Dec
30
Lost (and found) in translation: Movie titles in Spanish
The other day when I saw the movie poster for “Bee Movie”, I thought it was a fluke. Then I saw a billboard on Gran Vía in Madrid for the Nanny Diaries and then another for Beowulf and then another for Michael Clayton. Could it be possible? Movie titles in English? In Spain?
The first time I came to Spain six years ago I was struck by the number of movie titles that were totally different from their original titles in English. When Spanish people would ask me what some of my favorite movies were, I would respond by translating the English titles into Spanish. 9 times out of 10, the Spanish person I was talking to had no idea which movie I was referring to. I had to tell them the general plot before they would exclaim the title of the movie as it was known in Spain.
Translating movie titles, I can understand. But these weren’t merely translated titles. No. These were totally different, invented titles that often gave away the entire plot or, sometimes, the twist of the movie in a single phrase. For example, “Infiltrados” for “The Departed”, and my personal favorite, “La Semilla del Diablo” for “Rosemary’s Baby.” No need to see the movie when the title in Spanish gives away the ending.
Frequently the new titles in Spanish are just plain dull and less interesting than the original titles. For example, “Plan oculto” (Inside Man) and “El Dilema” (The Insider).
So the good news now is that Spanish film distributors are preserving the original titles of Hollywood movies. Maybe this has something to do with eMule and the popularity of downloading video from the Internet. A Hollywood movie is most likely to be known by its English title worldwide, so perhaps it makes more marketing sense to preserve the English title and put a Spanish translation, if necessary, below. I don’t know what has caused the change but it is one that is noticeable. And I think it is a good thing. The title of a movie is part of the movie and when it gets randomly changed it just seems like unnecessary tinkering of the filmmaker’s original vision.
Can you guess the original titles of the following movies without peeking first? 
(These are the titles under which these movies are known in Spain.)
El protegido. La jungla de cristal. El ladrón de orquídeas. Con la muerte en los talones. En terreno vedado. Rompiendo el hielo. Sonrisas y lágrimas.
I think my favourite waste of time film title translation is “Atrapado por su pasado”
Chris,
A great and worthy addition to the collection of wacky translations of film titles. I had no idea which film that was until I put the title into filmaffinity.com, Spain’s answer to the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com), and up popped up that Al Pacino classic, “Carlito’s Way.” LOL.
Hmm, how strange is that, that a Spanish film database has an English name?
Doesn’t really give anything away, but the other way round we have ‘Abre los ojos’ —>’Vanilla Sky’
Well OK it’s a remake, but…sort of the same
Hee,hee, good one, Tad. “Vanilla Sky” would’ve been a better title for a sequel to “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” I still don’t understand why director Alejandro Amenábar allowed his excellent movie “Abre los ojos” to be remade and also why he allowed Tom Cruise and Cameron Crowe to change the title. Some people will do anything to become more famous!
What about “soñando, soñando, triunfé patinando”? One of my Spanish friends gave me this one…
That’s absolutely awful.
Again, I had to look that title up because I had no clue what movie you were referring to. (It’s the title of a Disney bomb called “Ice Princess.”) I’m beginning to wonder if the reason why so many Spaniards hate American pop culture is partly because of the corny, nonsensical Spanish titles. 
[…] topics you’ll find covered here are pretty varied — from Spanish grammar tips to the translations of movie titles to Spanish podcasts. Hay de todo. You can also find several posts written in Spanish on the […]