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Oscar-Winning Movie Criticized for Using AI To Correct Dialects (thebaffler.com) 57

Posted by EditorDavid from the high-infidelity dept.
Nominated for 10 Oscars, The Brutalist (directed and produced by Brady Corbet) has an "intriguing and controversial technical feature," according to the Baffler, that threatens to turn movie-viewing into "a drab appreciation of machine-managed flawlessness, and acting less interesting..." In January, the film's editor Dávid Jancsó revealed that he and Corbet used tools from AI speech software company Respeecher to make the Hungarian-language dialogue spoken by Adrien Brody (who plays the protagonist, Hungarian émigré architect László Tóth) and Felicity Jones (who plays Tóth's wife Erzsébet) sound more Hungarian. In response to the ensuing backlash, Corbet clarified that the actors worked "for months" with a dialect coach to perfect their accents; AI was used "in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy...." Defenders of this slimy deception claim the use of AI in film is no different than CGI or automated dialogue replacement, tools commonly deployed in the editing suite for picture and audio enhancement. But CGI and ADR don't tamper with the substance of a performance, which is what's at issue here....

AI seems poised to decimate the voice acting industry; how long will it be before filmmakers give up on the whole time-wasting business of dialect coaching and language research and toss their performers' untrained vocalizations directly into the linguistic Instant Pot...? "Adrien and Felicity's performances are completely their own," Corbet has argued. Only, they're not. Brody and Jones's performances may now be authentic to spoken Hungarian, but they're no longer authentic to themselves: at least in the parts of the film with Hungarian dialogue, the acting stands more as a monument to the prowess of the voice-matching software than that of the actors...

AI is a different beast from color film, or the Louma crane, or the hand-held camera: it's steroidal, aesthetically corrupting, and unlike these earlier advances it confronts the filmmaker with real ethical questions... Use implies complicity. To incorporate AI into the production of art today, no matter how sparingly or subtly, is to endorse Silicon Valley's politics and worldview: its exploitation of both producers and "users," its blithe indifference to the social impact of post-automation layoffs and the environmental assault of industrial data processing, its cramped and uninteresting idea of imagination, its petrification of creation. It's a vote for the assholes...
In short, the essays calls this "recourse to corrective AI" a "filmmaking prosthesis that cheats the viewer and cheapens the performances." And ironically this clashes with the film's depiction of a "principled artist," according to the article. ("Some of the 'retro' digital renderings in the memorial video included in this scene were also, Corbet has admitted, produced with the help of AI.")

The essay notes that several of 2024's other Oscar-nominated films also employed Respeecher, including Dune: Part Two and Emilia Pérez. "What matters here is not this particular infraction but the precedent it sets, the course it establishes for culture."

Oscar-Winning Movie Criticized for Using AI To Correct Dialects More | Reply

Oscar-Winning Movie Criticized for Using AI To Correct Dialects

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  • It wasn't accurate. Whether it's Adrien Brody in a movie or a call-center worker in India, if AI can do it better then it should.

  • Film is already not what it was (Score:3)

    by xgerrit ( 2879313 ) on Monday March 10, 2025 @12:55AM (#65222459)
    Between franchises, smartphones, digital distribution and product placement, AI has some tough competition for being responsible for ruining film.

  • "slimy deception" (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jsepeta ( 412566 ) on Monday March 10, 2025 @01:02AM (#65222473) Homepage

    whoever said that can go to hell. i think it's cool that they were so dedicated to the authenticity of this movie that they brought in dialog coaches, then polished off the recorded dialog using computers. that's literally no different than tastefully using autotune to correct bad pitch or Izotope RX to reduce the noise from wind picked up on the microphones.

    • I disagree. Think about George Lucas' treatment of Star Wars; then think about how this sort of tech is basically gonna empower little tin-pot dictator-directors everywhere to do the same sort of thing, incessantly.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Entrope ( 68843 )

        What analogy do you see with Star Wars? George Lucas might use AI to change the accent of the cantina singer's performance to be more faithful to Pa'lowick speech?

        Directors have a lot bigger influences and more impactful tools already than this tool.

      • The problem with George Lucas is that he chose to meddle with Star Wars after it had been released. Directors should feel free to do whatever they want with their creations during production, and then audiences/critics can decide whether they made good decisions.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Shades72 ( 6355170 )

      The content in your post sounds quite OK. But then the question arises: who defines the "tastefully"-part mentioned in your comment?

      Because I can already tell you that your definition of "tasteful" won't be the same as my definition. Or anyone else's for that matter.

      Now just must know that I refuse to see a movie that has been dubbed. Original spoken and subtitles, that I can live with. Now I don't have an issue with an actor trying his best to speak in a language that is not really his own. And appreciate

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        AI, no matter how well it performs, it is dubbing. Always had the opinion that dubbing is a weak solution, applied by the weak to appease the weak. Original language only. If I hate the quality of the subtitles, I will need to step up and try to learn the language, so I won't need those subtitles

        I would offer a counter argument. The purpose of film is usually to entertain, even when it isnt the broader purpose of art is to communicate. Sure as an artist you might want and even enjoy some ability to select your audience, but if you want a broad audience the decision to express your work in language they can understand is itself an artistic choice and perfectly valid one.

