Bruno Pelletier as Gringoire singing Fatalité
Before we concluded with the review proper of Notre Dame de Paris I want to discuss the editing on the original DVD. For the most part, the cuts and shots are serviceable. They showcase the musical by showing the the singers and stage in a a fairly balanced manner and it moves things along. In the practical capacity it does its job. However the editing at times tries to be artsy or at the least interesting with overlays.
Overlay of Phoebus
These overlays are dumb. Either the expressions are just bad like the overlay of Phoebus between Beau comme le Soleil and Dechire or they are not executed well has with the overlay of Gringoire at the end of Le Temps de Cathedral where it has a harsh line at the bottom that should have been softened. It’s also small and off to the side of the shot so it looks more silly than intentional. There are also these kind of overlay through Le Temps and the run time of the DVD. Florence has a lot of these type of overlays too.
Overlay of Gringoire
Then we have the subtitles. The are not that great on the translation end of things. There are a lot of youtube comments just about how the subtitles are wrong and typically they blame the person who uploaded the video. No, the official subtitles on the DVD are bad.
However subtitles are hard thing to get right, one has to get the idea of words in a short time and make it quick to read. It’s more of a art form than a science. If you don’t speak French they are fine so for most people it’s not a big issue and if you do speak decent French you need the subtitles. So it’s just a youtube thing but really you need not waste your time complaining on about the subtitles, complain about the overlays.