Russian vampires: Coming to America?
American movies, like American culture in general, have a way of dominating abroad, shaping local tastes and expectations with their omnipresence. Rare is the foreign film that dares to come to America in search of anything more than a tiny niche audience of cinematic connoisseurs. Many distributors have, as a result, simply stopped trying. Fox Searchlight, however, thinks it has found a winner in Nochnoi Dozor (Night Watch), a movie that took Russia by storm in 2004. The American company has obtained U.S. distribution rights to the movie and its sequel Day Watch, and has gone so far as to finance the costs of shooting the trilogy's third installment. The hope is that, for once, the crossover appeal will go in the other direction, with Americans embracing a film shot by and for foreigners.
However, more than just questions of taste exist to complicate the process of importing a movie. Translation plays a huge role in determining how a movie is perceived by American audiences. Barriers of language and culture can make the obvious confusing, the eloquent choppy or wordy, and the dramatic dull. To what degree the distributor succeeds in conveying the full feel and meaning of a film to the foreign audience is critical in determination how "good" that movie is in their eyes.
What, then of Night Watch? Having seen Nochnoi Dozor several times, I was deeply curious to see how this unmistakably Russian movie would be presented for American consumption. The thematic genre is well-aligned with American expectations: the sci-fi-fantasy-action-noir has established itself as a fairly popular genre, and Dozor has been referred to as the Russian Matrix, with some Blade Runner thrown in for good measure. And in any case, the battle between good and evil is a time-tested theme, powerful across national barriers.
Mindful of cross-cultural concerns, Fox Searchlight has tried to clarify as well as translate. Night Watch is in many ways a Director's Cut version of Dozor. An introductory narration, done in English with an appropriately typical Russian accent, has been added, as well as a few flashbacks and visions of the future. While all of these changes fit in with the plot, their obvious purpose is to clarify the storyline of the original, which is notably convoluted and often leaves much unexplained. I don't know how much of the re-editing was an attempt by the film's original creators to improve the movie and how much was done for the sake of American comprehension. In some ways, however, the effect is the reverse of the one desired, as some of Dozor's continuity and pacing is distorted. Still, the sum result is probably positive - many of the redone shots are tighter and physically closer to the actors, and much of what has been removed was ultimately unnecessary to the plot (and probably incomprehensible to a non-Russian audience anyway).
The most important part of the film's adaptation for U.S. audiences is, of course, the means of putting it into English: the subtitles. Rather than merely conveying the meaning of the words being said, the subtitles take on a life of their own: they fly, they jump around, they appear in red and then dissolve away like blood. Some of these tricks are effective and some reminded me of the word special effects last seen in bad 70s comic book cartoons. Either way, this typographic wizardry definitely adds to the bizarre feel that the movie seeks to cultivate.
As for the translation itself, it is by and large up to the task. The original dialogue is as far-out as the rest of the movie, a weird mix of the modern mundane and the medieval mythic (think of Morpheus's dialogue in The Matrix), and the English stays true to this style. As usual, there are some quibble-worthy choices. One tendency that I've noticed in a number of film translations to English is the insertion of curse words where none exist in the original. Granted, swearing works differently in Russian, and it may be that today one can't express strong emotion in English without cursing, but there's something about the connotations of vulgarity that makes me question inserting "f---" or "shit" when nothing of the sort has been said. There is also something off about translating "periodicheski" - literally "periodically" - as "all the time." I'm pretty sure those aren't the same thing, even in Russia. And I'm not certain how or even if one should translate a Russian kid saying the word "sorry," but "my bad" doesn't feel right somehow.
These are minor issues, though. Taken as a whole, the movie is ably, albeit noticeably, transformed for the American audience. The plot is far too complex for me to try to summarize it here; I will merely end by recommending this film to those interested in seeing something that is different from the usual Hollywood fare, yet still feels familiar enough. Besides, where else are you going to find vodka-drinking vampires?