bungalow

i agree. my main issue with subtitles is that sometimes i find myself staring at the bottom of the screen to read the subtitles while missing the image on-screen, which is the absolute most important part of a film--the image. obviously it would be preferable if i just knew the language of every film i watched, but that isn't possible. so the best thing to do, i believe, is sort of train yourself to read the subtitles with your peripheral vision and remain focused on the image.

TheCunningStunt

I think that's another reason I didn't really think of to be honest, the looking down and not even looking at the acting. The way the actors perform is a big part for me in liking a film, as well as the script direction etc.

But if the actors are too wooden (Nicholas Cage cough.) then it has its effect on my enjoyment of the film, foreign films with subtitles I can't really tell how good the acting is.

NumberNineDream

Exactly. It won't work for you first 5 movies or so, but then you won't even notice you are reading.

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Violent & Funky

Agreed. Same reason why I'm still listening to only rock music and only watching films from 1980 and onward. They're just more accessible and pleasing for me.

I don't enjoy movies that are entirely in subtitles, but I do prefer it when movies primarily in English use interspersed subtitles (think Inglourious Basterds) rather than silly accents (think Valkyrie)...

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http://www.last.fm/user/ohio0808

sometimes I don't thrill you
sometimes I think I'll kill you
just don't let me fuck up will you
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NumberNineDream

My ultimate guilty pleasure movie... I must've watched it more than 20 times. Awesome cast (just noticed Zach Galifianakis and Sarah Silverman have a role in there) and perfect soundtrack, from Jobim's Bossa Nova to John Lennon's "Oh my love":

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TheCunningStunt

Even though people might turn their nose up at you and question you, it comes down to whatever you enjoy.

I try and find films primarily from the 1980s onwards, mostly 90s and people may question it and claim the 60s was a period in cinema where things were at their best, new discoveries etc. But if you enjoy something from a certain time period or if you enjoy films from certain countries and not others, that's your prerogative, right?


Agreed. Inglourious Basterds had a nice enough mixture. Much preferred to stupid accents.

Guybrush

By the way, since we're talking about stupid accents, I always thought it's a bit funny when you have someone talking in a foreign language and then a translator voice talks over it. For example in a travelling program about China, someone is explaining something in chinese and you hear a translator voice talking over the chinese person's voice. It's very common for the translator to have the sort of accent you might think the person interviewed might have if only they tried to talk english, but that funky accent isn't actually necessary so I think it's a bit funny that they do it deliberately.

I was interviewed by german discovery channel once and I checked it out on their web TV and they'd put a german translator over my voice even though I talked in perfect english which even germans should understand by now. I couldn't tell if the german translator was aiming for a norwegian accent, though, but I hope so!

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TheCunningStunt

Liverpudlian. Just thought I'd throw it in the mix.

YouTube - Steven gerrard interview Worst accent I've ever been subjected to.

dankrsta

This actually is not an issue and is a habit in non-English speaking countries that don't use dubbing. So it can be pretty natural to view films this way especially when you're growing up with subtitled films.

NumberNineDream

I kind of grew up with subtitles. On the screens every film is subtitled into 2 others at the bottom, so it was a reflex growing up, as a non-English speaker.
Although reading English subtitles felt tricky at first, as I wasn't used to reading in English, but some few months later my English began to evolve from the constant reading of subtitles, and I sometimes feel it's impossible to focus on the movie without having some subtitles at the bottom as a kind of back-up in case I missed a word (I prefer the subtitles in the same language spoken).

So having hard time with subtitles is just another excuse for lazy English speakers to keep themselves from getting exposed to any other language.

** The tricky part begins, when you notice that the translations in the subtitles are wrong, so all your focus is occupied on avoiding the blasphemous sentences composed at the bottom of the screen.

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