Movie captions in posh London

Helen and Tina went for a wander around Mayfair in London in the hunt for a good old-fashioned movie and decent movie captions. It’s a very old area with many beautiful buildings, and of course the ubiquitous British phone box, although these seem to be a dying breed. Our second office, um I mean … cake shop … is as enticing as ever…. a good warm up!

The Curzon cinema is a Grade II listed building, it has been one of London’s oldest and most prestigious art-house cinemas. Curzon Mayfair was one of the first cinemas in 1934 to import and show foreign language films in the UK. For deaf consumers like us, this means much more choice for captioned movies, not just the usual Hollywood blockbuster type.

A glass of cold vino was had in the lovely old bar, then the film Populaire was watched, commented on, and dissected over coffee afterwards. We enjoyed observing the progression of the one-fingered typist Rose, into an amazingly fast typist. Of course, this led into a conversation about a topic dear to our hearts, live captioning and subtitling videos for deaf viewers.

In our video, Helen speaks about the film and the movie captions, and the relevance it has to the deaf community and the captioners that we rely on so much to make events accessible for us. Movie captions for foreign productions aren’t just for hearing people, they are great for deaf people to take advantage of, as they offer us access as well as a cultural experience.

The film was in French with English subtitles, and with our Cinema Exhibitor’s Association card, one of us got in free! Be sure to apply for your CEA card as it can be used in all participating cinemas in the UK if you have  disability.

[vimeo=https://vimeo.com/67493228]