I finally watched Babylon. While everyone gasped at the raunchy behaviour, I was like: “Hey! Look, old-timey title cards!”
What’s an intertitle card?
The silent era film audience read the dialogue and story plot on intertitle cards. These cards written in large, bold text were essential to understanding the film. They conveyed the passage of time, location changes and they explained the characters' thoughts and emotions. The cards were inserted in-between shots or scenes, and were displayed long enough to be read.