I vote for Peter Rose's SECONDARY CURRENTS The title credits describe the film as a "film noir" since it pushes structuralist boundaries as a work that is "imageless, that is to say on a black screen, with white subtitles translating the fake foreign language gibberish of the unseen voice-over narrator.
I tend to call it a black comedy. I love this film and its emphasis on the sometimes exceedingly funny translations or lack thereof in watching films because we often spend more time reading the subtitles than actually seeing what's on the screen. I remember watching a print of a Russian film with English subtitles (the film's title evades me at the moment, but this was over 30 years ago) and the Russian characters were cursing up a storm evoking what could be done with one's mother etc, while the subtitle read, "You scoundrel". I was the only one laughing out loud during the screening. Oksana Oksana Dykyj Concordia University Montreal, Canada At 11:43 AM 01/11/2010, you wrote: >Hi all > >An ex-Berkeley faculty friend has posed a very cool reference question...I >can use your help: > >I'm looking for examples of films that do interesting >things with words, either written or spoken, or (at the other extreme) try >to do without words. I've got lots of silent films with title cards I can >use, but I am looking for others. Some that come to mind include The Man >with the Movie Camera, My Dinner with Andre, and Koyaanisqatsi. Any >further suggestions? I'm interested in credits, subtitles, words on sets, >dialogue, voiceover, etc. > > >I've come up with Bob Dylan's lyric cards for Subterranean Homesick Blues >in "Don't Look Back"; the "meta" credits from the movie Stranger Than >Fiction; Buster Keaton in Samuel Beckett's "Film"(1965); and--oddly >enough--two Steve Martin Films (LA Story's sentient freeway sign and C.D. >Bales' [i.e. Cyrano's] hilarious put-down speech: "Let's start with... >Obvious: 'scuse me, is that your nose or did a bus park on your face? ") > >I think Adaptation might have some relevant stuff, but I can't quite >remember. > >What do you say? > >Gary Handman >Director >Media Resources Center >Moffitt Library >UC Berkeley > >510-643-8566 >ghand...@library.berkeley.edu >http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC > >"I have always preferred the reflection of life to life itself." >--Francois Truffaut > > >VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of >issues relating to the selection, evaluation, >acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current >and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It >is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for >video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between >libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors. VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
