Overall, I really enjoyed Circus. I thought it was funny and well-put together. One thing that annoyed me about it was the subtitles. I know there was a disclaimer at the beginning saying that Marion's speech translated into broken English, but there were times when someone would be speaking and there were no subtitles at all because the timing was off.
I guess this movie did have a good message (about accepting Marion's black son, which surprised me since this movie was made so long ago), but there was some very obvious propaganda in it towards the end, especially how it ended in a big parade with everyone dresssed exactly the same.
I think I would place this movie between entertainment and propaganda in the art/entertainment/propaganda triangle because despite all of the propaganda towards the end, it was a pretty entertaining movie.
2 comments:
No doubt about it--the subtitles are indeed horrible. They're particularly shameful, since the timing of the actors' lines in this film is so superb.
Nonetheless, I've come to appreciate them as an unintended comic touch to a movie that can still be funny even when a non-Russian viewer isn't given the chance to understand every moment of it.
I found your comment about this movie having a "good message" interesting. Sometimes, I think that we focus too much on the propaganda and forget that this movie actually does promote some positive morals. I guess I was too busy laughing whenever Von Kneishitz spoke English to notice the problem with the subtitles. That does sound like it was rather annoying though.
Post a Comment