Film titles
Somehow or other at the end of the last article I got on to talking about a film title, that well known classic “El Bueno, El Malo y el Feo”. This got me thinking about film titles in general, which is really a whole subject in itself. If you ever go to the cinema in Spain, or subscribe to some film channels, you will quickly notice that there are some rather creative translations for well known titles, some of which seem logical, and others which are rather strange. Here are a few classics to start with. “Die Hard” in its Spanish version is entitled “La Jungla de Cristal” – the glass jungle. Well, that is far enough because Die Hard might be rather difficult to translate meaningfully. Here is the title of the old Hitchcock film “North by Northwest” in Spanish - “Con la Muerte en los Talones” ( With Death at your Heels), which is perhaps closer to the action of the film than the original. Sometimes the title is expanded, as in “Ghost” which is translated as “Ghost – La Sombra del Amor” For some reason the word Ghost remains in English, but the information “the Shadow of Love” is added, presumably to make absolutely certain we realize it is a love story.
One classic translation which I have never quite understood is that of “The Sound of Music”. That could translate quite easily, but instead it is called “Sonrisas y Lágrimas” ( Smiles and Tears). I think a lot of films contain smiles and tears, so it doesn’t really tell us much. Actually, this same film in some South American countries is entitled “La Novicia Rebelde” ( the rebellious novice) which puts a different light on it completely, although I’m not sure it does poor old María a lot of justice.
One can somewhat sympathize with the need to translate “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, which is never going to mean much in Spanish. The film therefore is called “Dos Hombres y Un Destino” ( Two men and one destiny). Well, you think of something better! That other great classic “Jaws” is called “Tiburón” ( Shark) which you can’t really argue with.
Some films do translate literally, although somehow the romance gets lost in translation. An example of this is “Gone with the Wind” – “Lo que el viento se llevó” ( What the wind took away). It doesn’t sound quite as good. A film of the same era which keeps its original title in Spanish is “Ben Hur”. The only difference is the pronunciation is something like “Benuur”. Not easy to write, but you perhaps get the idea.
This trend to stick to the original title has increased in recent years. An example of this is “Batman”. If it were translated it would be “Hombre Murciélago” but that really doesn’t work. Of a similar ilk “Spiderman”, although you will usually hear it pronounced “Espiderman”. “Harry Potter” stays as he is too, but sounds very different with a silent “H” and a rolled “rr” in Harry. It was possibly a mistake on the part of the Spanish to keep to the original title of “Shrek”, I say this because I have never yet come across a Spaniard who could pronounce it. The nearest attempt sounds like “Erreck”, rather like “Eric” really, with a different vowel at the end.
Of course, famous lines from films also cross the language boundaries. I bet you can’t work out which film is
“Tócala Sam, tócala” comes from. My favourite one of these is “Soy una máquina” ( I am a machine). I used to hear this all the time when I was talking Spanish children years ago. It took me ages to discover that it is a quote from Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Terminator”. Now try and work out how the Spanish would pronounce Schwarzenegger.