyed content
of the scene at the expense of the non-verbal storytelling. As a
result, the viewer no longer identifies with Koistinen’s subjective
position but rather, becomes an all-knowing outside observer who
has unimpeded access to the conversation between the Russians.
What is problematic here is that, with subtitles, the scene does
not manage to convey the experience of Koistinen’s loneliness—
which is the core of the scene—but is rather reduced to a
conversation between random passers-by. This example indicates
that the translator does not translate only the verbal element but
influences the viewer’s total experience of the scene. To illustrate
the difference, some frames from the scene (left column without
subtitles, right column with English subtitles) are presented
below.

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 Sari Kokkola

38 TTR XXVII 2
 The Role of Sound in Film Translation

Most viewers do not have competence in Russian, and for them

the main character’s sense of isolation and alienation is conveyed
by non-verbal, embodied means. However, it is important to note
that the meaning of this scene is experienced differently by a
viewer who is a Russian native speaker or has competence in the
Russian language and culture. Although the conversation might
seem unrelated to the film’s main themes, it is not a coincidence
that the passers-by are talking about Tchaikovsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin,
Chekhov and Gogol. In my interpretation of it, the scene conveys
similar meanings both non-verbally and verbally: While the non-
Russian speaking viewer is offered the opportunity to identify with
the existential condition of the main character in embodied terms
through impeded or limited access to the dialogue, the viewer
who speaks Russian and is familiar with Russian culture may
conclude that the lives and works of the persons mentioned in the
dialogue reflect in one way or the other an existential condition
of alienation and exile similar to that of the protagonist of Lights
in the Dusk. Thus, a similar overall meaning can be potentially
found with and without competence in the Russian language and
culture. Then again, the scene might not be experienced in the
same way by a viewer who has some competence in Russian but
is not familiar with Russian culture to a degree that would allow
general conclusions to be drawn regarding the lives and works of
the cultural figures mentioned in the dialogue. The complexity
of this scene is a good example of the subjective nature of film
experience and the fact that when making subtitling choices,
the translator must make an effort to see beyond his or her own
immediate experience and adopt a reflexive attitude that seeks to
analyze and understand the experience from different perspectives.
(2) Proliferation and ad libs. The sheer quantity, speed or other
characteristics of speech are so overwhelming that the message
cannot be processed in a meaningful way (Chion, 1994, pp. 178-
183).
In this scene, Koistinen is depicted attending a lecture about
founding a limited company. He is sitting in the lecture room
with the other participants. The lecturer is smoking a cigarette and
reading aloud a passage from a legal text. The text is straight from
the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act (Osakeyhtiölaki),
and due to its sheer complexity, the course participants are faced
with an impossible task of taking notes. The lecturer’s disregard

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 Sari Kokkola

for professional standard expected of a lecturer is evident, and the

situation appears all the more unfair, when he is shown collecting
money from the participants after the lecture. The learning
situation depicted is unreasonable from the perspective of the
participants.
As the images below indicate, one sentence stretches
over a large part of the scene. The subtitler has rendered the
content accordingly, as one, long and complex sentence. On the
one hand, the scene depicts Koistinen as a person striving for
self-development, and on the other hand, it depicts society—
represented by the authority figure of the lecturer—hindering
this development. Both the English and the German subtitled
versions have included as full and complicated subtitles as possible
for this scene in order to illustrate the absurdity of the learning
situation depicted. Here, again, it is not the information content
of the words that is of primary importance from the perspective
of translation, but the feeling of helplessness before the very
complexity of the lecturer’s speech that the course participants are
experiencing. Thus, the subtitling norms regarding, for example,
reading speed are not the central concern here. On the contrary,
the translator should make sure that the subtitles cannot be read
at a glance so that the viewer can identify with Koistinen’s not
being in control of the situation. While the scene discussed earlier
blocked access to the content of dialogue, here the content is
presented to the viewer but is too complex to grasp fully. Here,
again, the voice becomes just a sound, and the scene produces an
effect of speech going in one ear and right out of the other.

