I almost don’t want to do this. We get so few international films described each year that I really don’t want to bite the hand that feeds. But, I also want the industry to keep making audio description for international titles, so i have to talk about it, but I can’t actually lie and say this is good audio description. it is a conundrum. Luckily, this is a terrific film, and you should see it anyway.
It’s always amazing to get that experience of perspective from another country, and another culture. how do things there work? What is their day to day like? What are the social constructs, political climates, etc. that shape the movies being made. The Teachers Lounge puts race on display, but also very much challenges it in a way specific to Germany, and what their diversity makeup is.
When a teacher encounters a problem at school, things slowly unravel as blame is clearly angled in one direction, and as much drama exists in the classroom as it does outside, in the teachers lounge. I don’t want to spoil it, just watch it. There’s a reason Germany submitted this for the Oscars, and a reason it got the nomination. it is pretty amazing.
Sadly, the audio description here is one narrator. And I honestly got lost in conversations. Many times I struggled to figure out where one person stopped talking and another one began, because they talk on top of themselves a lot. And, the narrator still has to do the audio description in addition to the dubbing of subtitles. Plus, she’s doing every gender, and adults and kids. It is at times, a little maddening. but, this film is so well written, so expertly crafted, I was truly mesmerized. It is hard to say this ever had a shot at beating The Zone Of Interest, or even Society Of The Snow, but it absolutely deserves attention, even with this subpar audio description.
I have a dream. one day, I will convince Netflix and Alfonso cuaron to add English Audio Description to Roma, and inspire Netflix to routinely add quality audio description to more of their international content. Don’t wait for it to blow up, just add it. Squid Game became a massive phenomenon, and earned its audio description. Let us jump in at the beginning, so we can be a part of that water cooler experience on socials with everyone else.
Shoutout to Sony for having audio description on this, and actually passing it through to Netflix. But, if you could please pay your audio description teams enough to use more than one voice, it could be a game changer.I’m not using dubbing because I’m too lazy to read subtitles. I actually need it. When i could see, i read subtitles. I know it is the preferred way. But that method now means my favorite international title of all time, Let The Right One In, is inaccessible to me because it has no audio description track.
We can learn so much from international cinema.
Final Grade: A