As someone who looks to film as a socio-cultural linguistic tool, the confusion that arise regarding film not in English – and particularly film in Spanish – really gets my goat. Thus I offer these words to save those at the brink of committing an offense.
“Spanish film” is a descriptive film phrase often bandied about to erroneously describe films that are in Spanish. Even upon mentioning the distinction between the two, I have seen many a listener brush it away nonchalantly. It might be difficult to imagine that Spanish film refers to film made in a single country in Europe; however, that is what you are communicating through the phrase “Spanish film” (and even then, we can argue that you are only referring to film from certain parts of Spain). If you desire to generally comment on films in Spanish but not from Spain, you can simply say “Spanish-language films” or “films in Spanish.” If the film is from Central or South America and you care to specify it as such, then do say “Latin American film,” but since the film cultures and language dialect are hugely different within the two dozen or so countries that form this great continent, the best course of action would be to just take the initiative and find out where the film was made.
The BBC version of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth is in English – but you would never mistake as an American film, right? It’s the same with Spanish, so resist ethnocentrism and make the courtesy visit to imdb.
