If I'm saying the name of a movie title, do I change the name to spanish, or do I leave it in english

Question

 I'm not sure if you would leave it or not.

Answer 1

I have seen many film titles translated from Spanish to English and vice versa, but typically the name is translated to something entirely different. For example, a new TV program, La casa de papel has been translated to Money Heist for English-speaking audiences. This translation was not intended to directly reflect the original title, but rather the content of the program. So, like the first answer suggests, title changes are decided by the people who have the rights. In addition, most names do not change from Spanish to English or English to Spanish. The exception to this would be if another name has already been accepted. For example, we would say England in English, but Inglaterra in Spanish.

Answer 2

Leave it in English if a network buy the rights they will decide that marketing stuff.

Answer 3

I would think it depends on the context and purpose for which you're citing the title. Take for example the 1988 movie Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios; technically, since the language of the film is Spanish, in discussing this film you would need to refer to its Spanish title also (and adhering to the normal Spanish practice of capitalizing only the first letter of the first word of the title or any proper names), and especially if the language of your discussion is Spanish itself which I'm guessing is the case since you tagged your question "Spanish 4."

 

But if you were talking about this film in an English-language context, say, a discussion of contemporary world cinema for a film appreciation class at an American college, it's common practice to supply an English translation of the title at least after the first mention, or perhaps even for all subsequent references to it.

 

Then there's the situation of movies that are fully dubbed into another language and released in other countries under the translated title, as this movie was in the United States as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Here you'd need to be careful with giving this title since it would suggest you were talking about not the original Spanish film but its English-language version. And sometimes a film is widely known in other countries by its original title even if the entire film is released in a different language; I don't know of an example of a Spanish-language movie like this, but the 1981 German-language film Das Boot is usually referred to as that and rarely in English-speaking nations as The Boat.