        I think it is as narrowing to take the position 'I won't watch a film dubbed in an other language' as it is to say 'I will only w

    • I was also going to compare this to autotune. Whether that is tasteful or not is debatable.
      • It is just as offensive as ADR, foley, compression, echo chambers, music recorded by an orchestra not on the original set, wigs, makeup, prosthetics, figure enhancing underwear, talking dogs, and the moon landing set.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Isn't much of the dialogue in movies and on TV re-recorded after the shooting and over-dubbed anyway? Like when they do an outdoor shoot and can't remove all the background noise or have mics close enough without being visible in the frame.

      It does seem overblown. The sound in movies has always been manipulated, and this is just using a new tool to do it. I actually look forward to not being jarred by the terrible pronunciation of non-native languages in future.

      • Re:"slimy deception" (Score:5, Insightful)

        by DaPhil ( 811162 ) on Monday March 10, 2025 @06:23AM (#65222745)

        I agree. I do not understand why the use of AI in this way would create such a backlash.

        Also, there are so many American movies in which the foreign accents are TERRIBLE and in some cases even in the entirely wrong language that's claimed (I remember "The Thomas Crown Affair", where the person spoke Swiss German and it was claimed to be Hungarian). So they get massive points for trying to do it properly, with or without AI.

        • I think it's just the usual AI haters finding another target. AI+movie=protest. AI is going to replace pretty much all actors sooner or later, so they fight it wherever it crops up. In a word, luddites.

    • If people don't like it, they can vote with their pocketbook and NOT watch the movie. I suspect the vast majority of movie-goers aren't going to give a crap.

      I do find the pretentious hand wringing over using (gasp) tools to create the movie that the movie MAKER wants to be rather amusing though.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      People need to accept that "intent" an subjective judgements about what is appropriate and when are going to have to be made on a cases by case basis when it comes to 'art' and 'entertainment'. Not everyone will agree, but that is why we have ballots for awards like Oscar.

      Had they run with the original track and takes and not recorded them etc. The director and the cast might have been accused of being lazy, for failing to study the subject enough, or even just being culturally insensitive or something. We

  • And the dying dinosaur screams (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MpVpRb ( 1423381 ) on Monday March 10, 2025 @01:31AM (#65222509)

    Video image generation of entire scripts will happen. The studios will resist, but the hobbyists will embrace it and make cool stuff

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by bn-7bc ( 909819 )
      Nah the hobyists ( unkess they band together) will not have the resotces : computational oeeconomical; to rent the computational resources) for a feature kenght script for a good while yet, thst's an aufull lot of frames ( 403 a 1h movie ( a bit short for a feature, let's call ot a long episode) thsts 3600x30 ( if you are satisfied wirh 30 fps) =108000 frames, well ok unless they can dedicate their home rig for multiple weeks/mounths

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Ouch. Godzilla recommends you use autocorrect (AI or otherwise) for your posts.

    • The studio's won't resist, they would love to use it. It's the unions that resist. AI will generate complete movies in the near future, it's not something they can stop. But it will take some time for AI to generate movies which do not look so uncanny valley, at this point they all look a bit too smooth, too shiny.

    • Sooner than you think, one major studio is looking to experiment with an AI based work flow on a remake project. AFAIK it hasn’t been announced yet so I can’t talk about technical details or mention them by name.

  • the entire story is made up and the people in it are just pretending to be someone they aren't.

  • Objecting to this usage is silly. If you don't mind washboard abs digitally enhanced in post, it shouldn't bother you to have vowels tweaked. It's just regional autotune. And, like autotune, purists will get bent out of shape about it, industry will embrace it, and most of the rest won't give a rats ass.

    Now, the larger feature set of respeecher is scarier. But that isn't this story.

  • The greatest conspiracy ever- (Score:3)

    by locater16 ( 2326718 ) on Monday March 10, 2025 @02:34AM (#65222567)
    I'll let you in on a secret, those locations you see in movies? Fake! They're called "Sets". Those people you see, total fakers! They call them "actors". It's a fake, it's all fake I tell you!

  • Couldn't find any Hungarian actors? (Score:3)

    by ChunderDownunder ( 709234 ) on Monday March 10, 2025 @02:57AM (#65222585)

    You've gone to the trouble of teaching a Yank and a Pom enough of the Hungarian language only to overdub them with 'correct' Hungarian.

    I'm not defending the use of AI but in terms of crimes against cinema, this is not the least inauthentic part of the story.

  • That man is his own accent

  • This essay cries out for its importance, while viewers got a better movie overall without distracting foreign thick accents.

