Anyone seen "Pan's Labrynth" ?

[Guest]

 

Beautiful movie.

[JGalanos]

Message deleted.

Edited June 30, 2007 by Guest

[mailonfurs]

Amazing movie.

One of my favorites that were released the previous year.

I will watch it again one of these days.

[LordTheNightKnight]

Shouldn't it have a companion film, Pan's The Dark Crystal?

[Worker 11811]

Seen it? How about PRESENTED it?

 

Good movie! Slightly more macabre than my tastes run but I liked it none the less.

 

All prints are in Cinemascope (1:2.39 aspect ratio.) and are encoded with Dolby Digital.

 

Yes it is in Spanish. U.S. wide release prints are optically subtitled. (As opposed to "Laser Titled" where a regular release print has subtitles burned into it by laser. Optical subtitles are much easier to read.)

 

Since I watch a lot of subtitled movies for a living, I'm used to it where many people aren't. I will tell you, however, that there are certian movies that, once you get involved in watcthing it, you won't mind that it's in another language.

 

If a movie is engaging enough, you don't need to see the subtitles to understand it. Since most people in the US are used to hearing Spanish, even if they don't understand the words, they can pick up a lot of the meaning of the movie by tonal context.

(e.g.: When somebody shouts you know they are angry.)

 

Pan's Labyrinth is one of those movies that IS engaging enough that it doesn't matter whether it's in another language. Once you get involved in it, you will suddenly realize that you've been watching it for 20 minutes but haven't read any of the titles.

[MrMockle]

ToS,

 

I saw Pan's Labyrinth in the cinema after hearing Mark Kermode's praise of the film. It was a great piece of work - not my favourite film from 2006 but one of the top three - and I'm looking forward to going through Guillermo del Toro's back catalogue DVD boxset including Cronos and The Devil's Backbone (a sort of companion film). Subtitles have never bothered me as someone who enjoys a lot of French, Japanese and Korean films.

 

Regards,

Mr Mockle

[mailonfurs]

We at Greece are use to subtitles. Almost all foreign movies and series are in their original form and language with subs, not like our Italia, Deutch, Swiss, Spanish etc friends.

 

I am also trying to learn some spanish therefore I like watching Spanish movies especially of this good quality. If you know any great Spanish language films I am all ears!

 

I've also seen Cronos from Del Toro, not really something special

[Guest]

Made me cry. But offers hope in death; and reunion with nature.

 

This naturist spirit was hugely important in pre Fascist Spain.

 

And the architects of modernity? They are shot through the head and the son will never know their name.

[Worker 11811]

Kostas,

 

Let me ask you this: Do you think that people in Europe and other contries like Greece are more willing to watch subtitled movies because they are used to being around others who speak different languages?

 

In the U.S., you can drive your car or fly in an airplane for a distance of 2,000 miles or more yet never have to speak another language besides English.

 

On the other hand, if you live in, say, England, a 50 mile train ride can land you in a country where the native language is not your own.

 

Therefore Greeks, Brits and other Europeans have a lifetime of "ear training" to make them used to listening to others who speak different languages, even if they don't speak a second language, themselves.

 

In the U.S., you MIGHT hear speaking French or German or Spanish only once in a great while. Lifetime English speakers who do not receive any ear training by being around others speaking different languages would, therefore, be more hesitant to watch a subtitled movie than those who have had experience.

 

What do you think?

[Guest]

I thought that but then there are many other languages in the US. I remember seeing Sesame Street with spanish from the US twenty five years ago.

 

So I think its lowest common denominator capitalism of the kind that has given us reality tv. If you make movies in the language most people understand, then it sells the most; and as more people do it, then we get used to it: we get lazy.

People then get lazy and won't watch subtitled movies. This isn't a US thing because we too in the UK haven't the patience as a rule like subtitled movies. I wrote to the BBC and ITV and Sky a couple of years ago asking why they do not show so many foreign movies. They said people switch over.

 

But the best two movies of the last year or two I have seen...in terms of intelligence, style and craftsmanship... have had subtitles: the Night Watch trilogy and Pan's Labrynth. And it shows that they do not care so much about selling but more about Art (or thy would have been made in English).

 

So how would Hollywood react now to a high brow Art movement influencing its cinema and in fact dominating everything in its production values? It couldn't happen....because of commercial and marketing concerns....but it did 57 years ago with film noir (German Expressionism) and all the great directors of that time were Artists. Not so any more.

 

And the result sadly is that 90% of what comes out of Hollywood is entertaining but pretty low brow; and indeed the 10% that comes out that is good is the result of directors and cinematographers who have vision over and above the commercial brief.

 

I don't think its a language issue.

 

If It was suggested that British or American or Indeed Greek or Chinese people watch a movie with this brief:

 

"The story of the death of innocence under the tensions between forces of modernity in Franco's Spain as expressed through a Spanish Naturist updated faery fable "

 

it wouldn't get anyone through the door if it had subtitles or not. But essentially that is what the movie is. But it is so beautifully crafted and throught the eyes of an innocent and on many levels (the death of the mother is the death of nature etc) that it works. They could have made it in English...would it have worked? No. It would have ben impossible not to lose the integrity as so much of culture is expressed in language.

 

If you have more than just a fetishistic interest in fur but also appreciate it generally, you would be able to tolerate "Atanajuart the Fast Runner" which is in the Inuit language with subtitles.

Or maybe "Pathfinder" in medieval Lapp .

 

Could these movies be shot in English or dubbed? No....impossible.

 

But those people who haven't seen them have missed out on two of the best films of the latter half of the twentieth century.

 

We have to stop filmakers insulting our intelligence or we will have to put up with another 50 years of anoraks telling us Citizen Kane is the best movie ever made...because the way its going they'd be right lol!

[Guest]

http://www.bowdoin.edu/news/archives/1academicnews/002881.shtml

 

...cries of children cries of women cries of birds cries of flowers cries of timbers and of stones ...." Picasso

 

But somehow I bet it sounds better in Spanish

[mailonfurs]

I do not think it is a matter of close distances and such...

Despite the fact (by many scientists - glossologists) that ancient Greek language is the far best ever developed (not modern greek) we've accepted the dominance of English language. But, not many like to watch a film in other language than English. For example I do not think that Pan's Labyrinth was a success here too.

 

I myself do not like to see French movies cause I do not like the language. I do like some Chinese, Japanese and Spanish movies though.

 

Germans would rarely watch a film in other language, so are Spanish people. They prefer to translate a foregin movie. The reason that in some countries they used to translate their movies is : 1st) Nativism and 2nd) Uneducated people that cannot read subtitles (this happened in the Italic South)

 

Now I think Germans, Italians and citizens from other countries are mostly watching translated films because they are just used to them.

 

 

PS: I hope I haven't offended anyone from Germany or Italy Just my humble inexpert opinion

[Guest]

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Edited July 15, 2007 by Guest

[Guest]

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Edited July 15, 2007 by Guest

[mailonfurs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCFY3HtAjyo

 

subtitles, do you need them with such a beauty fur?