Sunday, September 09, 2007

Speaking Foriegn

So we sit down, excited, finally, the long wait is over and we'll get to see the film we've been anticipating. So, the film starts, and all is well. Its brilliant.

And then the Russian begins.

Now, I know all about the film. I know that it is originally Russian. I'm talking here, of course, about Day Watch. (I've seen Night Watch and fell in love with it, awesome, kick ass film)! But I saw that on DVD, with the bliss of an English audio track.

We sit for about 20 minutes. Through which I try to translate, while I read the subtitles and watch the beautiful visuals. It was not only impossible, but extremely NOT fun. There was only Arabic subtitles.

We leave the theatre and confront the staff with the problem. They seem as bewildered by it as we were. They didn't have a clue. We did get a refund, but our evening was ruined. We were so looking forward to seeing it and now we'll have to wait for the DVD to do so.

You would think, that they would know what they are purchasing, but the folk at Dana Cinema seemed quite oblivious to the whole thing. Not least the manager, who stormed off seemingly angry at the fact that someone somewhere screwed up big time.

Anyway, so, just beware, if you want to see Day Watch. Unless you can read Arabic, or understand Russian!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I don't understand, I mean was the movie in Russian and translated into arabic subtitle like other English movies?
because that's gonna be a problem for English speakers for sure! otherwise, I prefer the original audio track. It's more confusing to see someone mouthing something, with someone else's voice saying something else in another language, and add to that the Arabic subtitle! besides, the original actors voices gives alot to the performance, but that's just my opinion.
anyway, for a movie theatre, it should've been the English dubbed version for ppl who don't understand arabic. That's a big mistake from Dana Cinema!

Ali Al Saeed said...

Yes, it was in Russian with arabic subtitles.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy films in foreign languages and when I rent them on DVD, I usually watch them in the orginal language with english subtitles. But when I'm in a movie theatre, I want to enjoy the "big picture"! Plus, my friend didn't speak arabic.

The film is apparently still showing, but I dont know if they fixed the problem or not.