DaysOfGlory Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Fan Rant: Those Subtitles, They Need A-Changing
Filed under: Exhibition »
Subtitles. Some people love them, some people hate them. As I see it, the hate often turns into love once movie-liking turns into movie-loving. It's quite hard to be an insatiable movie lover and be a fan of the dub -- not being bothered by lips that don't synch with voices, and the voiceovers that fail to offer the same powerful inflections as the original.
Unfortunately, while I love cinema, I'm really growing tired of the subtitles -- to the point that I sometimes avoid films if I'm not geared up to read them. But wait -- I'm not suggesting that I'd rather hear it dubbed, but rather the whole world of subtitling needs to change. There are two reasons:
1. Lazy Subtitles
While the words that run along the bottom of the screen are usually saved for foreign languages, they are sometimes pulled out when heavy accents come into play, or tricky dialects. This is fine, and often handy. But it has to be accurate. While it's okay to adjust words to flow when translating, it's not okay to change them when people understand the language.
There is nothing more annoying or distracting than following the subtitles and hearing entirely different words. I don't know how many times my mind de-railed from the plot of Red Road because I'd hear something like "excellent," but the subtitles would say "great."
The same goes for certain words in foreign languages. You can change adjectives and what-have-you, but it's quite distracting when the subtitle powers that be get tired of writing down the same title/name and decide to switch it up. In Indigenes (Days of Glory), soldier's titles would often get switched. I might not speak French, but it's pretty easy to understand titles like "Staff Sergeant."
Academy Shortlists Foreign Oscar to Nine
Filed under: Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Awards », New Releases », IFC », Sony Classics », ThinkFilm », Warner Independent Pictures », Fox Searchlight », The Weinstein Co. », Lists », Oscar Watch », Cinematical Indie »
With only a week away from announcing the Oscar nominations, and with no apparent need to do so, the Academy has pared down its list of eligible foreign-language films from 61 to nine. This is the first time the Academy has shortlisted the category, but the decision to do so falls in line with a number of other changes pertaining to the category. Those changes, which I told you about last summer, are a good thing for at least two of the nine films. Water and Black Book each would have been disqualified in previous years, but now their language issues are in full compliance with the rules. Of course, had they not made the cut, there might have been some happier countries in Asia or Australia, the two continents not represented (Antarctica may get some love from Happy Feet's animation nomination). It is too bad that Japan couldn't claim Golden Globe winner Letters From Iwo Jima and also too bad for Oz that Ten Canoes wasn't chosen.
Days of Glory for IFC and Weinstein Co.
Filed under: Action », Drama », Foreign Language », New Releases », Cannes », IFC », Distribution », The Weinstein Co. », Toronto International Film Festival », Cinematical Indie »
IFC Films and The Weinstein Co. have teamed up again (last time was for Wordplay) to distribute the French war movie Indigènes in the U.S., where it will be known as Days of Glory. The WWII-set film tells the story of North African soldiers fighting in the French army against the Nazis, focusing specifically on four men played by Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem and Sami Bouajila. The ensemble cast collectively won best actor honors at this year's Cannes Film Festival.American moviegoers (me, especially) should be attracted to the film by Debbouse, my favorite one-handed actor, who is best known here for his role in Amelie, in which he played the handicapped grocery delivery boy, Lucien. He also appeared in Spike Lee's She Hate Me. Or, there's always the attraction of the war genre, which never gets old. Jay Weissberg at Variety points out in his review the comparison between this film and Glory, though, in that they both focus on peoples dealing with being treated as second-class soldiers rather than on action-packed battle scenes. Why were the North Africans being treated this way? They fought for the freedom of a country they've never seen and that was itself ruling over their own country. Obviously their allegiances were often questioned.
The release date hasn't been set but is expected to be sometime in late 2006. The film, which also won the François Chalis Award at Cannes (for "best film that captures life"), will get its North American premiere at Toronto next month.
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