Ten Past Midnight

Saw The Wind That Shakes the Barley last night. Good film, and definitely deserving of its Palme d'Or win. One complaint, however. When are filmmakers going to realize that when a film features people talking with a thick, heavy accent, that presenting the film with subtitles would be extremely helpful! I was able to make out most of the dialogue in this film, but there are several passages in the movie - especially when people are whispering - where several minutes go by without a clue as to what people are saying. That said, things get much easier to understand as the film goes on and you get more used to the thick Irish accents. The situation is not nearly as bad as Ken Loach's previous film Sweet Sixteen, where it is utterly impossible to understand the dialogue through the amazingly thick Scottish accents of the actors. Hotel Rwanda is another example of a film that would have benefited immensely from subtitles. Keep in mind, the films mentioned have subtitles on their DVD releases, but were released in theaters without them. I know, it's real movie-geek stuff here, but even just on a basic level, it just baffles my mind that a director wouldn't want to make sure that all viewers were able to understand every line of dialogue. (A funny side-note: Without going into too much detail and giving anything away, the emotional impact of The Wind That Shakes the Barley's ending depends on you having correctly heard a dialogue exchange about halfway through the movie. I was able to discern it, but I'm not sure how many others did.)