Multilingualism and cinema: the role of multiple languages in films

This paper aims to investigate the relation between languages and cinema, discussing the phenomena of multilingualism, bilingualism and code-switching and exploring how multiple languages are represented on the big screen. To answer these questions, an analysis of multilingual scenes from the films Inglourious Basterds (2009), Call Me By Your Name (2017), and Luca (2021) was carried out where the on-screen dialogues were reported in written form and compared with the screenplays of the films. Results suggest that directors decide to include multiple languages in their works for many different reasons, but the most common ones are to portray a more realistic story or to create comical situations. Results also indicate a growing interest in multilingual films in recent years.