Spain to drop dubbing of foreign films

Spain is likely to rescind its policy on dubbing foreign TV programmes in favour of subtitles.

The objective is to boost the nation’s proficiency in languages, most notably English.

Other countries in Europe demonstrate greater English proficiency levels, and the change could go some way to addressing this.

Currently nearly all foreign films and TV series are dubbed by local actors before airing on Spanish TV.

Dubbing has been a useful political tool in past times. During the Franco dictatorship between 1939 and 1975, it was used to mask some situations which were not palatable to the regime.

The film Casablanca had all references removed to Rick’s past as a republican fighting fascism in Spain. The film Mogambo portrayed Grace Kelly as a married woman interested in another man played by Clark Gable. Censors saw to it that they were passed off as brother and sister instead.

In Portugal the dictator Salazar banned dubbing in 1948 and nearly all films except those for youngsters appear with subtitles. This has been credited with helping native Portuguese speakers to master the English language as well.

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