Original English track?

The U.S. 2008 re-master is in Italian with English subtitles.

I believe that when Visconti originally filmed Ludwig,the actors spoke their lines in their native languages.If you watch carefully you can see that many of the cast are not speaking Italian(as dubbed)
The majority of the actors ar speaking in German,but Trevor Howard in English,and(maybe) other actors in Italian.
Of course this made the film somewhat of a jumble(laguage wise) and so the decision was taken to dub it for distribution into (a choice of) 3 languages.French,Italian and German (not English sadly).
The DVD which I havce is dubbed into Italian,which it seems is the most generally available version.
It DOES come with English Subtitles though.
Its a marvellous film however,and worth putting up with subtitles.

Actually, you'll note at least twice, the actors are audibly speaking German -- the scene where the table drops down to the servants below, they young men "downstairs" are all speaking in German (it's easy to pick out words like "spater"). Also, at the very end, when the guards are running out of the Berg to look for the King and Dr. Gudden, you can clearly hear them shouting orders at each other in German as well.

The final cut in English is by far not accessible:


Visconti's Ludwig (1972) is an international co-production with actors from various countries, as the case with the previous Visconti-films right back to Senso (1954). Fellini, Antonioni and so forth, used the same method, giving acces to just the right actor at he time beeing, and all this, you must add, improves marketing possibilities (in theory), through recognisability in the audience abroad.

Visconti's Ludwig was, like it's predecessor Morte a Venezia/Death in Venice (1971), shot in English. Amongst the actors, only John Moulder-Brown and Trevor Howard had English as their first language. Helmut Berger (as the king) and Romy Schneider (as the king's cousine, the Austrian Empress Elisabeth, in the film history of the fifties known as "Sissi") were Austrian, thus German speaking. Add to this, that Romy spoke fluent French and her Austrian beeing civilized "Bühnensprache", more a less an equivalence to "Oxbridge" English, or rather to the mix of American English and British English, used by Alfred Hitchkock around his move from London to Hollywood by the end of 1930's.

Practically all commercial films placed in the countries covered by the major languages on the European continent, and Latin America as well, are dubbed. This pratice dates back to the innovation of sound films. In fascist Italy (and from 1933 in Nazi Germany too), it was also intended to control and manipulate the dialogue to be consistent with official party line propaganda. Parallels appeared in the Soviet Union, and not only to the relief of (functional) alphabets.

Ludwig forms the final part of Visconti's German Trilogy ("Trilogy about German Problems". The first part is The Damned - Götterdämmerung, and in between Death in Venice. All these films are shot in English, allthough the manuscripts where written in Italian (and by Italians, in this instance Suso Checchi d'Amigo and Enrico Medioli), This trilog consist of three period pieces settled in the past), is followed by an epilogue, taking the director (and the audiance) emerged to the present, which means 1973, and the aftermath of "68". This moving film by Visconti is entitled "Conversation Piece" - and so it is - here the English dubbed version is second to none (But here to, there is a variation, in one of the minor characters in the film, Lietta, played by the unknown Claudia Marsani (Lietta) dubbed into either British or American accent.

Death in Venice exists in a German language version, in fact made twice: the official from the Federal Republic of 1971, and a DDR version from 1974. Also Hollywood produtions with English spoken actors, were dubbed from English to English,when the dialogue was of particular importance, such as the screwball comedy Bring Up Baby (1938).

The proof, that Ludwig is shooted in English, is shown by David Bailey's ATV interview in 1972 in English with film director himself - Visconti - and - also in English - and the lead characters Helmut Berger and Romy Schneider (both Austrian, but the latter not only spoke German in the Austrian variant 8in a lesser degree), but also fluent French. The Bailey-interview is available online and in DVD (Bailey On), with similar interview portraits by the fashion photographer Cecil Beaton, who more or less invented the hippie; and Andy Warhol (the sequence with Warhol fell for the British ATV censorship in 1973 and was not shown at all!). In the Visconti episode all speak English (not dubbed). Bailey attends location shots at the Linderhof Castle (the scene with actor Joseph Kainz reciting in french for the king in an original copy of the famousl lit de parade in Versailles), and of which it appears clear that the recording language of the film is in English. This does not mean, that the audio recordings from the shootings are used as such, rather the contrary, but problems with lip sync are limited or avoided.

In smaller countries, like The Netherlands and the Flemish part of Belgium, in addition to the Nordic countries (I'm Danish), another culture rules in this regard. Portugal, in the other end, might be a small country, but the language Portugal at large has in common with Brazil. The same with Spain. The use of subtitles instead of a dubbing voice is more budget friendly for the distributor, and allow the audiance to listen to the voices belonging to the actors, or rather, to the voices, that the director and his team selects for an international production in what ever language.

In the Nordic Countries only children's films (typically Walt Disney productions) are beeing dubbed (cartoons are created for it indeed) or now and then some documentaries shown on TV are versioned (with a typical narrator); thi si to make these films more available. In the Nordic countries - and other countries with minor languages;- we are used to watch movies in the theatre (and on television as well) with subtitles. Dubbing art house cinema into any of the nodic languages is from an economically point of view unreasonable.

The worst case (next to the wrong aspect ratio) is not beeing able to switch off the subtitles in DVD/blu-ray according to video publications from BFI (British Film Institute).

The predecessor in Visconti's oeuvre, Death in Venice / Morte a Venezia, based upon a "novella" (not just a SHORT story), by the great German author Thomas Mann, Der Tod in Venedig (THE Death in Venice). Let an Austrian composer - for real Thomas Mann's alter ego, speak Italian - well, Shakespeare's Macbeth sings in Italian in Verdi's opera - and Otello and so far). But the familiar voice of Dirk Bogarde is a very true and essential part of this particular actor's tools, so, in conclusion, you'll prefer Death in Venice despite the fact, that by this time, around 1970, the prominent German actor Maximillian Scheel, dubs him in the German version, and, the other way round, neither the leading characters model, the composer Gustav Mahler, nor Thomas Mann in 1911 mastered the spoken English much in the way.(there is, as said before, a parallel German dubbed DDR version from 1974).

