Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,160
- Reaction score
- 7
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/film_tv/story.jsp?story=699422
Soundproof on BBC2 last Wednesday was certainly engrossing. The story, revolving round two deaf people caught up in a murder of the girl's obnoxious boyfriend, never flagged and made fascinating viewing. But why do TV films continue to present such a completely flawed impression of life in the deaf world?
Professional interpreters around the country must be fuming at the picture presented by Penny, an attractive bike-riding communicator introduced by police as a "sign language teacher".
Was she qualified to assist in a murder investigation?
All of our top interpreters are bound by a strictly observed code of conduct, which Penny was apparently ignorant about or seemed quite happy to abandon.
Even the police inspector questioned Penny's aptness for the role and suggested bringing in a more experienced interpreter.
He was not to know that Penny had already became emotionally entangled with Dean, the young deaf suspect and, breaking all the rules about confidentiality and impartiality, she was trying to help his case by passing on information from a previous interview.
There was no gradual build-up of friendship but an almost immediate sexual frisson between the two which Penny made little attempt to quell.
The interpreter allowed her feelings to triumph even though she never seemed sure of the suspect's innocence, and while the sexual chemistry between them was undeniably genuine she was breaking all the rules of professional interpreting by her behaviour.
Penny was shown telling her friend that Dean was a good man. The remark came across as highly ambiguous as it happened just after she was seen having vigorous sex with the deaf man and we were left wondering if she meant good in the sexual sense or good as a person. It reduced even further her integrity as an interpreter - a serious lapse of professional etiquette.
We were presented with two totally different aspects of the deaf world in the characters Dean and Jak. Dean was shown as profoundly deaf and completely unaware of noise - which the film represented by showing subtitles instead of sound as he walked through traffic and other noisy situations. Jak was hard of hearing with good speech and, while seemingly capable of taking part in normal conversations, it was interesting that the inspector told her solicitor to arrange a sign language interpreter for her interview ... "just in case".
Both Dean and Jak came across as attractive and intelligent deaf people and I was pleased to see them both able to cope by lip-reading when sign language help was not available. We saw Dean refusing tea and coffee but accepting water from the lady of the house during some garden work, and the scene in which the lady talked in a down-to-earth manner asking if he would like a drink was a model on how to speak clearly to deaf people.
But that so-called interpreter added a touch of unreality to a gripping thriller. The disillusionment began when we saw her riding a push-bike - all the interpreters I know are terribly busy and need cars to get around. Her attitude to the job was far too laid-back and unprofessional and falling for an undeniably attractive suspect was the last straw.
Many deaf people had been looking forward to this film as it's so seldom we appear in major films - and even rarer for deaf characters to play the leading parts. Soundproof may be remembered for one deaf character being a murderer and the other seducing the interpreter.
Is this what we want to see?
Soundproof on BBC2 last Wednesday was certainly engrossing. The story, revolving round two deaf people caught up in a murder of the girl's obnoxious boyfriend, never flagged and made fascinating viewing. But why do TV films continue to present such a completely flawed impression of life in the deaf world?
Professional interpreters around the country must be fuming at the picture presented by Penny, an attractive bike-riding communicator introduced by police as a "sign language teacher".
Was she qualified to assist in a murder investigation?
All of our top interpreters are bound by a strictly observed code of conduct, which Penny was apparently ignorant about or seemed quite happy to abandon.
Even the police inspector questioned Penny's aptness for the role and suggested bringing in a more experienced interpreter.
He was not to know that Penny had already became emotionally entangled with Dean, the young deaf suspect and, breaking all the rules about confidentiality and impartiality, she was trying to help his case by passing on information from a previous interview.
There was no gradual build-up of friendship but an almost immediate sexual frisson between the two which Penny made little attempt to quell.
The interpreter allowed her feelings to triumph even though she never seemed sure of the suspect's innocence, and while the sexual chemistry between them was undeniably genuine she was breaking all the rules of professional interpreting by her behaviour.
Penny was shown telling her friend that Dean was a good man. The remark came across as highly ambiguous as it happened just after she was seen having vigorous sex with the deaf man and we were left wondering if she meant good in the sexual sense or good as a person. It reduced even further her integrity as an interpreter - a serious lapse of professional etiquette.
We were presented with two totally different aspects of the deaf world in the characters Dean and Jak. Dean was shown as profoundly deaf and completely unaware of noise - which the film represented by showing subtitles instead of sound as he walked through traffic and other noisy situations. Jak was hard of hearing with good speech and, while seemingly capable of taking part in normal conversations, it was interesting that the inspector told her solicitor to arrange a sign language interpreter for her interview ... "just in case".
Both Dean and Jak came across as attractive and intelligent deaf people and I was pleased to see them both able to cope by lip-reading when sign language help was not available. We saw Dean refusing tea and coffee but accepting water from the lady of the house during some garden work, and the scene in which the lady talked in a down-to-earth manner asking if he would like a drink was a model on how to speak clearly to deaf people.
But that so-called interpreter added a touch of unreality to a gripping thriller. The disillusionment began when we saw her riding a push-bike - all the interpreters I know are terribly busy and need cars to get around. Her attitude to the job was far too laid-back and unprofessional and falling for an undeniably attractive suspect was the last straw.
Many deaf people had been looking forward to this film as it's so seldom we appear in major films - and even rarer for deaf characters to play the leading parts. Soundproof may be remembered for one deaf character being a murderer and the other seducing the interpreter.
Is this what we want to see?