Watching movies in a foreign language is always interesting. Especially with respect to the way in which we, as audience memebers, are able to engage them. One of the movies that sticks out in my mind is the late, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. I remember watching this movie for the first time and having to read the movie in subtitles. It was the first time that I watched a movie in subtitles and it made the film watching experience totally different. I had to be more engaged. I was forced, due to this type of defamiarization, to gaze more intently at the film just like it were a piece of art. As I was thinking about this film and doing some research about this idea regarding subtitles, I came across an article that discusses how subtitles do, in fact, defamiliarize us as viewers who are watching a foreign film. In fact, the author of this article Dionysis Kapsaskis (unfamiliar name mind you...could names be considered art forms?...just a side thought) says, "Overall, subtitles exert a defamiliarizing effect; they intervene in the filmviewing experience and draw attention to the formal and aesthetico-political characteristics of the cinematic medium itself" when referring to the effect of subtitles in film. Check it out.
The Defamiliarizing Effect of Subtitles
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