I killed My Mother, J’ai tue ma mere en francais, the multiple prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival from Quebecois wunder-kinder Xavier Dolan, is apparently without English subtitles, as both a volunteer and the box office manager told me. This is frustrating as I was excited to see this film. Please, if you attended this screening, I encourage you to post in the comments section what you thought about the film and if it, in fact, did or did not have subtitles.
This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2009.
I tried to see this in Montreal in June, but it was the end of the run and the only theatre it was playing in didn’t have subtitles. We were joking about this in line tonight with a francophone, only to find out it was the case, once sitting down (there were definitely surprised people in the theatre). So we left and went next door to see All Tomorrow’s Parties, which I loved.
Funny because we saw Dédé: À travers les brumes–a great movie!–right before this, and that was a Quebecois film too, but it had subtitles…
This was a frustrating experience for me as well. I had to jump through hoops to figure out if there were subtitles or not and found contradictory information from different sources. The Coast website said that it would have subtitles. The Film Fest website said “French only” but didn’t say specifically that there were no subtitles. The Official Film Fest program guide said French w/ English subtitles. The tickets that I bought said “French Only” (again not specifically saying “no subtitles” which would have been more clear) and it wasn’t until I spoke to someone at the box Office at Park Lane was I told conclusively that there were indeed no subtitles and I was able to get a refund for my tickets.
Not sure if the Film Fest didn’t know until after the Program guide was printed that the print they were showing was not subtitled but it would have been nice to have this information clearly and explicitly stated in no uncertain terms. I took 2 hours out of my day and spoke on the phone with people at Park Lane, Video Difference and Ticketpro and made in person visits to Video Difference and Park Lane to try to figure this all out and in the end my friends and I were unable to see a film that we were all looking forward to seeing very much.
Explicitly stating “NO SUBTITLES” on the website and ensuring that ticket sellers had this specific information available to prospective ticket buyers would have saved me a lot of trouble! Film Fest websites from other Canadian cities (eg Calgary) list this film playing with English subtitles and I found it quite odd that a film garnering international acclaim would play in the Atlantic provinces without the benefit of English subtitles for all to enjoy.
This was a frustrating experience for me as well as I had to jump through hoops to figure out if there were subtitles or not and contradictory information from different sources. The Coast website said that it would have subtitles, the Film Fest website said “French only” but didn’t say specifically that there were no subtitles, the Official Film Fest program guide said French w/ English subtitles, the tickets that I bought said “French Only” (again not specifically saying “no subtitles” which would have been more clear) and it wasn’t until I spoke to someone at the box Office at Park Lane was I told conclusively that there were indeed no subtitles and I was able to get a refund for my tickets.
Not sure if the Film Fest didn’t know until late in the game that the film was not subtitled i.e. after the Program guide had been printed and press release information had gone out to media such as the Coast. I took 2 hours out of my day and spoke to Park Lane, Video Difference and Ticketpro on the phone and visited Video Difference and Park Lane in person to try to figure this all out and in the end my friends and I were unable to see a film that we were all looking forward to seeing very much.
Explicitly stating “NO SUBTITLES” on the website and ensuring that ticket sellers also had this specific information available to prospective ticket buyers would have saved me a lot of trouble!
Sorry for the double post. First time posting to the site. Well, first and second really but it was frustrating enough to say it twice!
I know, I was disappointed as well. I hope the international acclaim eventually yields and English Canada release with subtitles.