Psycho. #30
On reading films.
Hi Caspar,
How do you feel about having subtitles on for a film that IS in a language that you are fluent in? My partner (who is not HOH) prefers it but I find it quite distracting and not something that I can just ignore.
My argument is that it can take away from the experience as a whole, particularly in the case of performances. I don’t like knowing the end of an actors line before they’ve delivered it and constantly find that this thought takes me out of the film. And when there isn’t dialogue, reading that an “eerie creaking noise” is happening really deflates any tension that the eerie creaking noise is supposed to be creating, for example.
A counter argument is that by not comprehending what is going on in a film, this is in fact something that takes away from one’s experience of the film as well — a response akin to my own.
It’s something that I keep coming across and feel like it is a relatively modern phenomenon. My theory is that it has something to do with shortening attention spans and mass exposure to the often subtitled content on social media.
What do you make of all of this? Is it something you have experience with? Should I just suck it up and leave the subtitles on?
This is an interesting topic, but my sweet lord, moderators must dread passing you the mic at post-screening Q&As! By the time you reached the end of your question, I can guarantee that 17 people would have left the cinema. Over 200 words of question, in lieu of “how do you feel about watching films with subtitles on?”! Wow. Or, to put it another way,
I hope you’re OK with a mild roast, as is sometimes my wont at the outset of this column. I actually like your question, and I do think the use of subtitles is a subject that is increasingly relevant in the film landscape, particularly with rising awareness of different abilities and neurodiversity. My answer, which sometimes surprises people as I am such a gatekeeping snob, is that I — personally — have subtitles on for most things I watch, including in languages I speak. A few things have contributed to this being the case. First off, on most streaming platforms in the UK, it’s impossible to turn off English subtitles for ‘foreign’ films — therefore I can’t turn them off for French, Italian or Spanish films. Secondly, I am used to watching films at festivals which come subtitled in English and/or the home language of the festival itself — that has made the presence of subtitles feel quite standard for me. Thirdly, a great many films and TV shows have sound mixing that is murky or displeasing to me, or perhaps a third option is that my hearing is no longer what it used to be (let’s not get into that). Fourthly, I grew up with subtitles on most films I watched, as I lived in France and watched a great many English and American movies there, as well as arthouse films in other languages. Finally, as a parent I have often elected to put the subtitles on for programmes and films that my kids watch, again for a number of reasons — I think it’s good for their reading, and I think it will help them feel comfortable around subtitles when the time comes to get into international films. Already my 10yo watches a horrifically boring Japanese anime about volleyball with the subtitles on, as well as episodes of Gilmore Girls, with the sound off (“because they’re always shouting”).
All of this has meant that I now don’t really notice, even, when subtitles are there. For my birthday last year I went to see Peeping Tom at the BFI, in a close-captioned screening, as that was what was available to me on that particular day. I don’t think the subtitles really detracted from the experience — what I remember of the viewing is the deeply queasy tone that Michael Powell had somehow managed to find; a kind of stark, dislocated, heightened (un)reality, in which his elegance of purpose could co-exist uneasily with something brutal and lurid. I don’t remember the subtitles.
Perhaps I think of subtitles as I’ve come to think about the custom of stating your pronouns: it’s good to normalise the practice, so that people around the world who require them, for whatever reason, are helped along on their way.
At any rate, what all of this means is that I am really not fussed about a bit of lettering at the bottom of the screen, and even consider that it enhances my viewing experience, particularly as a critic who wishes to be able to catch all the dialogue and even be able to quote it in his copy. I do take your point about the way reading ahead of the dialogue can sometimes spoil the rhythms of conversation, and ruin the element of surprise, or fuck up a joke; and I see, too, how focusing on wording can also take away from the visual experience itself, where your eyes should really be able to rove untroubled around the screen, and gorge on camera movements and lighting. Another thing that often pisses me off about subtitles is when — oh god this winds me up, probably my biggest bugbear in my moviegoing life — the subtitles elect to report background dialogue that is supposed to be quiet or atmospheric. Just write “background hubbub”! Don’t tell me what that old lady behind the principal action is murmuring to her grandson! The subtitles should mimic the aural experience! Isn’t that obvious!?!??
I do agree that the phenomenon of watching everything with subtitles on is quite a new one — I think “young people” do it?, maybe?, in one of their occasional newfangled acts of defiance towards the old guard, such as not having risky sex or drinking as much — and I’m not entirely sure why that is. Possibly the mixed abilities stuff that I was alluding to up top. You’re probably right, too, about shortened attention spans and the prevalence of subtitled stuff on social media. Whatever the case may be, as an advocate for subtitles, I find myself irrationally annoyed now when I can’t get subtitles for something — such as for seemingly everything on Amazon Prime. I just don’t see how it affects my viewing so badly?
Having said that, a nightmarish situation did occur recently when I was watching Kiki’s Delivery Service with my kids, in a dubbed English language version with subtitles also on for some reason, only to discover that the subtitles seemed to be a different translation altogether of the original Japanese dialogue, and were often alarmingly at odds with what was being said. But even then, so what? You still get to pay attention to Miyazaki’s stunning landscapes, especially his quite gorgeous silver birches, and admire the occasional bravura moment of pure imagination — an oddly awe-inspiring dirigible on the loose, crashing into buildings! — and have time to be disappointed by the contrastingly flimsy, rather inane storyline.
All this to say that, yes, I think you should just suck it up! Report back to me in a year, when I bet you’ll be telling me that you can’t possibly do without subtitles anymore, and that this is an unalloyed good thing.
Now, because your question was so long, and I have written a relatively short reply, I just have space to — just this once — answer one more question that I received this week.
Do post-screening Q&A’s add to the film experience?
No.
Send your questions anonymously to Caspar at this link, no personal information is collected.
LOL