Intertitle

An intertitle is a written card inserted into a film, especially a silent film, to convey dialogue, narration, or other information.

Silent film: A film made without synchronized recorded dialogue, often accompanied by live music or sound effects. Intertitles supplied dialogue and narration when synchronized speech was unavailable.
Early cinema: The first decades of motion-picture production and exhibition, from the 1890s into the early twentieth century. Intertitles emerged as filmmakers sought ways to clarify stories for audiences.
Dialogue intertitle: An intertitle that presents words spoken by a character in a film. It gives silent-film characters audible dialogue in written form.
Talkies: Films with synchronized recorded speech, which became widespread in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Synchronized dialogue displaced intertitles as the usual way to present speech.
Translation: The rendering of meaning from one language into another. Intertitles were often translated for foreign distribution, changing wording and tone.
Title card: A filmed or printed graphic displaying text within or around a motion picture. Intertitles are title cards placed within a film to communicate written information.
The Great Train Robbery: A 1903 American Western film directed by Edwin S. Porter. Its inserted explanatory titles show an early narrative use of written film cards.
Expository intertitle: A film title card that supplies narrative facts, dates, locations, or other context. It provides information that images alone may not make clear.
Subtitles: On-screen text that translates or transcribes dialogue while a film’s images and soundtrack continue. Subtitles accompany ongoing scenes; intertitles typically interrupt them with a separate card.
Localization: The adaptation of a work for the language and cultural expectations of a particular audience. Distributors could replace title cards to make a film legible in local markets.

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