TY - JOUR TI - Polish Subtitling in the 1930s AU - Plewa, Elżbieta TI - Polish Subtitling in the 1930s AB - This article presents the results of an archival study on Polish subtitling of pre-WWII films (until 1939). The main focus will be on the technical aspects of subtitling in Poland in the 1930s, such as the number of lines, number of characters per line, and subtitle display times. We will show the development of Polish film translation in its initial phase. In our article, we will present previously unpublished pictures of early film subtitles, which come from original archival research. Contrary to some previous claims, film translation did not start with the introduction of sound in films – which occurred in Poland in the 1929/30 cinema season. Prior to that, in the silent cinema period, intertitles were a tested way of delivering content to the viewer. And these silent movies’ intertitles were translated. Copies of various foreign films have even been preserved with Polish intertitle translation rather than the original intertitles. Imitating intertitles in silent films, subtitles began to appear in films with sound and dialogue. These were “inserted subtitles” – between scene edits. Only later were subtitles burnt into the image, which began modern film subtitling. VL - 2020 IS - Issue 41 – Wschód – Zachód. Translacje PY - 2020 SN - 1425-6851 C1 - 1689-1864 SP - 214 EP - 253 DO - 10.4467/16891864PC.21.012.13594 UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/przekladaniec/article/napisy-na-ekranach-kin-ii-rzeczypospolitej KW - film translation KW - intertitle KW - in-image subtitle KW - subtitle KW - narrative and dialogue subtitles KW - dubbing KW - versioning