Foreign films are virtually always dubbed in Spain, by an industry which became large and very proficient during Franco’s time. In addition, they usually have their titles changed, sometimes to something similar but often to something which to bears little relation to the original. Just a few examples from this last week:-
The Wedding Planner became The Wedding Plans
Almost Heroes became Heroes by Accident
High Crimes became [somehow] The Whole Truth, and
Not Another Teen Movie became Not Another Stupid American Film…….

I give a conversation class to a small group of teachers of English. One topic I tried last week was the critical attitude struck by many in the UK towards Mrs Beckham for her failure to keep her husband in harness. Rather to my surprise, no one seemed much interested in arguing the toss one way or the other. It was later explained to me that no one in Spain is surprised at Mr Beckham’s reported activities, since this is how men were. Nor at suggestions that Mrs Beckham was stupid for giving him the opportunity to play around, as this was self evident. What really surprised people here was that a woman would want to tell the world about sleeping with a man and get a million Euros for doing so. How quaint this all seems by British ‘standards’.

Which reminds me, a character in a book I am reading written in 1767 bemoans the fact that newspaper publishers in London [Grub Street] can cynically raise the circulation of their rags by printing scurrilous stories and defying their victims to sue for defamation. He also points out that ‘no nation drinks as hoggishly as the English’. So not much change in nearly 250 years then.