The Wrong Language

QUESTION

What is something unrealistic that you often see in movies which annoys you a lot?

ANSWER

The wrong language in historical and biographical dramas.

The story may be set in France or Germany or Italy or some other place where English is not the dominating language, but all characters speak English!

This is a serious flaw.

This is a violation of historical truth.

This is unrealistic and it annoys me a lot.

Here are some examples of this bizarre phenomenon.

FRANCE

In the following cases, the story is (mostly) set in France, but all characters speak English!

** Prisoner of Honor (1991)

(About Alfred Dreyfus)

** Napoleon (2002)

(a miniseries with four episodes)

** Marie Antoinette (2006)

** A Little Chaos (2014)

(About the landscape architect who designed the park behind the Palace of Versailles)

** Versailles (2015-2018)

(A French television series which ran for three seasons)

** Colette (2018)

** Radioactive (2020)

(About Madame Curie)

** Chevalier (2023)

(About the former slave Joseph Bologne, also known as Chevalier de Saint-George) (1745-1799)

** Napoleon (2023)

GERMANY

In the following cases, the story is (mostly) set in Germany, but all characters speak English!

** Voyage of the Damned (1976)

(About the German ocean liner St Louis and its ill-fated journey with hundreds of Jewish refugees across the Atlantic Ocean in 1939)

** Night Crossing (1982)

(In 1979, two families attempt to escape from East Germany to West Germany in a hot air balloon)

** Conspiracy (2001)

(The topic is the so-called Wannsee Conference held in Berlin in 1942)

** The Book Thief (2013)

** Alone in Berlin (2016)

** Where Hands Touch (2018)

THE NETHERLANDS

In the following cases, the story is set in the Netherlands, but all characters speak English!

** Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003)

** The Exception (2016)

(About Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor, and his exile in the Netherlands)

** The Last Vermeer (2019)

** Van Der Walk (2020-2023)

(A television series which has run for three seasons)

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

In the following case, the story is set in Czechoslovakia, but all characters speak English!

** Milada (2017)

(About Milada Horakova)

RUSSIA AND THE SOVIET UNION

In the following cases, the story is set in Russia or the Soviet Union, but all characters speak English!

** Dr. Zhivago (1965)

** Within the Whirlwind (2009)

(About Yevgenia Ginzburg)

** Child 44 (2015)

** War And Peace (2016)

(a miniseries with six episodes)

** The Death of Stalin (2017)

** Bitter Harvest (2017)

(About Ukraine between the two world wars)

** Ashes in the Snow (2018)

(About the deportations from Lithuania)

** Catherine the Great (2019)

(A miniseries with four episodes)

GERMAN-OCCUPIED POLAND

In the following cases, the story is (mostly) set in German-occupied Poland during World War Two, but all characters speak English!

** Schindler’s List (1993)

** The Devil’s Arithmetic (1999)

(About an American Jewish teenager who is magically transported back in time where she meets her ancestors in Poland during World War Two)

** Out of the Ashes (2003)

(About Gisella Perl, a Hungarian Jewish doctor, who was deported to Auschwitz during World War Two where she had to work with the German doctor Josef Mengele)

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

In the following case, the story is set in the Ottoman Empire during World War One, but all characters speak English!

** The Promise (2016)

(About the Armenian genocide during World War One)

AUSTRIA

In the following case, the story is set in Austria, but all characters speak English!

** Vienna Blood (2019-2022)

(A television series which has run for three seasons)

REFLECTIONS

When a director wants to create a historical drama, he or she will (in most cases) spend a lot of time and effort (as well as money) in order to make the drama realistic.

The director wants to have as much historical accuracy as possible (within the limits of the budget available).

What does this mean?

(A) Actors are carefully chosen. The leading actors must look like the persons they have to portray. In addition, their age must be appropriate.

(B) Costumes are carefully chosen or created. The costumes must reflect the historical period covered in the drama.

(C) Locations are carefully chosen. Original locations are preferred and chosen if they are available. Otherwise, locations which are similar to the original locations will be found and used.

(D) Technology seen in the drama and used by the actors is carefully chosen. Items seen in the drama and used by the actors must reflect the historical period which is covered in the drama.

What about the language which is spoken in the drama? This aspect is an essential part of the whole package.

But in many cases, it is ignored, because all characters speak English, even though the story is set in France or Germany or Italy or some other place where English is not the dominating language.

This is a serious flaw!

This is a gross violation of historical truth!

This is unrealistic and it annoys me a lot!

But this issue is rarely discussed when historical dramas are reviewed. In many cases, it is not even mentioned!

Apparently, it is regarded as totally normal and fully acceptable that all characters speak English, even though the story takes place in France or Germany or Italy or some other place where English is not the dominating language.

Why not choose actors who can speak the appropriate language and add subtitles in English?

The sad answer is that many directors in English-speaking countries are afraid of using subtitles in a movie.

Many directors are afraid the general public will refuse to watch a foreign movie with subtitles.

Many directors are afraid the movie will be an economic disaster if it has the original language and subtitles in English.

The objection to subtitles is absurd. In small countries such as Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands, all movies are shown with the original soundtrack and subtitles in the local language.

Nobody complains about this, because the viewers are used to reading subtitles.

CONCLUSION

Many items listed above cover stories which are important and which deserve to be told.

It is a shame the directors decided to ruin these movies and to introduce a fundamental flaw when they decided that all characters must speak English, even though the story is set in France or Germany or Italy or some other place where English is not the dominating language.

REFERENCES