Foreign language subtitles in English on Italian blus?

[Desk.]

Hi there,

I'm thinking of buying an Italian blu-ray release of a US movie, as it offers it in an uncut Region B form.

However, although the bulk of the film is in English there are some sections with Russian dialogue.

Does anyone know how these sections will be handled when watching an Italian blu-ray on a UK player? Will the Russian language scenes result in English or Italian subtitles, or maybe even no subtitles at all?

Desk

[Erasmus Craven]

Most likely you will get Italian subs, but without knowing what disc you're asking about I think nobody can really tell you. Many (if not most) discs on Amazon.it also have the back covers pictured, so you might get some info there.

[julz0802]

If it's distributed by a major studio (e.g. 20th Century Fox or Sony) then English will also be available. HOWEVER if it's released by a local distributor, it's a safer bet to say there will be no English subtitles. Like the last poster stated, without the title we don't have any ability to give exact information.

[Desk.]

Originally Posted by Erasmus Craven

Most likely you will get Italian subs, but without knowing what disc you're asking about I think nobody can really tell you. Many (if not most) discs on Amazon.it also have the back covers pictured, so you might get some info there.

It's The Equalizer, but I don't think the rear of the packaging reveals very much...



Pity if there's enforced Italian subs. The only safe Region 2 uncut option in that case would be Australia.

Desk

[Desk.]

Originally Posted by julz0802

If it's distributed by a major studio (e.g. 20th Century Fox or Sony) then English will also be available. HOWEVER if it's released by a local distributor, it's a safer bet to say there will be no English subtitles. Like the last poster stated, without the title we don't have any ability to give exact information.

That's not quite what I'm asking.

I'm not worried about it having English subtitles throughout the film.

My concern is that when watching the film in English (without subtitles switched on) and there's a scene where characters are speaking in Russian, their subtitles will come up in Italian rather than English.

Desk

[Desk.]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Even without knowing the Italian language you can easily read off the back that it contains English, Italian, Dutch, French and Arabic subs...

I'll try explaining again.

I don't care if it has English, Italian or even Martian subtitles - I'll have them all switched off.

My concern is that there are scenes in the film where Russian characters are speaking Russian. The film does not have burnt-in subtitles, so in the UK version English player-generated subtitles come up when they are speaking.

With the Italian blu-ray release, with the player generate the subtitles in these scenes in English when watching with English selected as the default language on my player, or will they come up in Italian?

Desk

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Desk.

With the Italian blu-ray release, with the player generate the subtitles in these in English when watching with English selected as the default language on my player, or will they come up in Italian?

If the disc is used throughout Europe then it will have the foreign translations localized to the player's setting, but you'd have to know what the disc was.

The easiest thing to do is to PM one of the members who has the disc and ask them nicely if they could check if the disc (they'd have to change their player settings) features localized translations.

Apart from that there's no way to tell, some majors use the same disc, but Sony often output their discs to smaller local distributors and the film been cut for the UK would have be believe it's not the same disc, but a local one. But as it has English subtitles you might be in luck, but you might have to sit through all of them, to get the translations.

[barrett75]

i have the disc and no problem if you watch the english track... english subs will pop up when talking other languages...

[julz0802]

Originally Posted by Desk.

That's not quite what I'm asking.

Then I feel like the question isn't very clear without further clarification.

Originally Posted by Desk.

My concern is that there are scenes in the film where Russian characters are speaking Russian. The film does not have burnt-in subtitles, so in the UK version English player-generated subtitles come up when they are speaking.

This is a better explanation.

The answer can still depend on the film and the release. For your particular example, since it's a wider release, and you say there are no burnt-in subtitles, then there will be most likely be "forced" subtitle tracks in addition to full subtitle tracks including those for hard of hearing. These forced subtitles will display only during dialogue or signage not in the target language of the film. Full subtitle tracks may still show these in addition to the dialogue of the film. In the absence of separate forced subtitle tracks, you may need to read the film in its fully English-subtitled form.

The alternative case, where there are burnt-in subtitles, is that localised releases by smaller distributors would generally show burnt-in subtitles translated into the language of the country of release. This applies to movies from larger studios. Although for some lower-budget movies (think arthouse or indie), in the so very rare examples of those containing foreign hard-subbed dialogue, there may be forced subtitles displayed below the burnt-in subtitles, depending on whether they provided a video track lacking burnt-in subtitles to local distributors.

So reverting to your original post armed with the further information, the answer is: it depends on the default language setting of your player, or which subtitle language you have selected to display. There would be a choice of at least English, Italian or French subtitles to display during the foreign dialogue.