Roger Ebert Home

John Rogers

Reviews

Marry Me (2022)
Catwoman (2004)
The Core (2003)

Blog Posts

Features

Thumbnails 2/17/17

Melika Bass chats with Michael Glover Smith; Drawing away clichés; Franklin Leonard's Hollywood list; On the set of "The Last Picture Show"; Distillation process of adaptation.

Movie Answer Man

Movie Answer Man (05/04/2003)

Q. Re: the AM discussion of "Bend It Like Beckham" and its title: The distributors of the movie apparently considered the expression "Bend it" to be too subtle for the non-English speaking European audience. In Germany, an English language title was used for all the publicity material. However, that title was "Kick it Like Beckham." In France they used a French language title "Joue-La Comme Beckham," which translates as "Play it Like Beckham." French and German cinemagoers were expected to know who Beckham is. In America, the whole title was presumably expected to be incomprehensible, so they didn't attempt to change it. (Michael Jennings, London)