Welcome to one of my biggest peeves in the world of rarefied films. Crappy subtitling. Just in general: Why do they leave out huge chunks of dialogue? I can read an English sentence of ten words in about a second. Why don't they pick up the pace and / or enrich the dialogue? Why do they NEVER translate songs? Why doesn't someone please re-issue classic foreign films with new, improved subtitles? Here are the top three worst subtitling jobs I have ever seen: 1. _Breathless_, dir. Jean-Luc Godard Among the many sins committed against this picture is outright bowdlerization. The famous last line has been changed from calling her a "bitch," (I assume, my French is poor) to "jerk." The dialogue is obviously much more hard-core than the wincingly outdated subtitled version that STILL makes the rounds. 2. _The Seventh Seal_, dir. Ingmar Bergman Whole swatches of dialogue were ignored, and for those that weren't the subtitles wouldn't keep up with who was talking, resulting in extreme confusion. 3. _Persona_, dir. Ingmar Bergman This poor guy seems to get the worst of it. As I recall there is an entire four-minute monologue by one of the women, as she brushes her hair, looking in the mirror, which is left totally and completely untranslated. Was it THAT risque? Who was primarily responsible for the censorship of these films? The American Distributor? ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]