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 Even in the Italian capital Rome, only a handful of cinemas
are dedicated to showing films in original language, while in
the provinces it is almost impossible to see a non-dubbed
version.
"In Italy a power system has been created that not only prevents
viewers from seeing films in their original version, but often
distorts our work," Cassel told Il Messaggero newspaper.
Italians are far more likely to hear Harry Potter's spells
chanted by Rome-born actor Alessio Puccio than Daniel Radcliffe.
Cassel won acclaim for his turns as a ballet director demanding
artistic perfection in the 2010 film "Black Swan" with Natalie
Portman, and a master thief in Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's
Thirteen alongside George Clooney.
"Dubbing directors and the dubbers themselves sometimes take big
liberties and think they, in the recording studio, have the
right to take the director or lead actor's role," Cassel said.
He apologized for describing Italy's dubbers as a "mafia" in a
recent radio interview but said he wanted to emphasize the
importance of distributing original films along with local
language versions.
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A 2012 study conducted for the European Commission found Italians
had the second-worst foreign language abilities in Europe after
Hungary. Educational development experts say films can play an
important role in foreign language learning.
More than 70 percent of respondents in Malta, Luxembourg, Sweden and
Denmark regularly watch film and TV in other languages, compared
with 15 percent in Italy, the study found.
Cassel, who has dubbed films into French, said the practice started
during the Fascist era in Italy, and was used to censor films that
came from abroad.
"You cannot imagine how painful it is for an actor to hear their
emotions and sensibilities reinterpreted and even manipulated by
someone else. It's unbearable!"
(Reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
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