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Slow Drift

Watched Topkapi recently and loved it for being uncomplicated and fun. Among other things found it interesting how easy it was to follow the dialogue. I can almost never get by without subtitles these days and have blamed it on my bad ear. Turns out that may not be entirely true. Filmmakers are playing with too many technologies in their effort to get "realistic" sound and dialog has become harder to follow over the past decade. 

That has also been the period where I have all but lost interest in going to the movie theater even for the experience - the dependence on sub-titles is in large part to blame for this. It makes me wonder if there could be a method to the madness here. If we are meant to consume streaming content from our couches and marketed to while in that state, then it makes sense to make that the only comfortable option. 

Lot of interesting discussion on the topic on unintelligible movie dialog on this YC thread. Small drifts in a certain direction over time can have unforeseen consequences though, specially as content production becomes more democratic. It will no longer be that influential film-makers are the only ones who can set the tone. 

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