October 28, 1997 
     
    
   
   
    
     Movie 
     
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     The Cadre 15 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
        
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
        
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
         
     
    
   
   
    
     *Foreign Film Review* 
     
     By David MacDonald 
     
    
   
   
    
     Since this is the first entry in this column, let me start off 
     
     by giving one piece of important advice: do not watch any 
     
     foreign film dubbed into English. Atleast if you don’t want a 
     
     chuckle or two, which was what I succumbed to when I 
     
     watched the English version of Like Water for Chocolate. 
     
    

    
     Dubbing is always a problem. We hear voices from the 
     
     actors, who probably cannot get any work in the business 
     
     except as translators, who give embarrassingly bad perform- 
     
     ances, mostly because they try (and fail) to time themselves 
     
     with the mouths of the real actors speaking in Spanish. For 
     
     example, the servant girl of the Mexican family which is the 
     
     centre of the film sounds (in English) in complete hysterics 
     
     while at the same time wanting desperately to finish her 
     
     sentences so she (the person doing the dubbing, that is) can 
     
     have her lunch break. 
     
    

    
     It doesn’t help that the story is completely fanciful and 
     
     unbelievable. The story involves a woman who because she 
     
     is the youngest is forced to care for her aging mother instead 
     
     of marrying the man she loves (hey, the setting is more than a 
     
     hundred years ago, so we can get away with this.) Somehow, 
     
     her emotionsmanifest themselves in her cooking. For exam- 
     
     ple, during a wedding taking place a while later, her tears are 
     
     shed into the food, making the dinner guests become very 
     
     heartsick (and physically sick, too!). Other such events are 
     
     created involving her and food throughout the story, and of 
     
     course, our heroine gets who she has wanted by the end of the 
     
     sto 
     
    
   
   
    
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     I did see this film in the original subtitling before, and that 
     
     was a tolerable experience. But the dubbed version proves 
     
     that plot alone does not make a great film. Sometimes you’ve 
     
     got to know howto recite dialogue. But then you wou Idn’t get 
     
     any unexpected laughs that way. Rating: **1/2 (of four) 
     
    
   
   
    
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