The Italian movie industry is quite prolific and has given us many fine films including the Academy Award winner “Life is Beautiful” from several years ago and last year’s “The Great Beauty.” Of course there are the so-called “Spaghetti Westerns” of Sergio Leone, Fellini’s famous “La Dolce Vita,” and even “Cleopatra” was filmed in Rome at Cinecittà
Studios. Did you know that Italy has the biggest dubbing industry in the world? Many of American movies and TV shows are dubbed in Italian or sub-titled in Italian. We can watch “The Big Bang Theory,” “NCIS,” or “Law and Order” for example, in Italian or in English with sub-titles. Naturally, as Italians are aficionados of American culture and entertainment, most major American pictures make their way into the dubbing studio for release in Italian. Many of them end up with unusual titles that are far from a direct translation, resulting in some generally hilarious English re-translation or are cause for some head-scratching at the very least.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Jim Carrey’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” was strange enough in English, but the Italian translation Se Mi Lasci Ti Cancello translates to If you Leave Me, I’ll Wipe the Slate Clean or alternately depending on your interpretation of cancello, it might be If you Leave Me, I’ll Cancel You. Huh?
1985’s “Weird Science” was a fun movie. In Italian perhaps even more fun as it is entitled La Donna Esplosiva, which can be restated as The Explosive Woman or The Bombshell. I like the second one.
My curiosity about Italian names for movies and TV shows came when the annual showing of “The Sound of Music” hit my radar. It should literally be
translated as Il Suono di Musica, but no: In Italy it’s called Tutti Insieme con Appassionatamente or All Together Passionately. Strano.
Having stumbled upon a few fun titles, I did some research for other amusing tidbits. Enjoy!
English Title
|
Italian Translation
|
What the Italian title means in English
|
The Shawshank Redemption
|
Le Ali della Libertà
|
The Wings of Liberty
|
The Producers
|
Per Favore, Non Toccare le Vecchiette!
|
Please Don’t Touch the Little Old Men!
|
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
|
Una Pazza Giornata di Vacanze
|
A Crazy Day of Vacation
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Risky Business
|
Fuori i Vecchi i Figli Ballano
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When the Elders are away, the Sons Dance
|
Growing Pains
|
Genitori in Blue Jeans
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Parents in Blue Jeans
|
Trading Places
|
Un Poltrone per Due
|
A Seat (or chair) for Two
|
Home Alone
|
Mamma Ho Person L’Aereo
|
Mom, I Missed the Plane!
|
The Seven Year Itch
|
Quando La Moglie e in Vacanza
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When the Wife is on Vacation
|
Cityslickers
|
Scappo dalla Città – La Vita, l’Amore e le Vacche
|
I’m Fleeing the City – Life, Love and Cows
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
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Millennium: Uomini che Odiano le Donne
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Millennium: The Men Who Hate Women
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Murder She Wrote
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La Signora in Giallo
|
The Woman in Yellow
|
Interestingly, it is perhaps the American movie industry that misnamed Steig Larssen’s book and thus the movie “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” In Swedish it is Män som hatar kvinnor which means, naturally, “Men who hate women.”
And there is an explanation for The Woman in Yellow as Jessica-what’s-her-name did not wear yellow to my knowledge. In Italy, murder mystery books were 
traditionally printed with yellow (giallo) covers. The genre is called gialli. You can go to www.amazon.it and find books under Gialli e Thriller. Some still have yellow covers or bindings.
Literalists that we Americans tend to be, I have not been able to find Italian movie titles translated as disparately or amusingly. Here are a few you might know very well in English.
Italian Title
|
English Translation
|
La Vita è Bella
|
Life is Beautiful
|
La Grande Bellezza
|
The Great Beauty
|
Profumo di Donna
|
The Scent of a Woman
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Il Buono, Il Bruto, Il Cattivo
|
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (although due to the artistic license taken with adjective order, the Italian direct translation would be “The Good, The Ugly, The Bad”)
|
Per un Pugno dei Dollari
|
(For a) Fistful of Dollars
|
Not unlike the U.S., despite the abundance of material produced throughout the world and dubbed or subtitled for the vast network of cable channels, there’s still never anything on TV here. “Ice Road Truckers” anyone? I mean Guida I camion tra I ghiacci. Questionnable in any language.
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Tags: Italian language, Italian movies, TV
Girovaga 
Yes, when I learned that the actual title was “The Producers” I was shocked. I think that was a time Italians loved long titles! 🙂
For a reverse situation, I found it funny that the Italian classic comedy “I Soliti Ignoti” became “Big Deal on Madonna Street” in English.
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Hi Guiliana. I suspected there were a lot of terrible English translations of Italian movie titles as well. I just am not familiar with enough Italian movies. That’s a great one! Thanks for popping in and reading!
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Laurel,
This is a topic I’ve never given much thought to, but I sure enjoyed reading all the “translations”. How could they get some of them so wrong (“The Producers” is a good example)?
Some of the Italian versions of popular shows seem to be translated reasonably accurately, such as Ballando con le Stelle.
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Hi Ken! I don’t think it is a matter of getting a title wrong as much as a change or twist that makes the title more culturally significant or appealing. How else can one explain the “translation” of
The Sound of Music
? Many are translated literally, but that doesn’t make them very funny. 🙂
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Oh, that is too funny! I’ve watched my share of Italian films with English subtitles and occasionally those give me a good laugh, too.! Grazie!
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Always happy to make someone laugh, Christine!
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I have forwarded your blog to my classmates from my Italian class.
My last two visits to Venice included an apartment with way too many cable TV channels. Just like home….all those channels and nothing to watch. I didn’t care that it was all in Italian but most of it was someone selling something….or something like “Ice Road Truckers”. I finally found a station that played Italian music videos (from people like Zucchero) and stuck with that. It greatly improved my understanding of Italian and appreciation of Italian pop music.
I particularly love the translation you listed for “The Producers”!
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The Italians have definitely embraced TV selling, i.e., QVC, as well as game shows, The Voice, etc. I wonder though about the impression they get of America through some of our more bizarre exports!
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Thanks Marcia! It was fun to research and write, too.
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I totally enjoyed reading this post about movie translations!
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