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Exploring the synergies between audiovisual translation, cognitive (experimental) pragmatics and film studies, the present article proposes a novel approach to the empirical investigation of audience reception. The proposed methodology is applied to a study on the comprehension of implicatures by British and Greek viewers in the two Bridget Jones films Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and their subtitled versions. Inter alia, it is demonstrated that implicatures whose understanding presupposes familiarity with specific aspects of the British culture presented the Greek audience with substantial difficulties. Overall, experimental data analysis shows that source and target viewers did not always understand implicatures in the way the filmmakers would like them to and/or the analyst had predicted. This finding highlights the subjectivity and creativity of audience response and, therefore, the need regularly to corroborate research hypotheses through studies of actual audiences.

This article examines the construal, cross-cultural relay and comprehension of misunderstandings by filmmakers, translators and audiences respectively of Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004). It reports on findings of a case-study on implicatures in these two romantic comedies (Desilla 2009/2012/2014). Both genuine and feigned misunderstandings are found in the two films. Inter alia, the analysis will show that misunderstandings can serve comedic and/or narrative functions, the latter pertaining to both characterisation and, more crucially, plot advancement. It is also demonstrated how misunderstandings can permeate only a single layer or both layers of film communication.

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