The Italian Dubbing of ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ Has Stirred Up a Surprising Controversy

《穿普拉达的女王2》意大利语配音引发了意想不到的争议

One thing is certain about The Devil Wears Prada 2: The ambitious undertaking of making a sequel of a cult status film after 20 years has succeeded, at least as far as box office figures are concerned. The numbers speak for themselves, with $77 million generated in US theaters and another $157 million in the rest of the world since its April 29 release. 关于《穿普拉达的女王2》，有一点是肯定的：在20年后为一部邪典电影拍摄续集，这一雄心勃勃的尝试至少在票房数据上是成功的。数字说明了一切，自4月29日上映以来，该片在美国影院获得了7700万美元的票房，在世界其他地区也收获了1.57亿美元。

In the face of such a box office smash, this installment has inspired heated debates for days about its quality and comparisons to the original. In Italy, those arguments even extend to the dubbing of the film. 面对如此巨大的票房成功，这部续集连日来引发了关于其质量以及与原作对比的热烈讨论。在意大利，这些争论甚至延伸到了电影的配音问题上。

The controversy stems from the choice of voice actors in the Italian version of The Devil Wears Prada 2, who are themselves a nod to continuity; it’s the same cast as the original. Connie Bismuto is back to voice Anne Hathaway as Andy, Francesca Manicone dubs Emily Blunt as Emily, Gabriele Lavia is once again Stanley Tucci’s Nigel, and above all, Maria Pia Di Meo, the actress who has been the familiar and expressive voice of Meryl Streep in practically all the Italian adaptations of recent years—including the fearsome Miranda Priestly—returned for the sequel. 争议源于《穿普拉达的女王2》意大利语版配音演员的选择，这些演员本身是为了致敬电影的连续性，沿用了与原作相同的阵容。Connie Bismuto回归为安妮·海瑟薇饰演的安迪配音，Francesca Manicone为艾米莉·布朗特饰演的艾米莉配音，Gabriele Lavia再次为斯坦利·图齐饰演的奈杰尔配音，最重要的是，玛丽亚·皮亚·迪·梅奥（Maria Pia Di Meo）——这位在近年来几乎所有意大利语译制片中都是梅丽尔·斯特里普（包括那位令人敬畏的米兰达·普雷斯利）熟悉且富有表现力的声音的演员——也回归了续集。

While many fans were happy to revisit these familiar voices, other viewers noticed some idiosyncrasies, largely due to the advanced age of the voice actors themselves, especially Di Meo and Lavia. 虽然许多粉丝很高兴能再次听到这些熟悉的声音，但其他观众也注意到了一些不协调之处，这主要归因于配音演员本身的高龄，尤其是迪·梅奥和拉维亚。

Di Meo, born in 1939, is undoubtedly a master of Italian dubbing, and her performances, linked to such great Hollywood actresses as Jane Fonda, Julie Andrews, Mia Farrow, Barbra Streisand, and Streep, have made her one of the most recognizable and expressive voices of cinema in that country’s theaters. 出生于1939年的迪·梅奥无疑是意大利配音界的大师，她曾为简·方达、朱莉·安德鲁斯、米亚·法罗、芭芭拉·史翠珊和斯特里普等好莱坞伟大女星配音，这些表演使她成为意大利影院中最具辨识度和表现力的电影声音之一。

Yet some say her performance now reveals too much of the passage of time and that there’s a disconnect between her 87-year-old voice and that of a character as energetic and sharp as Miranda (played, in the original, by a 76-year-old Streep). Could this nine-year gap be too great to bridge? The same has been said of Lavia, who dubs Stanley Tucci with a result that often sounds a bit forced. 然而，一些人认为她现在的表演暴露了太多的岁月痕迹，她87岁的嗓音与米兰达（原作中由76岁的斯特里普饰演）那样充满活力和犀利的角色之间存在脱节。这九年的差距是否难以逾越？对于为斯坦利·图齐配音的拉维亚，人们也有同样的看法，其配音效果往往听起来有些勉强。

But more than a question of age, perhaps there’s a broader discussion to be had about dubbing in general and its effectiveness in an era in which downloads first and then streaming platforms have accustomed us to seeing more and more content in the original language. 但比起年龄问题，或许更值得探讨的是关于配音的普遍性，以及在这样一个时代——先是下载，随后是流媒体平台，让我们习惯于观看越来越多的原声内容——配音的有效性。

Even just listening to the trailers released online for The Devil Wears Prada 2, a native Italian speaker will notice not only that the voices that have aged into varying degrees of mismatch but also that the speed of the lines makes them hard to follow. And what about the adaptation of the dialog? “I’m a features editor at Runway,” Anne Hathaway’s Andy says proudly, but how many of those who live outside newsrooms know what a features editor is? And again, when Miranda’s second assistant says, “I have to pee, I drank a venti,” how many people outside of the US understand on the fly that she’s referring to a Starbucks drink? 即使只是听听网上发布的《穿普拉达的女王2》预告片，以意大利语为母语的人不仅会注意到配音演员因衰老而产生的不同程度的不匹配，还会发现台词的语速让人难以跟上。那么对话的翻译适配呢？安妮·海瑟薇饰演的安迪自豪地说：“我是《Runway》的专题编辑”，但有多少新闻编辑室之外的人知道什么是专题编辑？再比如，当米兰达的第二助理说“我要去尿尿，我喝了一杯Venti”时，有多少美国以外的人能立刻明白她指的是星巴克的杯型？

Perhaps, then, what hasn’t aged so well is not so much the voices of individual dubbers but a dubbing system that no longer keeps pace—in most cases—with the speed and specificity with which the content itself is produced. In the face of this consideration, however, one cannot ignore that, at least in a market like Italy, especially at the cinema, people overwhelmingly go to see dubbed versions of movies. 或许，真正“老去”的与其说是配音演员个人的声音，不如说是一套在大多数情况下已无法跟上内容生产速度和专业性的配音系统。然而，面对这一考量，我们不能忽视的是，至少在意大利这样的市场，特别是在电影院，人们绝大多数还是会选择观看配音版的电影。

So these same online debates perhaps serve to keep attention focused on how many countries outside of the US experience these films. And one that deserves not only greater respect but also a quality that isn’t fully guaranteed with today’s frenetic pace. 因此，这些在线辩论或许有助于让人们持续关注美国以外的国家是如何体验这些电影的。这是一个不仅值得更多尊重，而且需要更高质量的领域，而这种质量在当今快节奏的环境下并不能得到充分保证。

This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian. 本文最初发表于《连线》意大利版，由意大利语翻译而来。