Subtitles for One's Own Language? I Turn Them On All Them Time
The Wapo had a story about Danish theaters showing movies with subtitles, even for movies in Danish
In recent weeks, many Danish have finally been able to understand their country's actors again — thanks to subtitles.
According to European news site The Local, Danish actors were criticized for mumbling to such an extent that many moviegoers had a hard time following the story plot. In reaction to the complaints, cinema owners promised to provide people with the option to either choose movie screenings with subtitles or without. All films produced in Denmark will be available in both versions in the future....
Pedersen blames the necessity for subtitles on the evolution of the use of Danish in movies. Whereas in the past, actors were focused on articulating themselves in a way understandable for everyone, their main emphasis has now shifted to being as authentic as possible. Hence, many actors have chosen not to imitate more common dialects and have stuck to local versions of Danish. "It's a small country, but there are big differences between the Danish dialects," Pedersen explained.
I suppose this is supposed to be surprising but frankly at home I turn subtitles on for a number of shows that have dialog in English but have unfamiliar accents or dialects -- a range of shows from the Crown to the Wire. I remember a cocktail party conversation with a group of white suburban liberals in which, after much alcohol, everyone admitted their secret vice of turning on subtitles for the Wire.
I have argued that another problem with dialogue is the way movie sound is mixed. The dialog track can be overwhelmed with the other sound and music tracks. This works OK in a theater with good acoustics and lots of sound absorption (e.g. those curtains on the wall) but is a disaster when it comes to showings at home where most living rooms are way more "live" than movie theaters. The result is a lot of extra reflections and delays that serve to further muddy even well articulated dialog.
Also, to be honest, my tinnitus and too many rock concerts in the 70's and 80's probably play a factor too.
