Snatch; how does it sound to a British ear

[iehbr]

The question is whether or not the first thing that comes to your mind when you see the title of this film has any obscene or rude-language connotations to it, or maybe they appear later after you see the film?

you see, one of the unofficial translations of this film in Russian uses a very "strong" term (being a Russian word for "stealing" made up using the Russian word for "cunt") for the title and since this translation happens to be claimed as the most precise and true to the original, there are some rather heated debates going on as to whether the translator was justified in using this particular term.

Thank you in advance.

[DB7]

The producers are often aware of double-entendres and Ritchie would have known that the title makes reference to female sexual organs.



But the title refers to, and for a mainstream film, sounds like a heist or robbery. It was originally titled Snatch Pig and Diamonds.



It's been happening for years from the Monkee's "Head" to Mike Myers "Goldmember".

[MissGossage]

"Cunt" is going much too far in terms of obscenity, but the translator was definitely thinking along the right lines: it's hard to imagine anyone in Ritchie's target audience not being well aware of the double entendre.



Of course, this assumes the Russian equivalent is as offensive - the French word "con" literally means "cunt", but it doesn't have anything like the same taboo factor. For instance, a literal English translation of the title of 'Le diner des cons', a perfectly acceptable title in France, probably wouldn't get past the Advertising Standards Authority.

[Carterh]

I would agree that the double meaning was certainly intentional. The phrase is well known and well used, at least around my neighbourhood. I still have a British comic book heist story from the 70's called the 'The Big Snatch' which is even ruder. I've kept it because it made me laugh even as a child. However I would argue that the phrase c**t is rather more offensive in this context.



If memory serves Russian translations of English film titles vary in quality. I recall that the Australian heist move 'The Big Steal' was tranlated for a Russian film festival as 'The Large Piece of Metal'.



C