Subtitling Gravity’s Basterds

Just wanted to say here Tarantino has not gotten enough attention for the language thing, which is defter than you’re giving him credit for. I’m an American who speaks fluent German and fairly good French, and, as such, the movie was a joy for me just on that level alone. I’m not sure what you mean about the signposting — when Landa switches to English in the first scene, it’s at least motivated by the plot. I’m trying to remember, was there a second instance of really clumsy switching? Not sure.

You appear to respect Tarantino’s achievement with respect to the languages while shrugging it off a bit. Personally, I can’t think of an American movie that was so thoroughly, effectively, and accurately polyglot, and considering that Tarantino is often chided for being sophomoric and childish, this seems to be a not inconsiderable achievement. Again, cannot understate how great the German was in the movie, just rich and accurate and spot-on. Even the guy being caught out was done to perfection — his German was outstanding, but not 100% accent-free. Such a comforting change from actors trying out seir Churman eck-sent.

I’m trying to imagine how an almost perfect but barely faulty accent can be expressed through subtitles. I can’t think of a way. What made that scene so remarkable was that the critic’s German was so very good. English speakers have lazy tongues compared to Germans, who achieve very small but discernable trills and otherwise very tight vowel differentiation in practically every word. As an example, a word ending in R, like Kommissar, an English speaker will always be in danger of ending it with an H unless he really concentrates, whereas the German speaker, even an unlettered one, will nail the trill every time, making something like Kommissarr. This is second nature. That guy’s German was perfect, and yet it was appropriate that the enlisted man would catch it — it was that (barely) noticeable. That bit seemed to play out pretty organically, for me.

You seem to have an objection to talkiness per se, and yet this is a Tarantino movie, so I’m a bit helpless to indicate what he could have done differently. You say that since it was a fantasy, Tarantino had the option of doing something different, yet that direction appears to result in a less rich movie.

And as for subtitles, again, I don’t see why TELLING you what’s happening is any worse than using subtitles, which were obviously extensively used in any case. Airplane aside (jive scene), I can’t really summon any examples of subtitles being used to convey anything much more interesting than what was being said, and you aren’t offering counterexamples of that great masterpiece that used subtitles in the way you’re suggesting. The fonts got on my nerves enough in KB, I don’t think I could have stomached much variation on the bottom of the screen. It would quite simply have been ridiculously affected.

I know the one you mean.

I am taking out a common gripe of mine on Tarantino I know, that directors rarely engage with the subtitling process to make it a integral part of the film. I can think of about three off the top of my head, Korean film Take Care Of My Cat (and that’s subtitles as texting, English subs were usual tat), Tony Scott’s Man On Fire and Kill Bill does it a wee bit. Hence hoping in a script which takes place in four languages could be more experimental on delivery. It strikes me it is a pretty cheap experiment to try out in editing.

Certainly the Grindhouse version of DeathProof is much better than the longer solo theatrical release. Tarantino has a gift for a kind of dialogue, pop-culture snappy, which appeals to reviewers because its how they (wished they) talk, about what they talk about. Actually that isn’t fair, he does write good dialogue scenes, and writes pretty good action scenes AND writes on the whole quite compelling genre plots. He just has no restraint, and no understanding as to why the genre and exploitation films he loves so much are usually 80 minutes long. Always leave them wanting more, not less.

IB’s biggest crime is taht its his worst plot – the Basterds themselves are all but coincidental characters in a wholly different film. That film Shossanon’s) would have been pretty good if corny, and also would have rocked in at 1.30.

Slumdog did that too – integrated them into the scene by placing them near the character who was speaking – which made me wonder how Boyle et al removed them for the Indian version. Though no doubt they did.