Film Forum

An important part of film restoration today is the one most overlooked: subtitling.  Subtitles, introduced in the early 1930s, were first added sparsely to foreign films, the belief being that people didn’t go to the movies to read.  In recent years, new technology has allowed them to be sharper than ever, both visually and textually. In this expanded version of the acclaimed talk first presented here in January, Bruce Goldstein will give a history of translation and subtitling in the movies and his own insights as subtitle editor of over 30 classic films, including Le Trou, Il Boom, Panique, The Battle of Algiers, Grand Illusion, and Godzilla.  Then Mistral Artist’s Jerome Rudes, subtitle supervisor of over 200 films, will give a subtitling Master Class, showing how new computer software has helped make subtitles better than ever and how the skillful subtitler can subtly convey the full meaning of foreign language dialogue, in as few words as possible. 

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