SUBTITLES

Do Subtitles Really Say Something ?

In the early days of the American film industry, before talkies came on the scene, a running string of subtitles would explain, in brief phrases, the action occurring on the film. The correlation between the action pictured and the content of the subtitles offered was sometimes open to question.

Emotional expressions, in writing, are necessarily limited. A series of exclamation points, question marks or bold-faced type are the only means available to serve for both inflection and emphasis. The result of this combination of disparate mediums could often be comical. A harrowing rescue scene, in an early film, might be underscored with hilarious understatement. You cad, or some such exclamation became the abbreviated substance of the printed subtitles.

As the medium developed and the first screechy "talkies came on the scene in the late 1920's, a whole new type of dialogue evolved and indeed dominated the motion picture experience. Speech and action became concurrent events. The resulting marriage of mediums became a form of celluloid magic that entranced millions of film-goers.

The film industry, which had pretty much been American conceived and based from its inception, began to spread its wings to many European and Asian countries. The new films began to take on a texture and an avant-guard cache that became prized for its content in America. To make the foreign speaking films intelligible, the industry once again reverted to the use of subtitles. As in early American films, the attempt to summarize whole periods of action, in a few brief words, resulted in often hilariously inappropriate dialogue. An entire action scene, featuring scores of protagonists and angry faced combatants, would often again be reduced to "hey, you guys get outta here! The subtle nuances of speech and the rich texture of its meaning were lost to the audience. The film experience was much poorer for its loss.

The practice of using subtitles altered another medium, opera, and made it much more intelligible for patrons. For generations, most of the complicated interactions of the cast were lost to all but the most knowledgeable of opera cognoscenti. Many is the wealthy male patron who slept through the entire second and third acts of an often lengthy opera because boredom, or a full stomach, had induced a narcoleptic torpor on the seated and sleeping patron. More than likely, the recumbent patron of the arts also didn't know or care what was taking place on the stage.

A few decades ago, the opera companies began using a dropped screen above the stage. The producers were able to project upon it brief descriptions of the action taking place, in German, French, Russian, Italian or whatever language the opera was written in. Although helpful, the practice had the same limitations. Once again, entire sequences of action and several beautiful arias were reduced to "you cad! or "hey you guys, get outta there! But, at least the subtitles began to unveil the meanings of the complex and haunting arias sung passionately by great vocalists. The somnolent legions began awakening to the meaning of the action carried on before them. They were much richer for the experience.

Subtitles do have their place, however limited their powers of
description. Hopefully, they make us more aware of the artistic process and will better enable us to appreciate the marriage of action and dialogue the next time that we see a "foreign film, or attend an opera performed in a language other than English. And if while doing so, we again see another complex array of actions and emotions truncated into "You cad! or "hey you guys get outa here!, we will have a new appreciation for the beauty and finesse of language with all its varied nuances of meaning. We can also smile at the subtitles for their limitations. They will help us to better understand ourselves, and others, who may not speak a common language. And maybe too, they will help us to appreciate films for the visual magic that they offer us.

-30-

Joseph Xavier Martin