Bardem: Not Without My Mother

Here he is, in English.... with Mummy watching.

Best Supporting actor for his role as a serial killer in the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men, which also picked up a few other gongs including Best Picture. Love him or hate him you've got to admire someone who told his director bosses before filming that he couldn't speak English and then only made one mistake in his acceptance speech.

But he still couldn't help speaking Spanish at the end!

Merry Christmas from Frank Lampard

Mobile phone operator Orange somehow persuaded Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard to share his own pre-Christmas celebrations. Curiously, Lampard's partner Elen Rives is Spanish and so there may be a Christmas Crib hiding somewhere in the background... his daughter is called Luna for goodness sake (isn't that a dog's name?).

More on Frank's favourite Christmas traditions and more:

• Mince Pies
• Brussels Sprouts
• Christmas Pudding
• Christmas Crackers
• Boxing Day

Oh, and don't think of getting Frank a video camera for next Christmas, eh?

Re: Volver

Listening to few of my students talk about Spain's most celebrated contemporary film director and Spain's most internationally successful actress you'd think that most people in Madrid were hoping that Penelope Cruz wouldn't be in the running for tonight's best actress Oscars.

Yet the fact that "Pe" was nominated at all is quite an achievement considering the lack of critical success garnered in the US for her American films (where she has played a Brazilian, a Greek, a Colombian, a Mexican and even a Frenchwoman - the last of those in Fanfan la Tulipe - but rarely a Spaniard) and for such a (*ahem*) typically Spanish role to boot.

Here's the British trailer, followed by the American one...

Did Almodovar include the scene of Penelope sitting on the toilet as a nod to Tom Cruise's other ex who did the same thing in Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut?

Did a jokey reference to whether Raimunda seemed to have a more generous chest than her mother remembered have its origin in scurrilous gossip about Ms. Cruz's own measurements?

And did the much commented "false rear" that added to the Penelope Cruz is this year's Sofia Loren comments really inspire Victoria Beckham in those poses for the "his and hers" Beckham perfume poster campaign?

Of course the smart money is on Helen Mirren to win for her portrayal of The Queen... but as we all know - unlike Nicole and Penelope - the Queen doesn't go to the toilet.

Some people reading this in Spain still may not realise, but in the English-speaking world dubbing films from one language into another is usually regarded as tacky, and is usually an option limited to pornography and old kung-fu films.

Therefore any Brits, Yanks, Aussies and the like who have seen Volver will have had to struggle with the subtitles. However, Penelope's command of English has enabled her to promote the film in a way that Santiago Segura was never able to do for Torrente (despite also notching up an impressive array of bit-parts in various American movies).

Here she is promoting Almodovar's flick on some American talk show... and unlike on a BBC radio interview (sadly offline!) she doesn't have a titter at the poor "Anglo" pronunciation of the film's title which sounds more like part of the female anatomy than the Spanish verb for coming back. "Volver" pronounced as in "Re-volver"? In English? Get it??

Okay.. just watch the film clip ...

Oh, and here are a handful of reviews in English:

• The Guardian
• BBC Movies
• Metro
• Time Out
• Rotten Tomatoes (a collection of US reviews)

...and finally, an amusing guide to all the things prudish Americans could find offence with in Almodovar's latest film, at screenit.com.

Spanish people speaking English: Aznar

It's always a bit of an eye-opener to many Spanish people to hear their fellow countrymen and women speaking English, especially if those fellow countrymen and women happen to be famous. Actors, sports stars, politicians, royalty... all have varying levels of English.

Fernando Alonso speaks better English than Rafa Nadal, but despite being based in the UK for some time Alonso's English is hardly proficiency level.

Antonio Banderas has an impressive level of fluency but still has quite a strong Spanish accent.

Penelope Cruz sometimes comes unstuck with prepositions despite all those years with Tom Cruise.

Let's not mention Ana Obregón.

Ooops.

But whose English has come in for most ridicule from his fellow Spaniards? None other than that of former Prime Minister (in English you can't be a president and have a king!) Jose María Aznar.

The man who instead of giving a Stateside speech in English gave it in (supposedly) Texan-accented Spanish. The man who went on to lecture - in English! - at Georgetown University.

The man who once had to ask King Juan Carlos to be his interpreter.

What follows is a fascinating interview - in English - that appeared on one of the BBC's international channels in July 2006. Unlike the sycophantic interviews Aznar conceded to PP-friendly channels in the past this interview pulls no punches.

His English seems to have improved since the early days of his friendship with Bush, and he seems to have less of a strong Spanish accent than in the past.

Pity that he has replaced it with a French one.

Also notable is the way that he has also used Bush as a model for his English... depite the BBC interviewer's referring to the Basque separatist terrorist organisation as ETA (a one-word acronym - pronounced as in Spanish), Aznar insists on calling it E.T.A. (as Bush did following the March 11th attacks). I wonder if he also refers to the former Spanish capital as To-leeee-doh when speaking English.

Watch the body language too!

Watch him squirm!!


(Part One)

(Part Two)

(Part Three)

Now let's see if I can find a clip of Zapatero trying to speak English!