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228 DIALOGUE
whole space of the theatrical stage damps down the emphasis of the spoken word; the film close-up renders such emphasis as unnecessary as it does the violent grimacing, the lurid makeup or the sweeping gesture.
WHY LANGUAGE DUBBING IS IMPOSSIBLE
One of the most acute problems of film production to-day is the question of exports to areas speaking a foreign language. This problem affects especially small nations very seriously. The inner market is insufficient to pay for production costs and the great nations who can satisfy the demand of their own inner market by their own production, very seldom buy films, the foreign dialogue of which has to be conveyed to the public by means of titles. It is well known that half the effect is lost in this way.
Why then is dialogue not dubbed in various languages? This was done a good deal in the first years of the sound film and this technique has also made great progress since that time. There must be a serious reason for the film industry's abandonment of this practice and with it much of the possibility of earnings in foreign countries.
The reason is that by now it has become impossible to dub in the dialogue of a sound film. This is a result of the developmen of film culture to a higher stage. The sound film has educated the public to see and hear the profound connection between speech and facial expression. The public to-day understands not only the meaning of the spoken word but also the sound-gesture that goes with it (which was discussed in the preceding chapter) and can hear in it the parallel to gesture and facial expression. A thus sophisticated public immediately feels the contradiction between, say, French facial expression and an English voice subsequently dubbed on to it. In the old days when we as yet paid attention only to the conceptual meaning of the dialogue, it was conceivable that someone in a film should say in English with an English calm, cool intonation T love you' and accompany the words with passionate Italian gestures. It strikes the present-day public as irresistibly funny if it notices — and it does notice — a dis