Acting in Foreign Films

[Guest evenflowDDT]

One thing that's always bothered me about my viewing habits is I can't always tell good performances in foreign films. I can only pick apart the highest of the high calibre and the total wooden non-actors. The rest all kind of mesh together for me, because vocalization is such a huge factor on whether or not someone is a "good actor" for me, and I can't appreciate the subtleties of a performance whilst reading subtitles.

 

Does anyone else have this problem? I'm hesitant to discuss it because I think talking about it makes me look ignorant. If so, how do you deal with it? How do you judge a foreign actor's performance...I suppose this can be opened up to include English actors as well, but it'd be more useful to me if it sticks to actors who speak a language you don't.

[Guest El Satanico]

I've gotten pretty good at reading subtitles without it affecting my viewing of a movie.

 

I can't put my finger on it, but there's just something about good performances that transcend language. I'm figuring it has something to do with emotions. Emotions are something that can be understood regardless of language.

[Guest IDrinkRatsMilk]

I find if I watch enough films in a particular language, I'll start to pick up some of the inflection and nuance of that language, and that helps.

If I watch a movie with subtitles a couple times, after that I'll usually have a good enough grip on what's going on, and won't pay attention to them (or turn them off, if it's a dvd). So really, repetition is the key to this for me.

[Guest godthedog]

i go on body language, screen presence, facial expressions, the emotion you can feel in a voice, things like that.