Reading Comprehension

PT153 · S1 · P1 · Q6 Motion Pictures

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Most writings on the subject of motion pictures, including those scrutinizing the structural characteristics, aesthetic qualities, and effects of motion pictures on audiences, have traditionally been relatively abstract and have not considered what a filmʼs audiences actually see.

Topic

The impact of distribution and presentation on the integrity and perception of motion pictures.

Framework

Problem / Solution

Main Point

The way films are distributed, translated, edited, and especially shown on television or video often alters the intended experience, yet this is rarely acknowledged—creating problems for both audiences and critics. Most Valuable Sentence: The last paragraph, especially:

P1: The Usual Approach Overlooks the Audience’s Real Experience

Most discussions and analyses of movies ignore what audiences actually see, focusing too much on abstract qualities. But lots of outside factors come between what the filmmaker intends and what the audience ultimately experiences.

P2: Specific Ways Distribution Alters Films

Distribution can seriously change films, especially with foreign films. Subtitles and dubbing can introduce errors, censorship, or big changes. Sometimes films are re-edited or given new titles that misrepresent their original intent.

P3: Television and Video Transformations

When movies are shown on TV or video, they're altered even more. Not only do you lose picture quality and size, but you get commercials, on-screen graphics, and interruptions that mess with the flow. Other changes, like slightly speeding up a film to allow more ads, are subtle but still damaging.

6.

Suppose that a Russian company is planning to distribute to Russian-speaking audiences a film that was produced in Italy with dialogue originally spoken only in Italian. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would be most likely to agree with which one of the following recommendations regarding the film?

  1. The company should attempt to

    Weird Match: explanatory material

    Why, if we're translating the title into Russian, do we also need explanatory material available for audiences that know no Italian. We're already assuming our Russian audience doesn't know Italian, which is why we translated the title into Russian. This is essentially a mixed bag answer that doesn't make a ton of internal sense, and the explanatory material doesn't match up with anything from the passage. Our author might be more likely to say, "Keep it all in its original Italian form, but make explanatory material available for audiences that don't know Italian".

    9% picked this

  2. The company should first make

    Too Strong: only to critics

    The harsh, restrictive recommendation of "only let critics who know the language see it first, then release it to the public" doesn't match up with anything from the passage. The author never talked about a staggered release schedule, where it first goes to people who know the language and then goes to those who don't.

    3% picked this

  3. Correct

    The film should be subtitled

    Why this is right

    This matches up with two of the 2nd paragraph's ideas: - the author hates it when subtitling is done incompetently, full of mistakes, or when it is used for censorship (so she would agree that the translation should be as faithful to the original as it can be). - the author thinks dubbing is worse than subtitling (so she would agree that we should subtitle, rather than overdub new Russian actors saying these lines in Russian)

    Skill tested: Application · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    58% picked this

  4. The version of the film

    Opposite, if anything

    We know from the 2nd paragraph that the author thinks dubbing "can be even more damaging" than bad subtitling. So we can't pick this answer thinking, "The author would agree. She'd rather it be overdubbed in Russian than for it to be subtitled." If we're picking this answer, we'd be thinking that the author would rather the film not have subtitles or be dubbed. But how would Russian-speaking audiences get enough out of the movie if they couldn't understand any of the dialogue? The author's main concern was trying to let these films, as works of art, be experienced by audiences in a way such that the viewer's perception of the film is closest to what the filmmaker intended. We can use our common sense to surmise that filmmakers intend for the dialogue in their films to be understood by the audience. So it would be a pretty out there film critic if she were insisting, "Sorry! You have speak Italian or else just follow along by looking at the images and guessing what all the characters are saying." The author never specifically bad-mouthed subtitles, just incompetent mistake-ridden subtitles or subtitles that omit certain parts of the dialogue for the sake of censorship.

    9% picked this

  5. The film should be very

    Unreasonable: restructured

    While the goal of this answer is noble (making the filmmaker's intentions clearer to Russian-speaking audiences), it's a pretty far-fetched recommendation to say, "Here, Russian company. Here is a completed Italian film. Go head and very cautiously restructure it." This author is deeply uncomfortable when anyone besides the original filmmaker is messing with the film, so entrusting a Russian company to restructure an Italian filmmaker's film sounds riskier (in terms of drifting from the filmmaker's intent) than does just adding accurate subtitles.

    21% picked this

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