Subtitles!

My film class requires us to watch The Diving Bell and the Butterfly during the screening this coming Sunday. Now, I watched the movie a few years ago with my family. Not only is it a beautiful film, but it’s French – which of course makes everything ten times better. There was one problem though. Most of my family does not speak French, so we naturally had the subtitles on. Unfortunately, the subtitles were annoyingly distracting. Usually I simply get used to the fact that there is writing on the bottom of the screen and only pay attention to it when I can’t understand a word or two. The premise of The Diving bell and the Butterfly makes the movie’s subtitles uber-awkward, though.

The film is about a man who is completely paralyzed except for one eye. If he wants to say something, somebody has to point to letters on a small chart and he blinks in various patterns to indicate which letters spell out his words and sentences. So a lot of the film is somebody pointing to the chart and saying “J … e … je … s … o …” and so on, and so forth, ad nauseum, ad infinitem, etc. Now, the movie paces this much better than I make it sound. However, add to this the English subtitles trying to spell out the English words instead of the French words and my brain was ready to explode. It probably didn’t help that I was terribly sleep deprived whilst watching the movie.

Ever had that awkward moment in a hallway when you’re trying to pass somebody, but you both move aside in the same direction? That’s what my brain cells were doing during this movie.

While the person on screen was saying “j … e … je,” for example, the subtitles simply said “I … I … I.” This is, of course, the English word for “je,” but I was too tired to make the connection – thinking in two languages is a bit too much for me, even on a good day. So I sat there staring at the screen with my mouth hanging open, thinking, No. She said ‘j’ and ‘e.’ That is nothing like ‘i’ –

“Mum, I think there’s a problem with the subtitles.”

“No there isn’t, sweetie.”

“But -”

“Shusshhh, will you?”

Moral of the story: Either ignore the subtitles or ignore the spoken dialogue.