ABSTRACT
IN HISTORIES OF THE CINEMA THE QUESTION of multiple language versions (hereafter MLVs) figures generally as a negligible episode worthy of a line or two, at most a paragraph, which goes as follows: with the coming of sound, films are no longer automatically exportable. Hollywood studios find themselves obliged to produce films adapted to national markets (at least the most important ones linguistically and financially, i.e., the Spanish, German, French and Swedish) in order to satisfy the demand for films in European languages as well as to dodge import quotas then imposed by most European countries. One of two strategies is usually adopted: importing directors, scriptwriters and actors from each country to Hollywood (the MGM solution) or setting up production centres in Europe (the Paramount method). Both solutions, against the background of the Depression, prove equally costly and are rapidly dropped in favour of dubbing, or (more, rarely) subtitling, as we know them today.
