I come from Italy, which is the quintessence of the dubbing country. But I also live in the UK, an extreme caption country. I go to the cinema with people from all around the world and I have heard of the most absurd practices about dubbing, like the ‘live translation’, in which an actor with a mic inside the cinema does the voice over of all the dialogues - the cultural equivalent of coprophagy, basically.

I am in a privileged position to observe this subject matter – and I came to the conclusion that dubbing is not only stupid and evil, but also wrong and economically counterproductive. There are three reasons for this.

Find out more on the cafebabel blog nisi masa

Image: Pulp Fiction subtitled in German ©EternallyNatalia/ Flickr