The advantage of image composition not beeing disrupted or destroyed by subtitles is an important argument against subtitles. Of course, dubbing is a step towards falsification, but essential to cinematography, is falsification. What about background projektion, and, in our time, computer sensations? And that is a serious matter of fact in a Panavision Technicolor but neo realist movie by Visconti. With all the opulence, what seems to be a contradiction, but in fact is extreem neo realistic use of location in relation to those lavish castles and their environmental splendour. When, in a movie, there is much talk, not the talk of the street, but more pretencious - subtitles hurts this splendour or spoil the image composition (if there is any, and at Visconti there allways is), in dark or simple built pictures and saddly enough it moves the audience attention away from image as such, it might be in sync or not. A film like Ludwig, which takes place in a German-speaking environment, the neo realist authencity is spoiled if spoken in a trans alpine - or even Anglo-Saxon language.

The predecessor in Visconti's oeuvre, Death in Venice / Morte a Venezia, based upon a "novella" (not just a SHORT story), by the great German author Thomas Mann, Der Tod in Venedig (THE Death in Venice). Let an Austrian composer - for real Thomas Mann's alter ego, speak Italian! Well, Shakespeare's Macbeth and Othello sings in Italian in Verdi's operas. But the familiar voice of Dirk Bogarde is an essential part of this distinguished actor's tools, so, in conclusion, you prefer Death in Venice despite the fact, that, by this time, around 1970, the prominent German actor Maximillian Scheeldubs him in the German version (not DDR version, but the "capitalistic" version).

When the German composer Richard Wagner is played by the British actor Trevor Howard; in the German version he is dubbed by an actor who speaks with easy Saxon dialect, which fit very nicely on Wagner, who really grew up in Saxony. Saxon language is for Germans outside Saxony a special ridiculous form the German. (GDR leader Walter Ullbricht (the one who gave the order to build the Berlin Wall), spoke Saxon. Try google a Ullbricht speech in a documentary on youtube and get an experiencee of how Saxon-German sound in comparison to the more civilized High German (actually "Bühnensprache" (litterarely "theater language"), which in pronunciation differs from the German spoken in Austria, Bavaria (not to mention the German spoken in Switzerland), and there is a difference in English. Bühnensprache roughly equivalent to "Axbridge" English, but without social snobbish connotation. An any other language but German, it might be Italian, French this and that will be lost.

However, problems arise when we face Ludwig in the versione integrale from 1980, the final posthumous cut. Visconti had died in 1976, but the production company of Ludwig went bankrupt in 1978, and Visconti's closest associates featured a foreclosure auction and acquired the rights - and uncut original footage - and put them together into a version desriped to Visconti's intention (and the manuscript) of just below four hours (ie 237 minutes).

(Note that Pal TV - thru unlike NTSC - played movies a little too quickly, at 25 frames per second, not 24 (to utilize Alternating current frequency of 50 Herz).

For the German, French and English dialogues were meanwhile only tapes (mono, on spools) in English / French / German, thatr had been used in the scenes that were covered the unumberous, more or less heavily abridged versions of Ludwig, who came to the cinema or was shown on TV in the 1970s, and which I recommend to avoid. Some of them were based on flashback structure, making them difficult to follow in. Visconti said good for it but had no choice. The story line of the Versione integrale is essentially linear narrative, although the admitted testimonies in close-ups not at all "lip sync", breaking up the fluid "seemlees" structure by pointing at the key scene that appears quite late in the action, namely the ministers' plan to overthrow the king, at the end, so to say. After this key scene an epilogue unfolds, and for allmost half an hour said there is hardly said any word.

In 1993 the German TV station ZDF transmitted Ludwig in this versione integrale but without no supplement with voices that recalled the originally used. Romy Schneider was in the meanwhile dead. And the nervous Helmut Berger ... Visconti critics Henry Bacon (Visconti - Explorations in Beauty and Decay, 1998), prefer Giancarlo Gianninis comfortable voice in his native Italian, rather than Helmut Berger's rather harch English (with a heavy German accent). Giancarlo Gianninis Italian is very beautiful indeed (and is also beautiful in his visual appearance in the leading role Visconti's last work, L'Innocente(1976); but it is a little curious to have a listen to the Bavarian 1864 king talking this wellbehaved - ... Italian! The German version is for reasons of realism preferable - in this history based story, and especially because it beeing the so far most complete, in English missing important scenes. If you are not German expert - bad luck! (There is a very fine French spoken dub of the versione integrale.)

But odd enough, the dubbed - or location recorded - English dialogue does not excist in the prolounged versione integrale, as the ZDF edition. I suppose the problems involving the recorded English dialogue relates to Author copyrights belonging to the heritage of Dennis Weaver, who translated the Italian script into English for it's use during the shootings.

Unfortunately, The DVD/blu-ray versions in German are not supplied with English subtitles.

Ludwig, like all of Visconti's work, had a very international cast. The films were often shot without any sound, and actors would speak their own respective languages while filming. voice-overs were done later. Now by far, the best way to watch "Ludwig" is with the German audio, as these characters would obviously NOT be speaking Italian, or English. The story is so German/Austrian that the Italian audio is downright distracting. While watching the Italian version this voice kept popping up in my head that screamed "Why the hell are they speaking Italian??"

"IMdB; where 14 year olds can act like jaded 40 year old critics...'