freakboy on film: LOST IN SUBTITLES

I used to be a purist.

A non-English film was watched in its original language with English subtitles.  

Then December 2016 happened.

 

My chunk of vision loss made me an impurist.  

English language dubs seemed to be my only option.

It was just one more of my favorite things forever altered. 

Then in 2018 I went to the theater to see A QUIET PLACE.  I was told there were not many subtitles, which I suppose that was sort of true, compared to a foreign language film.  I sat in the back row with my Mad Scientist Glasses on and it seemed I could decipher enough of each subtitle to figure out what was being signed by the deaf girl and her parents.  The screen was big enough with a good contrast between words and background.  I was initially surprised and excited. 

Despite this big screen reading revelation, I ended up hating A QUIET PLACE.  This made me worry that I missed something in the subtitles.  So I later borrowed the DVD from the library and watched it with Descriptive Audio, which reads subtitles.  Nope, I missed nothing.  I didn't need subtitles to know the parents are the real monsters.  First, they don't look out for their youngest child and then they selfishly risk the lives of their remaining children by bringing a baby into the extremely dangerous sound-sensitive situation. 

That crappy film gave me hope.  Maybe with a big enough screen I could enjoy my foreign and silent films again!  An opportunity arrived in July 2019.  My sister in Omaha asked if I would house and dog sit for the month while she was meeting her first grandchild in a different state.  I agreed and packed a couple of DVD's to experiment with on her bigger and newer TV. 

After situating a kitchen chair for optimal viewing in the living room, I held my breath and popped in AMÉLIE (2001), one of my favorite non-English films.  Something as magical as AMÉLIE seemed to be happening.  I was deciphering enough words to enjoy the whimsical film again.   I was fully with her as she discovered the tin box, setting off her do-gooder adventures.  This overjoyed me, until I started to think about it.  

I had watched AMÉLIE countless times before my chunk of vision loss.  Perhaps I could decipher a lot of the subtitles because of multiple viewings.  I knew I had to experiment further and chose a Netflix film I wanted to see that only had a Spanish language track.  The title of that film is lost to me now, just like its subtitles were lost to my half-blind eyes. 

I tried other films, including the sci-fi silent film masterpiece METROPOLIS (1927), which I hold in high regard, but had not watched it as much as AMÉLIE.  The results of my experiment were harsh.  A bigger, newer TV wouldn't make a difference with deciphering subtitles unless I knew in advance what was being said.

Still, there remains the possibility of enjoying non-English films in the theater.  Well, if the one theater, with three screens, in my town actually showed foreign films, but it doesn't.  A fact that irritates me, especially when I hear tweets galore about a film I am interested in.  PARASITE (2019), for example. 

I knew it wouldn't play in my town, but I got my hopes up when I saw the DVD at the library.  Surely PARASITE was such a critically acclaimed film that it would have an English dub.  Nope.  Just it's original Korean and a French dub. It's not like my DVD of AMÉLIE has an English dub, so I should've known.  However, I decided it was time for another experiment. 

I was going to watch PARASITE and see if I could follow the plot without the dialogue.  My sister was going to watch it with me in case I got lost and because she also wanted to see it.  I did ok at first, sort of.  I assumed that the low-income family had terrible cell phone reception and one of them got fired from a pizza parlor.  I asked and my sister explained what was really happening, which wasn't far off.  Then the plot got complicated and I got lost very quickly. 

"What's going on here?" I would ask and my sister would explain.  She occasionally read a subtitle aloud, but I didn't want her doing this throughout the entire film.  For the most part, after I grasped how the low-income family and the wealthy family were merging, I followed along, kind of.  My sister had to explain the peach allergy, the camping trip and the architect.  The result of that experiment was I need to watch a non-English film with someone I trust.

As for PARASITE...I liked it, but I feel I missed nuances in the characters and their relationships to one another.  If I find an English dub, or go back in time and find a theater showing it, I would watch it again.  Oh, and I will give the film extra points for not killing the family pets, unless I completely missed something during the birthday party massacre.  If I did, please don't tell me.

In conclusion, the frustrating thing about my eyes is being able to watch a film, while wearing my Mad Scientist Glasses, but still missing so much.  Descriptive Audio tracks help with English speaking films, but to my deepest pain and shame, English language dubs are essential in my post-December 2016 foreign filmic life. 

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words. 

Freak Out,

JLH 

P.S. In case you missed UNHINGED...

https://freakboyzone.blogspot.com/2020/08/freakboy-on-film-unhinged-2020.html 

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The Collective a Eye for September is open with books, blogs, music & more...

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https://thejlhcollective.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-collective-eye-september-2020.html