Cinematic Style through Subtitles and Translation: Reading the Hollywood Western in Lucky Luke
Date
2014-09-16
Authors
Harrison, Justin
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Abstract
Franco-Europe’s massively popular comic book series Lucky Luke may be read, among others, as a postwar text, a cold-war text, or the authors’ love letter to America. But the creation of these albums can also be studied through the lens of the movie-going experience of a French-speaking audience watching a Hollywood Western dubbed or subtitled into French. Lucky Luke is a cultural icon of the French, yet it draws heavily on a mythologized American West. This series is, obviously, very visual, yet in a particularly cinematic way. These books are a pictorial representation of Hollywood movies, replete with close-ups, wide angles, establishing shots, and cinemascope-like visuals. But language-specific elements such as musical numbers, text-based visuals like signs, and known geographical names cannot be conveniently overdubbed. Reading Lucky Luke in its original French is an experience akin to a film going experience in which place and character names, songs, and signs are all represented in English, as in a near all-encompassing backdrop, with a French overlay on top.
Description
To be published in as a chapter in an ebook in 2015.
Keywords
Western Films, Bande Dessinee, Lucky Luke, Comics, National Identity