Academic Pedro Álvarez de Miranda
supports Alfonso Cuarón 's critiques against Netflix and Spanish cinemas for subtitling “ Roma .”
The philologist considers that the subtitles placed on the Mexican film are a “surprising phenomenon” and a “lack of trust” to the capacity of Spanish speakers to understand each other.
The academic , who is a member of the RAE , saw Cuarón 's film two weeks ago at a cinema in Madrid , where the film was entirely subtitled and translated into Castilian Spanish , even though the film is in Mexican Spanish . He says that “when they said, 'don't get mad', the subtitles said 'don't be upset',” he remembers.
The academic also said that “Sometimes there's a word that you don't understand but you infer it from the context.” Álvarez said that it “really called his attention” that “ Roma ” would have been subtitled to be screened in movie theaters in Spain .
In Mexico , Spanish films are rarely subtitled and only when the Spanish accent is hard to understand. In the case of “ Roma ”, the film was translated into Castilian Spanish, not subtitled.
Although there are differences between Mexican Spanish and Castilian Spanish , the movie can be easily understood by any Spanish speaker.
On Tuesday, Cuarón said that he thought the subtitling of the movie in Spain was very offensive for the public. “I think it's very, very ridiculous” and that “it’s provincial , ignorant and offensive to Spaniards themselves.”
“I love watching, as a Mexican , Almodóvar's films , and I don't need Mexican Spanish subtitles to understand Almodóvar ,” said the director.
Today, Netflix removed the Castilian Spanish subtitles .
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