Bleichenbacher, Lukas

This keynote explores the dynamics of multilingualism in movies from a perspective grounded in language policy analysis. It begins by drawing parallels between the treatment of multilingualism—encompassing different languages, dialects, and other varieties—in the study of cinematic texts and in language pedagogy. This includes a consideration of some basic tenets of current European language policy, with focus on the notion of comprehensibility and the facilitation of intercultural communication. To illustrate these concepts, the lecture examines the example of multilingual and multidialectal dialogue, accompanied by subtitles in various national languages, in the 2023 Swiss comedy Bon Schuur Ticino (‘Hello Ticino’; dir. Peter Luisi). The film portrays characters from diverse linguistic backgrounds grappling with the imposition of a new and dystopic language policy, following a controversial popular vote resulting in the country being declared monolingual with French as the sole official language. These insights lead into a discussion of how university teaching can effectively blend generic and applied disciplinary content for a variety of professions, including future teachers and translators.