Item: The Zone of Interest
Language: en-US
Type of Problem: Incorrect_content
Extra Details: The original language is German and not English.
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Reply by lineker
on February 22, 2024 at 8:54 AM
Hi, the Original Movie Language is not connected to spoken language. It's a way to determine the first official release for a movie. In this case it's a majority US production and then it's logical that it becomes a US movie with OML set to English. Thanks.
Reply by dbls
on March 18, 2024 at 6:42 AM
Hi lineker,
thanks for clearing that up! But, as made visible by the amount of reports, there seems to be a bigger issue behind that kind of classification and/or the presentation of that information.
And since the first release of that film was at Cannes Film Festival (19th May 2023), the Original Movie Language should be updated to French. I think this makes it obvious how flawed that "Original Movie Language" classification is.
Reply by lineker
on March 18, 2024 at 7:29 AM
Film festival releases are never a factor in how we determine when a movie is officially released (this also matters when deciding the correct translated titles). If it were, you would need to set all Cannes released movies (world premieres) as French, which of course is incorrect.
Reply by dbls
on March 18, 2024 at 7:33 AM
But even if this is the case, doesn't this make it obvious that the country of first official release is rather arbitrary and shouldn't have such a prominent and misleading classification? Country of first official release could be completely unrelated to country of production and or the spoken languages.
Reply by lineker
on March 18, 2024 at 7:39 AM
I'm sure you can find some examples of that, but it's still rare and should not matter. If Dune had a first theatrical release in Kuwait, we would not set OML to Arabic when the US release is days later. In 99,9 percent of the cases there won't be any issues. The idea for this setting comes from TV, where it's a key variable that determines everything. It doesn't work as smoothly for movies, but that's still not a reason to enter incorrect data (like spoken languages) as OML.
Reply by dbls
on March 18, 2024 at 7:47 AM
I don't think it is necessary to change the data in the "Original Movie Language" classification. But I think it would be necessary to remove it from its prominent placement on the title page and instead add the "Spoken Languages". Or at least show both.
Reply by Martin
on April 2, 2024 at 10:35 AM
Isn't that what the Origin country field is for?
It makes absolutely no sense that the "Original language" for this movie is English. If the Original Movie Language is not related to the spoken language the field should be renamed to something else.
Reply by lineker
on April 2, 2024 at 10:48 AM
There can be more than one origin country, but usually it matches up with the original movie language (OML). Let me give you an example. A movie is co-produced between Ireland, Germany and the UK. After a few festival screenings, the movie has a theatrical release on the same day in Ireland and the UK. Then 6 months later it is theatrically released in Germany. Dialogue is in English. For this movie we enter English as spoken language, UK and Ireland as Origin Country and English as OML.
English makes sense as OML if you understand what the setting is for. If you think it's an extra spoken language field, then I can see why it's confusing.