When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.
    From T.S. Eliot’s “The Naming of Cats”

Not all movies are granted just a singular name. For reasons of language, culture, history, and of course commercialism, when a movie leaves its native land it may assume a variety of aliases. The most straightforward change is when to conserve the idiom, rather than doing a literal word-for-word translation, wording is changed slightly. However, rather than being translated, some movie titles are completely transformed. Just consider the international incarnations of the movie The Shawshank Redemption. This 1994 Hollywood blockbuster, based on a Stephen King novel, stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman as two convicts jailed in Shawshank prison. In Germany the movie had the decidedly more downbeat title Die Verurteilten (The Condemned). Elsewhere the title was more hopeful or intriguing: in Italy it was called Le Ali Della Liberta (The Wings of Freedom), in Israel it was Homot Shel Tikva (Walls of Hope), in Japan it was known as Shawshank No Solani (Under the Sky of Shawshank), and in France it became Les Evadés (The Escapees). First prize must surely belong to Greece for giving the movie the mysterious and tantalizing title τελευταία έξοδος ριτα χέιγουορθ (Last Exit Rita Hayworth).

The “Clash of Civilizations” can also be charted by movie names. Released in 2000, the British comedy movie Maybe Baby, tells the story of an infertile couple struggling to conceive a child. In France the movie was entitled Comment Les Anglais se Reproduisent (How the English Reproduce). But before you indulge in some schadenfreude at that little below the belt jibe, have you seen Woody Allen’s movie Annie Hall? If you identify with any of the characters in this affectionate portrayal of the lives and loves of some Manhattanites, it is a somewhat disconcerting to discover that in Germany the movie was released as Der Stadtneurotiker (The Urban Neurotic). However, some cultural exchange can be positive. The movie The Full Monty, a story of unemployed steelworkers who try to earn some money by forming a male striptease act, was released in China with the more heroic title Guang zhu liu zhuang shi (The Six Naked Warriors).

The renaming of movie titles can reflect the social and cultural values of a country. In Japan, death is a subject one tries to avoid mentioning, a good reason to release the movie Dead Poets Society as Ima wo Ikiru (Seize the Day). The Japanese intolerance for theft is reflected in the renaming of Take the Money and Run, Woody Allen’s 1969 film about a small-time thief, as Dorobou Yarou (Thieving Scum).

Sometimes when movie titles get changed, you can expect only the unexpectable. Even Lost in Translation, can get um….lost in translation. It was released in Israel under the title Avudim be-Tokio (Lost in Tokyo). The French Connection, the cop thriller with the famous car chase, was shown in Germany as Brennpunkt: Brooklyn (Flashpoint: Brooklyn) which sounds more like a documentary set in Crown Heights. In Portugal, some other American classics have morphed into something new and different—Marlon Brando’s movie On the Waterfront contends with the title Há Lodo no Cais (There’s Silt in the Harbor), and James Dean’s Rebel Without a Cause is known as Fúria de Viver (Fury of Living). Crash, which won the 2006 Oscar for best motion picture was released in Poland as Miasto Gniewu (City of Wrath), Syriana was released in China as Dei Dwei Dei (Spy vs. Spy), and The Sound of Music Italian style is Tutti Insieme Appassionatamente (All Together with Passion).

Comedy titles are often some of the worst translational casualties. In Germany the spoof airplane drama Airplane! starring Leslie Nielsen was called Die Unglaubliche Reise in Einem Verrückten Flugzeug (The Unbelievable Trip on a Wacky Airplane), and Bridget Jones’s Diary was released as Bridget Jones—Schokolade zum Frühstück (Bridget Jones—Chocolate for Breakfast). In Japan The Marx Brothers’ classic Duck Soup is called Wagahai wa Kamo de Aru (I Am A Duck), and A Fish Called Wanda became Daiya to Yasashii Yatsura (Wanda, Diamonds, and Some Nice Guys). Thankfully though some comedy film title renamings can be absolute triumphs of the imagination. Mrs. Doubtfire, released in 1993, stars Robin Williams as a separated husband who disguises himself as a female nanny in order to spend more time with his own children. In China the movie was released under the much more memorable title Yao Tao Nai Ba (A Sexy Male Babysitter).

The moral of the story is to remember that upon occasion, as the poet Jorge Luis Borges once said, “the original is not faithful to the translation.”

Thanks to all those who provided movie titles for this article.

Additional References:

http://www.kozumo.com/movietitles.html
http://www.mast.queensu.ca/~steinsaltz/litpage.html