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Subtitles | Nov 09 2005

Having come to the film archive to see a new Godard film, I find a note on the counter saying the distributor sent the wrong of version of the film, one without English subtitles. I turn to leave, but the woman behind the counter insists I stay and see the film anyway. She won’t charge me anything, she says. Also: People have loved the film, at least half of which is images. Reluctantly I agree to give it a try.

Entering the theater, which is empty but for a couple in the first row and an older man near the back, I take a seat in the middle. Soon the film begins. At first it’s fine; it’s just credits, which one can rarely understand in foreign films anyway. But then after only a few minutes of watching two people in a room talking to each other in French, I decide to leave.

As I pass the woman at the counter, she says she’s sorry I hated the film.

I didn’t hate it, I say. I just wanted to see it how Godard intended.

What I really meant is that I didn’t think there was much chance for me to understand what Godard was saying without Godard’s words (at least to the degree possible with subtitles). Of course if Godard made a film without words, or in a language of nonsense, I would happy to see that on its own terms. But that’s not the case with this film. Knowing Godard’s work, he doubtless had something to say and presumably said it, in part with words. Seeing the film without any hope of understanding those words seems akin to covering one’s ears, or more to point, running in and out of the cinema during the showing of the film. One imagines Godard’s displeasure. On the other hand, the French Surrealists would often do exactly this: see ten minutes of ten different films over the course of a single night. But those were the French Surrealists…

Such are my thoughts as I approach the archive door. Just as I reach it, I turn to wave goodbye to the woman at the counter, but she’s gone. I scan the room for a moment, and then there she is, standing outside the theater with her head turned sideways, watching the film through the crack in the theater doors.