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For those few of you who have seen Berberian Sound Studio, I have a question. It makes me look like a real dingaling, but I am going to ask anyway. Knowledge is power! I learned that from Saturday morning cartoons. Ahem. So, in Berberian Sound Studio, when the Italian people are speaking Italian... were there supposed to be subtitles? Were we supposed to know what they were saying? Because the version I watched didn't have any subtitles and this was fine for a good portion of the movie - I just figured they were putting us into Toby Jones' character's mind-set - he couldn't speak Italian either (assuming you're like me and cannot can't speak Italian), so he was as lost as we were. But then the last half an hour it became impossible, without subtitles.
Which could have been the point? At that point everything's going off the deep end so perhaps the film was using this language confusion to further disorient the viewer? It fits with the way the movie uses sound.
Or maybe I am just a dingaling who should've
downloaded a version that had subtitles on it?
Anyway this is why I haven't reviewed the film, because I wasn't sure I watched it properly. If I did watch it properly and there weren't supposed to be subtitles anywhere, let me say that I was actually kinda disappointed with the movie. But a lot of that stems from how completely nonsensical I found the last third or so, which has a lot to do with the lack of subtitles, which might just be my own blunder.
So who knows? Anybody? Bueller?
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7 comments:
I thought that the movie was such a love letter to the (now foregone) obscurity of some of those 70s gialli, which caused some fans to watch some of those pics even without understanding any of it in the olden days of VHS and no internet fan-subs (I know I have and I come from a latin country so I have a leg up from you there), that it tried to replicate that feeling.
So the intended lack of subtitles (wilfully?) narrows its audience (no way to release the pic in Italy for instance) and it also makes for some interesting conjecture (no plane ticket because Gilderoy is Italian and hallucinates the first part of the movie?)
Okay so I didn't screw up! Hooray!
Alright so in that case, I agree with everything you say, only I think it aped those gialli maybe too well - I found it frustrating more than intriguing, in the end. But I spent so much time distracted about the subtitle thing I maybe have just frustrated myself out of paying as much attention as I should have been, too.
The review on Blu-Ray.com says that the blu-ray includes optional English subtitles for the Italian. I would assume that if you weren't meant to understand the Italian, the subtitles wouldn't have been provided. I'll be watching it with subtitles when it finally hits Netflix.
I also found an indication that it was shown at the Brisbane International Film Festival with English subtitles for the Italian. I'm really thinking that's how it was meant to be seen now.
Thanks for doing some leg-work, Ross! I'm totally annoyed at myself over this.
No problem! I'm looking forward to this one.
I don't recall there not being subtitles when I saw it at a film festival. I think I'd remember being confused by that as well. Like, all the stuff the ladies were saying in the booth? Yeah, fairly sure that had subtitles.
! MIFF website says "Italian/English w/English subtitles" so there you go.
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