Judi Dench advises you to stop going to the cinema and theater ‘if you need a warning’

Are you sensitive? At that time stop going to the theater and cinema.

This is what the British actress Judi Dench, who you have already seen in films, offers you James Bond (Sky fall, Spectrum), Pirates of the Caribbean OR Pride and Prejudice. In a recent interview for The Guardianthis icon of theater tables and film sets has taken part in the debates that animate the entertainment industry around references to “activation notice” which appear at the beginning of some programs not recommended for sensitive audiences.

For Dench, these warnings, intended to warn audiences against content that evokes difficult topics, could compromise what, in her opinion, constitutes the very essence of cinema and theater: surprise.

Trigger warnings, spoilers?

In the columns of the English magazine, the 89-year-old actress explained that a warning was equivalent to saying “Be careful, you will be surprised and moved”. He then continued: “I understand why they exist, but if you are so sensitive, don’t go to the theater anymore because you could be very shocked. » She explained:

“I certainly understand the intention behind these warnings. But if we eliminate any form of shock or disturbance from art, what are we left with? Theater is a mirror of life, sometimes raw and merciless. And if we eliminate these aspects, we lose part of its ability to transform society. »

Judi Dench is not the first to speak out against these warning messages. Ralph Fiennes, British actor known for acting Flight of Death In Harry Potter he has already confided that he found that the public was “it has become too soft” : “The theater must be alive and present. It’s the shock, the unexpected, that makes theater so exciting.”he said, as remembered The Guardian.

Thanks to the activation alerts

Reduce the activation notice to types of spoilers, which ruin the surprise of a work is equivalent to completely missing the issues of representation that this revolution hides on the screen. Evoking with nostalgia the time when activation notice did not exist, these two actors ignore the fact that, thanks to the work of the artists, themes that had no place in theater or cinema have imposed themselves on stage and screen. Directors, filmmakers and showrunner wanting to make visible invisible stories, words and points of view they turned these painful experiences into films, series and plays.

Let’s think, for example, about the series I could destroy you. British showrunner Michael Coel makes it possible to see and hear the experience of a black woman who recounts the traumatic experience of rape, without however causing harm to uninformed viewers, who would have difficulty making this argument. The goal is denounce the denied violence and help the victims, Don’t traumatize them further or create one suffering entertainment. On the French theater side, we also think about the feminist and decolonial piece A black card called desire by Rebecca Chaillon.

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