I just finished the movie and popped in the american version to see if the voices synced up and I was wondering,
Did Burt Lancaster do the film in English when he filmed it and they dubbed it for the Italian version or did he film it in Italian? It seems like he filmed it in English but i'm just wondering if that complicated things when they filmed it
In Italy at that time, practically no sound was recorded in sync with the action, even the Italian actors would redub all their lines or another actor would dub for them.
Since many large productions in Italy at that time were not solely funded by Italian companies it was not uncommon for West German, Austrian, English and French actorsa to appear in Itallian movies if a company from their country was invloved in the production.
I've read that in these cases it was not unusal for actors of different nationalities to deliver their lines in their own language as this would enable them to concentrate on their performance, since the dialogue was going to be replaced later.
It's a credit to the actors that, a few lipsync ano,alies aside, the performances are as good as they are in my opinion.
After about 5 mins of Il Gattopardo I had totally forgotten the disappointment of not being able to hear Burt's fantastic voice and was as engrossed in his performance as I would if he were not dubbed. I have not had a chance to see and English language version for comparison and don't necessarily feel the need to.
The Criterion Collection DVD includes the complete American version—the version released in the USA in 1963—as dictinct from Visconti's Original Version (also included, from the original negative, completely in Italian.)
The American version is dubbed into American English, and has Burt Lancaster doing his own dubbing. American audiences would not have accepted anything else, at the time.
Snobbery is a form of romanticism, the chastity of the perfectionist
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