If you’re like me and your spanish writing and reading skills far outpace your ability to understand spoken spanish, here are four spanish films that will help you stretch your abilities. (Yes you need to watch them in Spanish!)
El Orfanato (The Orphanage)
Un cuento de amor. Una historia de terror (A tale of love. A story of horror). The film’s lead Belén Rueda is a Madrileña (she is from Madrid).
El Laberinto del fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth)
This movie hit the US screens in a big way, but I love the spanish version better. The little girl is played by Ivana Baquero, who is from Barcelona.
El Espinazo del diablo (The Devil’s Backbone)
Can you tell that I love Guillermo del Toro? This one is great, because even if you don’t understad a word, the movie still works and you can understand what is going on. While watching you can easily build contextual meanings of words, that may not of heard of before.
7 Vírgenes (7 Virgins)
Set in southern spain, this film is great for learning some slang. (Probably mostly things you don’t want to run around saying, but good to know anyway).
Ok so if you listened to the trailers, you’ll notice that these films are all set in Spain or cast with actors from Spain. Since I’m going there shortly, I’m personally focusing on this type of accent, but feel free to add your suggestions in the comments… I know there is a wide world of Mexican and Latin American cinema not covered in my list!
May 19th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
hey, are you on stumble?
lets get some food next week….dinner on newbury?
e-mail ur cell
May 21st, 2008 at 9:23 am
Sent you an email Matt…