Audio-describing visual filmic allusions

ABSTRACT

Filmic allusions, and especially different types of visual allusions, have become a staple of many film genres today. However, a systematic methodology for studying such allusions in film appears not to have been developed. The present study makes use of terminology and concepts from literary studies to analyse how specific references or markers in one film refer to marked items in another, older film, creating meaningful but often indirect links between the two productions. Using the audio-described version of a French parody film that abounds with allusions in different forms and combinations, Astérix et Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre, the study goes on to investigate how the audio-described version, which makes audiovisual products accessible for blind and visually impaired audiences by verbalizing the productions’ visual narration, tackles these allusions and their indirect referencing system.

KEYWORDS:

• Audio-description
• cinematic allusions
• parody
• intertextuality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Katrien Lievois is a lecturer of French language and culture at the Department of Applied Linguistics/Translators and Interpreters at the University of Antwerp, where she is also member of the research group Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies (TricS). Her main research interests are the translation of irony and intertextuality; the (Dutch) translations of the African Francophone novel; and pseudotranslations. She is also the chief editor of Linguistica Antverpiensia New Series – Themes in Translation Studies (https://lans-tts.uantwerpen.be).

Aline Remael is Department Chair, Research Coordinator and Professor of Translation Theory, Interpreting and Audiovisual Translation at the Department of Applied Linguistics/Translators and Interpreters, University of Antwerp. Her main research interests are audiovisual translation, media accessibility and new hybrid forms of interpreting that have affinities with Audiovisual Translation (AVT). She was a partner in the European ADLAB-project on audio-description (www.adlabproject.eu), is leading a Flemish funded project on accessible theatre, and is currently a partner in an Erasmus Plus Knowledge Alliance project entitled ‘Accessible Culture and Training’ (ACT). She is a member of the International TransMedia Research Group, and board member of the European Network for Public Service Interpreting and Translation).

Notes

1. The core target audience for AD is itself very heterogeneous. Some of its members, a minority, will have been born blind, some will have lost their sight early on in life, whereas the majority will suffer from a form of visual impairment related to age. This means that some visually impaired persons will still have some form of visual memory whereas others will even have access to part of the images. However, today AD caters for the group as a whole and must therefore function for those who are blind as well as for those who are partially sighted and might still recognize the marker of a filmic allusion.

2. We would like to thank TF1, Pathé, Artmedia and Mr. Alain Chabat for giving us the permission to use this audio-described version, which is not available on the market, for our research purposes.

3. See http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-28537/box-office/ for more than 14 million reactions.

4. ‘Scene’ is defined as follows: ‘Spatio-temporal continuity felt as being without flaws or breaks, in which the signified […] is continuous, as in the theatrical scene, but where the signifier is fragmented into diverse shots’ (Stam, Burgoyne, & Flitterman-Lewis, 1992, pp. 40–41).

5. Film soundtracks have complex functions. The blind and visually impaired audience can access the soundtrack; however, its functions are often linked to visually conveyed information, and research into the amount of information that the AD needs to convey to clarify these is inconclusive to date. (Fryer, 2010; Remael, 2012).

6. The scenes referred to are: Scenes 6 (‘Cartoon – In the Great Pyramid’), 10 (‘Munchhausen’) and 12 (‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2’).