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peterbirksWell, I finally watched the last episode of series three of Heimat, bringing to an end my viewing joy of the year. I guess that I shall just have to watch it again.
When the talkies were invented, it was said that it would destroy cinema, because actors could no longer speak a "global" language. Although this argument was a bit of an oversimplification, the concept certainly applies when it comes to Heimat, which, if it had been made in English and had featured a small American town, would have been hailed as one of the masterpieces of the last 50 years of television.
As it was, it was made in German, featured a small German town, and was parked away on BBC Four. Edgar Reitz made the first series in the early 1980s, the second series in 1994, and the last in 2004, although this hides the fact that each of them took several years to make. I think that if anyone wants to understand Germany in the 20th century, this should be compulsory viewing. It was certainly compulsive viewing.
And, obviously, I fell in love with Salome Kammer.
When the talkies were invented, it was said that it would destroy cinema, because actors could no longer speak a "global" language. Although this argument was a bit of an oversimplification, the concept certainly applies when it comes to Heimat, which, if it had been made in English and had featured a small American town, would have been hailed as one of the masterpieces of the last 50 years of television.
As it was, it was made in German, featured a small German town, and was parked away on BBC Four. Edgar Reitz made the first series in the early 1980s, the second series in 1994, and the last in 2004, although this hides the fact that each of them took several years to make. I think that if anyone wants to understand Germany in the 20th century, this should be compulsory viewing. It was certainly compulsive viewing.
And, obviously, I fell in love with Salome Kammer.
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Date: 2005-10-25 12:24 pm (UTC)DY
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Date: 2005-10-25 12:34 pm (UTC)I may end up buying it as a sort of joint Christmas present for Julie & Nicki. That volume of German with subtitles isn't to be sneezed at. We do a decent trade now in acquiring DVDs from Germany that have both English and (dubbed) German soundtracks and German and English subtitles. Very useful for language students! It doesn't seem to work the other way round. No-one produces English dubbed versions of German/French stuff. I'll look on Amazon.de.
Heimat
Date: 2005-10-25 01:16 pm (UTC)They are subtitled, but my abysmal German certainly improved through watching the series.
PJ
Dubbing
Date: 2005-10-25 01:23 pm (UTC)Why would you want stuff dubbed into English? I once had the misfortune of seeing The Damned dubbed into Italian, with English subtitles. Apparently this was the only print that the BBC could get hold of (I actually e-mailed them to ask what possessed them to broadcast such an abominable version).
I hate dubbing. I hate it when I watch stuff in Germany and I hate it when they do voiceover translations, because then you miss the original voice.
You are right on the "no concessions for latecomers". I think that Heimat Two can be watched without Heimat One -- there is little crossover between the two apart from the fact that the lead character Hermann was brought up in Shabbach. But Heimat Three really needs a knowledge of both previous series to be appreciated properly.
Strangely, all three series are remarkably different, making it hard to say which was a "favourite".
Re: Dubbing
Date: 2005-10-25 03:29 pm (UTC)That way Nicki can watch films and absorb the thing in German alone and Julie can use it for her thickies by playing a film they know in German with English subtitles or vice versa.
Actually I'm told that the dubbed version of Pirates.... is really funny because the strange Johny Depp pseudo Keith Richards is just translated across as pure camp.
Heimat
Date: 2005-10-26 01:15 pm (UTC)Well, it may be German, but not as we know it. Well at least the bits that I've seen, all from Heimat 1, were strongly canted towards the Hunsrück dialect. And probably, given the level of detail within the series, an accurate version of the Hunsrück dialect as it was 80 years ago, rather than anything current. If you're learning German from that, you're going to get some petty funny looks next time you're in Berlin or Hamburg! I found it fascinating, but I was struggling with some things that the villagers said, and had to work from context.
John W
Re: Heimat
Date: 2005-10-26 03:08 pm (UTC)I hadn't realized that the early Heimats were that accented though. Most of the gain was from sentence construction and vocabulary, rather than pronunciation. Talking with an odd sentence construction is no handicap, so long as you are understood. Most people find it amusing.
PJ