With the awards season fast approaching I thought I'd take the opportunity to recognize the talents of an oft-neglected group, whose hard work and dedication opens up a whole world of cinematic possibilities for us eager viewers - the writer of sub-titles.
As a life-long fan of world cinema, I admit to giving little thought to these unsung hero's. Blithely reading their work without once considering the skill involved in translating often long or complex speeches into succinct titles you can read quickly without missing too much of the action.
It was only while watching the French film, Tell no one, that I realized just how crucial their role was. This enjoyable Hitchcockian thriller has a rather complex denouement that requires a certain amount of concentration to unravel. Names, places and motives were reeled off at a furious pace leaving me grasping at seemingly random bits of information. In fact I had to watch the whole scene again to make any sense of it. Now I'm not really blaming the sub-titles - any film with such an array of characters and subtle machinations would be hard pressed to simplify - but it made me think about just how did the writers decide what should be left in and what taken out?
Obviously anything pertaining to the plot is pretty crucial, but then so are the casual asides that define character, without which we would lose empathy.
I guess we should be thankful that so much is realised through body language, tone of voice, facial expressions etc.
But the next time you watch a sub-titled film spare a little thought for the hard working title writer who probably agonized long into the night over how many expletives were really necessary and weather or not to leave in the joke about Nicolas Sarkozy.

Au revior