40 TTR XXVII 2
 The Role of Sound in Film Translation

(3) Loss of intelligibility: Speech is fully or partly drowned in

ambient sounds (Chion, 1994, pp. 178-183).
This scene portrays Koistinen entering a restaurant. He
orders a drink and tries to start a conversation with a woman
at the bar but is rejected. A man who is in the company of the
woman comes to Koistinen and tells him to leave. Koistinen goes

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 Sari Kokkola

near the restroom entrance and stands there next to the wall,
holding his drink. After this, we see a colleague of Koistinen
sitting at the bar with an unknown man, having a conversation
and looking at Koistinen. The colleague points his finger in the
direction of Koistinen, which makes it clear that they are talking
about him. Alternating shots of both Koistinen and the two men
create a strong impression that they are looking at each other.
Koistinen stands far away from the men and cannot hear their
conversation fully, because the dialogue is partly drowned in the
ambient noises of the restaurant. Consistently with this, only a
fragment of the first sentence is heard on the soundtrack: “Toi
jätkä on meillä yövuorossa…” which in English translation is
“That guy works night shifts [at our company]…” The English
subtitled version (see images and subtitles below, column on the
left) renders what is actually being heard on the soundtrack, and
what the film implies is heard by Koistinen. However, the subtitler
of the German version (see images and subtitles below, column on
the right) has made a different decision and included an additional
subtitle for speech that cannot be heard on the soundtrack at all:
- Ist er verheiratet? -Nein.
- Da haben wir einen perfekten Mann.
Direct translation from German:
- Is he married? - No.
- He is a perfect man for us.
While the English translation reproduces the original
relationship between image, sound and word in this scene,
the German version manipulates the relationship by adding a
large amount of material that was originally not audible on the
soundtrack, thus undermining the element of suspense that arises
from the dialogue being unintelligible in the original version
of the film. In addition, since on the basis of listening to the
soundtrack we have absolutely no proof of what was really said
between the two men, the translator of the German version has
taken excessive liberties manipulating the story. In addition, the
part of the invented subtitle in which the man answers “No” to the
other one’s question does not agree with what is simultaneously
seen in the image. There are no lip movements coinciding with
the invented subtitle: The man is shaking his head. This scene,

42 TTR XXVII 2
 The Role of Sound in Film Translation

like many other scenes in the film, relies on information conveyed

non-verbally. The verbal here is clearly secondary, buried in the
ambient sounds of the setting. In the original version there is a
strong sense of foreboding on which the scene rests.

Column 1: English subtitles Column 2: German subtitles

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 Sari Kokkola

Conclusions
The objective of this article was to enlarge the concept of film
translation beyond the paradigm of textuality and propose an
analysis method developed by Michel Chion within film studies
that allows for addressing film sound from the perspective of
film translation. Due to the context-bound nature of sound, it
is not possible to analyze film sound in isolation but in relation
to the audiovisual whole in which it is embedded. Therefore, an
approach to the role of sound in film translation is inevitably an
approach to film as a multimodal whole. An approach that treats
the aural and the visual as equals to the verbal has epistemological
implications for translation studies. They involve rethinking the
current verbally oriented categories of translational knowledge
and enable a shift from verbally based translational thought
to audiovisually based translational thought. This does not,
however, mean polarizing the verbal and the non-verbal or giving
preference to one over the other. Rather, it must be acknowledged
that images, sounds and words have their place in cinematic
expression, and an audiovisually oriented approach to translation,
which treats all these elements as equals, allows us to see how
the verbal fits into the audiovisual whole of the film. When co-
presented, images, sounds and words transform each other, and
as was shown with the example scenes from Lights in the Dusk,
different subtitles can radically change the focal core of a scene.
Thus, film subtitling is not an additive process in which the image
and sound remain intact, but should be seen as a transformation
that leads to a (degree of ) qualitative change in the audiovisual
whole. Therefore, the translation unit a film subtitler works with
is not a purely verbal unit but an audiovisual unit (in which the
verbal is always embedded). Changes brought about by subtitling
can operate at higher levels as well, for example by influencing
the larger themes of the film, as was in the case of the perception
of loneliness and social isolation in Lights in the Dusk.
The visual and the aural are always (often implicitly) analyzed
to some extent when translating an audiovisual text, but this step
has not been made sufficiently visible in research on audiovisual
translation. The phenomenologically informed approach, which is
based on things that are experienceable, is a step towards making
the film translator’s decision-making process more transparent.
Chion’s audiovisual analysis is an effective tool in teaching

44 TTR XXVII 2
 The Role of Sound in Film Translation

translation students how cinematic expression works and how

different translation decisions can influence the film experience as
a whole. Learning to perceive audiovisual combinations effectively
and systematically requires practical exercises. Based on the
individual’s experience of film, the phenomenologically informed
approach can also empower the film translator in that it sees the
translator’s experience and embodied situatedness in the world as
a valuable starting point from which to understand translation,
cinema and the world.
References
Augoyard, Jean-François and Henry Torgue, eds. (2005). Sonic Experience:
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Sari Kokkola
University of Tampere
School of Language, Translation and Literary Studies
Kokkola.Sari.J@student.uta.fi

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