Beating words to life: subtitles, assemblage(s)capes,expression

摘要

Ostensibly, subtitles in films serve aslinguistic approximations of meaning. Expectedlythen, much of the debate surrounding subtitling hasbeen concerned with representational accuracy, fidel-ity and authenticity. In this article I argue that byencountering subtitles as affective bodily expressions,as opposed to approximate representations of pre-existent meanings or intentions, filmic experiencesmay be(come) transformed and differently transfor-mational. As a result, meaning and accuracy insubtitles as superimposed signifiers or static repre-sentations become secondary to subtitles as spatiallyaffective- and expressive-movements intimately partof filmic scapes. The creative use of subtitling inBekmambetov's Russian language film Night Watch(Nochnoy dozor; 2006 [20041) is discussed.