Horror Studies Talk - Dr Damien Pollard (Northumbria) "Dubbing, Ducks and Death: The Voice in Giallo Cinema"

Please join us for a research talk by our own Dr Damien Pollard on Thursday 13th November, 4-5pm.

The talk will be held in-person at Northumbria university in Squires Building SQB 316. The talk will also be streamed via Teams. Click the link below to access the talk on the day:

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• Meeting ID: 383 449 828 591 0

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Title: Dubbing, Ducks and Death: The Voice in Giallo Cinema 

Abstract: The cinematic voice is often the formal cornerstone of film’s sound design. It is also the product of multiple industrial processes. The industrial production of the cinematic voice tends, in turn, to be shaped by the political, economic and cultural forces that bear down on a film’s production. The voice in a film is therefore more than just an aesthetic object, it is also the material trace of the commercial and social milieu in which a film is made. This talk will use the voice as an entry point for an analysis of giallo films’ historicity. It will first consider the ways in which Aldo Lado’s Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971) foregrounds Italian film production’s reliance on voice dubbing; dubbing was a vital part of the co-production model that sustained the Italian and European popular film industries in the postwar years because it opened up exhibition markets and allowed international casts to perform together. In this way, the dubbing of seemingly throwaway films like gialli played a material role in the gradual move towards cultural and political integration in Europe. This talk will also consider a late giallo, Lucio Fulci’s The New York Ripper (1982) in which a murderer mimics the voice of Donald Duck during scenes of gruesome violence. The film’s chaotic, auditory invocation of Donald Duck relies on the character’s voice being recognisable across Italy and around the world; it broadcasts the film’s immersion in media marketplace that was increasingly globalised and a socioeconomic paradigm that was increasingly neoliberal. 

The talk presents research from Damien's new book, Sound and Horror in the Giallo Film (Indiana University Press) - for more details, see https://tinyurl.com/wue5sdt9

More information about Damien’s research can be found here