Polyglot Cinema brings together a diverse group of scholars from Europe, Canada and the US, resulting in a dynamic account of plurilingual migrant narratives in contemporary films from France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. In addition to the close analysis of key films, the essays cover theories of translation and language use as well as central paradigms of cultural studies, especially those of locality, globality and post-colonialism. The volume marks a transdisciplinary contribution to the question of cultural representation within film studies.

Examining European art films of the 1950s and 1960s, Mark Betz argues that it istime for film analysis to move beyond prevailing New Wave historiography, mired in outdated notions of nationalism and dragged down by decades of auteurist criticism. Focusing on the cinemas of France and Italy, Betz reveals how the flowering of European art films in the postwar era is inseparable from the complex historical and political frameworks of the time.

Uncovering the vital role of interpreters, dubbers and subtitlers in global film, Nornes examines the relationships between moving-image media and translation and contends that film was a globalized medium from its beginning and that its transnational traffic has been greatly influenced by interpreters.

In Fatih Akın's Cinema and the New Sound of Europe, Berna Gueneli explores the transnational works of acclaimed Turkish-German filmmaker and auteur Fatih Akın. The first minority director in Germany to receive numerous national and international awards, Akın makes films that are informed by Europe's past, provide cinematic imaginations about its present and future, and engage with public discourses on minorities and migration in Europe through his treatment and representation of a diverse, multiethnic, and multilingual European citizenry. Through detailed analyses of some of Akın's key works—In July, Head-On, and The Edge of Heaven, among others—Gueneli identifies Akın's unique stylistic use of multivalent sonic and visual components and multinational characters. She argues that the soundscapes of Akın's films—including music and multiple languages, dialects, and accents—create an "aesthetic of heterogeneity" that envisions an expanded and integrated Europe and highlights the political nature of Akın's decisions regarding casting, settings, and audio. At a time when belonging and identity in Europe is complicated by questions of race, ethnicity, religion, and citizenship, Gueneli demonstrates how Akın's aesthetics intersect with politics to reshape notions of Europe, European cinema, and cinematic history.

Over 6000 different languages are used in the world today, but the conventions of 'media speak' are far from universal and the complexities of translation are rarely acknowledged by the industry, audiences or scholars. Redressing this neglect, Speaking in Subtitles argues that the specific contingencies of translation are vital to screen media's global storytelling. Looking at a range of examples, from silent era intertitling to contemporary crowdsourced subtitling, and from avant-garde dubbing to the increasing practice of 'fansubbing', Tessa Dwyer proposes that screen media itself is a fundamentally 'translational' field.

In a world defined by the flow of people, goods and cultures, many contemporary French films explore the multicultural nature of today’s France through language. From rival lingua francas such as English to socio-politically marginalised languages such as Arabic or Kurdish, multilingual characters in these films exploit their knowledge of multiple languages, and offer counter-perspectives to dominant ideologies of the role of linguistic diversity in society. Decentring France is the first substantial study of multilingual film in France. Unpacking the power dynamics at play in the dialogue of eight emblematic films, this book argues that many contemporary French films take a new approach to language and power, showing how even the most historically-maligned languages can empower their speakers. This book offers a unique insight to academics and students alike, into the place of language and power in French cinema today.

Italy is more strongly influenced by the experiences of migrants than many other European countries. This includes an historically ongoing internal migration from the south to the north, which is strongly echoed in neo-realism; a mass emigration mainly to western Europe and North and South America that is connected with mafia films, among others, in Italy's collective imaginary; as well as a more recent immigration influx from the southwestern Mediterranean, which is dealt with at a film leve...