classic film on the big screen subtitled...

Voorhees.Scott@epamail.epa.gov Voorhees.Scott
Fri Apr 9 11:39:06 EDT 2004





While not at all disagreeing with the premise that viewing foreign films
sans subtitles is a valuable experience, I do wish to speak out on
behalf of the screenwriter. I'd been led to believe that it's the writer
who provides the creative mix of visual images and dialogue that the
director relies on to present the story.

Scott Voorhees
Aspiring Screenwriter


>they should better be watched without subtitles, because subtitles very

>much
>spoil the beautifully de-centered compositions of the pictures.

I'd really like to second Roland's suggestion of watching films without
subtitles. It is an extremely educational and useful experience to watch

films in a foreign language without the aid of subtitles. Not that I'm
saying we should forget about subtitling, not at all, but cinema is at
heart
a visual (though today audiovisual) art form. Any filmmaker who has
talent
and knows what he's doing will try to communicate as much as he can
visually
rather than by means of dialogue.

Not having subtitles really forces you as a viewer to pay attention to
the
cinematic aspects of cinema, which subtitles can distract you from, and
that
is a very educational experience indeed. In the early days of the French

Cinematheque, Henri Langlois intentionally showed his audiences foreign
films without subtitles or he would even turn off the sound altogether,
in
order to teach them the language of cinema rather than the language
coming
out of the actors' mouths.

I'm all for good subtitled releases, but I really believe you shouldn't
pass
up the chance to see a good director's work just because it doesn't have

subtitles.

Tom Mes

Midnight Eye
http://www.midnighteye.com





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