About Us
“An alternative to the obsequious slavering over the same high-profile releases that’s provided everywhere else…”
Oldboy: Hollywood is still trying to work out how they can get away with THAT ending!
Just what the world needs, another film website, right? Riiiight! But wait, don’t head back to stalking your ex on facebook just yet! In this case, maybe it is right…
Whilst the World Wide Web has opened up innumerable possibilities to explore different countries, peoples and cultures, the reality is most people continue to submerge themselves in the narrow reality of their own lives – or the emptiness of the rich and famous’ lives.
Movie websites are perfectly indicative of that fact – there’s a countless number of movie websites and blogs, and an immeasurable number of diverse films being produced every year, yet the majority cover the same ground: the latest Hollywood blockbuster or star-vehicle. Throwaway films, given throwaway coverage, via what is increasingly becoming a throwaway medium. You’d think a few people were making a lot of money at the expense of many to keep things this way.
With everything geared towards making money quick, and obsessing about grossly overpaid celebrities, with little care for anything else, it’s understandable that Hollywood dominates British media – that magazines and websites would rather concentrate on continually repeating the same inconsequential gossip related to an attractive star’s personal life than give exposure to genuine talent or celebrate creativity that challenges and offers them less personal gain.
Films that fans can treasure are not produced on the Hollywood conveyor belt.
Films that fans can treasure are not produced on the Hollywood conveyor belt. The likes of Let The Right One In and [REC] have been remade virtually scene for scene because there’s little time for creativity when making a buck is king, and any Hollywood film that could even be considered above average in recent years (think Russel Crowe’s The Next Three Days) has usually been lifted straight from Europe or Asia. Even America’s most revered directors have had their greatest commercial and critical successes remaking or heavily borrowing from world, undiscovered, ignored cinema (Martin Scorsese a prime example – a director who was heavily rewarded with The Departed, a far inferior version of Hong Kong’s Infernal Affairs – whilst Quentin Tarantino would never have produced the works he did without the ideas, scenarios, and even scenes lifted straight from Asian cinema or cult films of yesteryear).
Amelie is regarded by many as a film classic - but how many more gems like this are you missing?
Whilst the aforementioned foreign films may have squeezed a little editorial from your standard mainstream film site or magazine, this is only scratching the surface. Whilst Adam Sandler confounds everybody in continuing to line his pocket with his latest unfunny, there are countless intelligent and insightful releases that are simply being missed. Our website has been set up to bring exposure to these movies. Unlike other websites, we don’t just review a handful of the latest big-name/star-vehicle releases each week and spend the rest of our time regurgitating gossip that fills most newspapers and daytime TV shows already.
Our website is updated daily with news, reviews, competitions, articles and more. We are creating a community for film fans equally disenchanted with the tired and formulaic nature of the dominant Hollywood moneymaking machine; offering a one-stop-source of information for fans of world cinema and foreign film, cult movies, independent filmmaking, GLBT (or LBBT if you prefer) cinema and much more.
Infernal Affairs didn't receive the same level of critical appreciation as its inferior remake.
We love films that are helmed by true auteurs, who are willing (or perhaps more importantly allowed) to push boundaries (successfully or not); we are interested in receiving insight into unfamiliar cultures; and we hope to offer you a much needed alternative to what you are force-fed daily.
Background
subtitledonline.com started life in February 2010 as the personal blog of award-winning British music editor/journalist Darren Howells, offering him the chance to muse on his love of what he perceived as superior filmmaking – films that generally come under the banner of world cinema.
A previous incarnation of subtitledonline.com - darker times.
Soon, however, he discovered that he was not the only person in the UK tired of the formulaic, safe and cynically targeted Hollywood productions that are marketed to the hilt in this country. As the site’s traffic increased (passing over 50,000 unique visitors in a month during its first year of operation), and more and more enthusiastic and knowledgeable fans joined the team, subtitledonline.com became far more than the throwaway comments of a grouchy, pretentious hack with a superiority complex when it came to commercial, mainstream cinema.
subtitledonline.com is clearly a much wanted antithesis to what the media in this country (and beyond) is shackled into promoting. From Lebanon to Japan, from cult classics to GLBT cinema, we offer an alternative to film fans tired of the sterile, safe and clichéd offerings that tend to dominate our media.
