Mediapro: Allen film only in English and Catalan

One of the bigwigs at Mediapro, who have produced Woody Allen's crap-sounding Barcelona love letter, 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' (still hate that title), has said that in Catalonia, the film will only be screened in English or dubbed into Catalan (IE, no Spanish dubbed version).

Jaume Roures, speaking [link in Catalan] on the RAC1 radio station, said that he also hoped that the film might open this year's Cannes festival.

The story has been picked up on the wires, and is generally being used for a spot of Catalan-bashing (any excuse, right?). Several papers have also fished up the 'political pressure' story from a few months back, which seems to me to be without substance.

This doesn't appear to be a decision even remotely connected with the Generalitat. In fact, it seems that Mediapro (or perhaps Roures) itself is behind the decision, and I suppose they're perfectly justified in taking it, however foolish a business idea it might be. I kind of suspect that he was either speaking out of turn or angling for nationalist-love, and that the film will also be dubbed into Spanish.

A more daring move would be to screen the film with only Spanish or Catalan subtitles, and no dubbing. The reservoirs of Catalonia will fill before that happens.

Oh yeah, for those of you hoping for lots of Scarlett and Penélope girl-on-girl action (as has been reported in less salubrious joints than thebadrash), apparently the rumours have been 'greatly exagerrated'. Tough luck. Still, you're on the Internet so I'm sure you can find something else.

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April 9, 2008 | Filed Under Catalonia, Language, Spain 

Comments

5 Responses to “Mediapro: Allen film only in English and Catalan”

  1. kalebeul » Allen shite “not a decision even remotely connected with the Generalitat” on April 10th, 2008 7:58 am

    [...] Tom's being more naive than necessary re the latest Woody Allen crap being in Catalan and English only. Mediapro was a creature of the Generalitat[...]

  2. Rab on April 12th, 2008 9:11 am

    What is revealing about the Catalan-bashing is its hypocritical inconsistency and double standards.

    For many years, I have applied a method I call “reverse argument”, which implies changing or reversing the descriptors used in the debate. This way, only the facts and the underlying principles are analysed, without the superficial (names on things) being a distraction.

    In this case, the attempt to create controversy about the Allen film does reveal how Catalonophobia is rampant amongst the pro-Spanish media.

    Every year, there are hundreds (thousands?) of films shown in Catalonia. Of these a minuscule percentage are dubbed or subtitled in Catalan (just a handful of copies with minimum distribution and shown at off-peak times) as well as Spanish.

    The overwhelming majority of cinemas only show films that are dubbed or subtitled in Spanish. Only and exclusively in Spanish. This is despite Catalan being the official and native language of Catalonia.

    Yet, when there is one film, just one, that it is going to be available for Catalan cinema distribution in Catalan-language only, the pro-Spanish media (where the Guardian’s dude got his cue) creates a massive row.

    This is how stupid this debate is: if it is Spanish-only it is alright, normal and non-political. If it is only in Catalan, however, it is discriminatory and a political manoeuvre.
    And I thought the silly news season was in the summer…

    There is a piece in today’s Avui about this farce:
    http://paper.avui.cat/article/dialeg/122737/scarlett/lespanya/decent.html

    And in Tribuna.cat:
    http://www.tribuna.cat/Cr%F2nica/Cultura_i_mitjans_de_comunicaci%F3/La_caverna_no_vol_que_Woody_Allen_parli_catal%E0/

    For translation into English: http://www.translendium.net:8080/home/text.do

    The reality of cinema distribution in Catalonia and language discrimination is exposed in this funny video:

    http://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/cinema/elsGomis.html

    And for a serious analysis of the issue, there is this report:
    http://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/doc/cinema.doc (Catalan).

    Let’s keep this in mind: one film exclusively in Catalan in Catalonia. Just one.

  3. Tom on April 12th, 2008 10:00 am

    Rab - thanks for the links. It's true that for only one film, this seems to be an excessive reaction. On the other hand, this is Barcelona's big advert, made by Woody Allen, so it's unsurprising that there's a lot of interest.

    As something of an update, I now understand that parts of the dialogue in the film are in Catalan anyway. This obviously changes the matter because no film that is either partially or completely in Catalan should need to be dubbed into Spanish.

    The Guardian journalist should definitely have made mention of this fact but they obviously chose to follow the wire story more or less to the word, rather than do some actual reporting work. This looks like it's yet another example of the shoddy journalism which now thrives in the UK media. See Flat Earth News.

  4. Rab on April 15th, 2008 7:59 pm

    Sorry to add another link, but this is spot on:

    http://www.victoralexandre.cat/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=550&Itemid=1

    Quick translation:

    It is simple: Catalan speakers are obliged to be bilingual so that many Spanish-speakers can remain monolingual. Curious bilinguism this. A type of bilinguism that is founded in the principle of laziness: "talk me in my language, so that I don't need to learn yours".

  5. Travieso Rovira on July 4th, 2008 4:09 pm

    Please do let them be.
    Just give them the chance to fulfil their twisted sexual fantasies. Sad little people that speak such unfortunate language deserves nothing but compassion.

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