Mainstream Narrative Film Dialogue and Subtitling

This article demonstrates the way in which subtitles that follow current subtitling norms in Flanders strengthen mainstream film stories’ already streamlined narratives. The subtitles enhance but impoverish the characterization of the films, also enhancing their underlying ideology, while censoring a few critical voices in the process. A brief survey is offered of the method for dialogue analysis (taken from social psychology) which is used in this study. The article then examines the way in which the subtitles of the Flemish subtitled version of Mike Leigh’s ‘Secrets and Lies’ maintain or modify the interplay of interactional, semantic and quantitative dominance that propels verbal exchanges and helps determine the progression of the narrative. The analysis also covers the information conveyed by the visual sign system of the film and the way in which it complements the dialogues.