  • Specious arguments to the contrary wrt. state of digital science, state of the art digital filmmaking or enhanced sound processing either a bad film falls flat on the metaphorical editing room floor or in the marketplace. I don't care to watch any of these false films - faked upon the public.
    AI, only IBM got right its DEEPMIND application to gene folding for discovery of molecules in humans. Everyone else has lost their mind fixated on a pursuit of perfection for perfection sake. And thank goodness IBM pull

    • It's not about perfection for perfection's sake, but about "good enough" at a lower price. No doubt that AI is going to put some voice actors out of business, but on the flip side it puts voice acting and many other things in the price range of indie producers and even hobbyists.
      As for "fakeness"... any good movie will hold up regardless of the way it was produced. And any good movie can have some imperfections without detracting from the viewing experience, whether the imperfections were introduced by A

  • Unlike some other Robin Hoods (Score:5, Funny)

    by zawarski ( 1381571 ) on Monday March 10, 2025 @03:53AM (#65222627)
    I can speak with an English accent.

  • What a silly thing to worry about. It's still the actor's voice, just slightly processed to refine an accent. I mean, David Prowse didn't really sound like Darth Vader. By the way, how is this any different that using tech to make Harrison Ford look younger in his movie: altering his appearance, as opposed to altering his voice?

    Yes, voice acting is on its way out. Extras are already replicated using technology. Bit-part actors will be next.

    Technology progresses, humans move to other jobs. Life has been

    • In Lucas' defense, Prowse never appears on screen mouthing his lines without the helmet.

      I recall the Spanish film Kika (worth seeing if only for sex-symbol Victoria Abril at the height of her powers in outfits that would have made Madonna blush.)

      In that movie. Almodovar hired American actor Peter Coyote, who from all reports had reasonable Spanish. They shot the entire film and dubbed it in post-production with a very heavy accent from Spain - destroying any authenticity of an *American character* for heav

  • But CGI [...] don't tamper with the substance of a performance

    Counter example: A de-aged Robert De Niro in "The Irishman" who still moves like a 75 year old man.

  • AI voice enhancement threatens jobs, which I suspect is more of a concern than “authenticity,” especially from an industry that has always used technology to present something on screen that has been altered in many ways, from extensive makeup, to using a different actor’s voice for the character than the on screen actor, aging or deaging actors, to removing or enhancing aspects of a scene via digital special effects; all without complaint.

  • Why not hire a Hungarian actor?

    Damn English-speaking people taking Hungarian jobs!

    • Oh, that's easy - they hate Trump and Orban likes Trump so they hate Orban so via racism they hate Hungarians but now they love Cultural Appropriation even though in the case of Halloween and Thanksgiving they were so angry.

      It's like when registrars and kernel developers canceled entire races of customers and contributors for being born in the wrong country.

      It's only wrong if someone else does it.

  • If you have a problem with a movie, whatever that problem may be, then *don't watch it*. Nothing sends a clearer message than a movie that flops. If it doesn't flop, then you'll have to deal with the reality that most people probably don't care - regardless of the doom and gloom actor's union narrative.
  • So this is autotune for accents?

    • Yes, good analogy.

      I suspect if you're Hungarian you can tell the regional distinction and it's wrong for the piece.

      Imagine Chinese doing a film about Seattle and having their AI correct to a Kentucky accent.

  • The argument is coming from someone who defends the purity of film. That is great and I respect it. But they aren't the fashion police who can or should attempt to legislate what a movie director wants to do, so long as the actor agrees. There may be a problem with becoming sensitive to people not looking Photoshop perfect, or there may be an impact on employment of young actors / extras, but it's difficult to find someone actually being harmed in this case. It is a movie, not a film. That said, iit seems t

  • Gina Carano's voice in Haywire (Score:3)

    by Babel-17 ( 1087541 ) on Monday March 10, 2025 @06:36AM (#65222759)

    She has a fine voice as her other performances demonstrate, but it was decided to "sweeten" it and/or make it unique by adding the voice of another actress's on top of hers. Perhaps not so noticeable when she was basically an unknown, but it's jarring now.
    https://www.hollywoodreporter.... [hollywoodreporter.com]

  • "I am awfully sorry, Captain, but I am currently unable give you more power."

    "In my professional opinion, I do not think she can handle this for much longer, Captain."

    "One cannot change the immutable laws of physics, sir."
  • How soon until the entire movie is AI generated? And why do people care about stars, is it because they're attractive and they can act? Are we going to have AI stars?

    Modifying voices seems like a transient issue, in 20 years no one is going to care whether the actors were human or generated. My guess is people will prefer generated; they'll be sexier, stronger, more emotional, and infinitely variable.

  • Next time they'll save four months and record the lines in English and have AI do style transfer into Hungarian and fix up the mouth movements.

    Be careful what you complain about.

  • The popculture awards business has already been giving Grammy awards to artists who use autotune, and some that don't even write the songs (in whole or in part), or even play some/all the instruments.

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