On The Big Screen
Hearing loss and cinema subtitles
Sue recently mentioned she’d like to see the new Men in Black film on the big screen. She loved going to the cinema and we went whenever we could, especially when we were on holiday. I know Sue misses the whole experience, a DVD at home just isn’t the same.
Out of curiosity I just checked the last film we (completely) saw in the cinema, ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ in 2004. What’s surprised me is that was only eight years ago, seems more like 10 or 12. But the last thing we actually (part) saw in the cinema was a subtitled showing of ‘The Village’.
We’d been camping in Weymouth for a couple of weeks and Sue had decided to see if she could still follow a film – her hearing was failing alarmingly. First attempt was a bad experience, Sue had missed most of the dialogue and the noise etc. brought on massive Meniere’s attacks. The following week Sue discovered something new to us, subtitled screenings. Undaunted by her previous experience we went to a late morning showing of ‘The Village’, Sue wanted to try the subbed film and, with her aid out, see if she could avoid an attack.
She was really excited at being in on a special screening for deaf viewers and grabbed my hand and grinned as the lights went down. There were only two other family groups in the cinema, which emphasized that the event was about providing a need, rather than making profit.
The film started without any subs, but there wasn’t much speech so we didn’t worry. When there was lots of speech, there still weren’t any words on the screen. I went out and had a friendly word with someone who apologised and said it would be corrected. After two more trips to the desk the words did appear only to vanish when the film stuck ten minutes later.
After more chats with the staff we were informed they didn’t know how to work the equipment and we’d have our money back, which was bitterly disappointing. During the efforts to bump start the film one family had complained that they didn’t want words on the screen and remove them, when the staff explained it was a special (as billed on the posters outside) screening for a deaf audience the family was offensive about the needs of deaf people. I had a little chat about manners.
Things must have improved immensely over the past eight years and I’m looking forward to seeing MiB III with Sue, but booking tickets got off to a perplexing start. I called into the cinema and asked when subbed screenings would be shown, answer was a blank look with a half hearted “I could make a call?”
He did and said they didn’t know when screenings would be shown, call next Tuesday (in six days time). Now, I know the audience for subtitled screening is never going to fill an auditorium, which means a loss of revenue, but not being able to tell me when a film will be shown next week seems a little hit and miss, or in my opinion like they are catering for a nuisance.