The traditional emphasis accorded to the linguistic component of the audiovisual programme when subtitling has meant that the nonverbal dimension of films is often neglected in the translation under the pretext that it can hardly be reproduced as written text. In this contribution, the author criticises the marginal attention given so far to nonverbal elements when studying subtitles, and advocates an approach that takes into account paralanguage, silences, kinesics and proxemics as decisive communicative parameters. The marginalisation of paralinguistic features can greatly affect comprehension since not only do they transmit information nonverbally but they also complement and complete the verbal message. Drawing on examples from subtitled films (Hungarian-Italian, English-Italian), the author sheds light on the possible causes that require nonverbal information to be verbalised. The analysis is predominantly qualitative, although some attention is given to the quantitative dimension of the results.