Ten Spanish Films Worth Watching Twice

The problem with learning Spanish from films is that a good film is doing its job properly: it pulls you into the story, and the moment you are following the story, you have stopped listening to the language. You finish it moved, entertained, and not noticeably better at Spanish.

The fix is simple, and it is the spine of this list. Watch the film twice.

The method: once for the story, once for the Spanish

First viewing, with subtitles. English ones if you need them, Spanish ones if you can manage. The job is to know what happens — the plot, who everyone is, how it ends. Enjoy it. Do not pause.

Second viewing, without. A few days later, subtitles off. Because you already know the story, your attention is free for the language itself. You will catch phrases you read the first time, hear how people actually pronounce them, and notice the gap between what the subtitle said and what the actor said — which is where most of the real, informal Spanish lives.

The second viewing is the one that teaches. The first just makes it possible. Here are ten films worth the double investment.

1. La lengua de las mariposas (1999)

José Luis Cuerda’s film about a small boy and his gentle schoolteacher in a Galician village in 1936, as the Civil War approaches. Clear, unhurried dialogue, much of it in a classroom, and an ending you will not forget. Good from B1.

2. El laberinto del fauno (2006)

Guillermo del Toro’s dark fairy tale set in the aftermath of the Civil War. The dialogue is sparse and deliberate, which makes it one of the easier films on this list to follow without subtitles once you know the plot. B1.

3. Campeones (2018)

Javier Fesser’s comedy about a basketball coach sentenced to community service training a team of players with intellectual disabilities. Warm, very funny, and full of everyday colloquial Spanish from Madrid. B1–B2.

4. Volver (2006)

Almodóvar’s story of three generations of women, moving between Madrid and a village in La Mancha. The speech is fast, overlapping and full of neighbourly gossip — difficult the first time, and exactly why it rewards the second. B2.

5. Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988)

Almodóvar in full screwball mode: a woman trying to reach her ex-lover over one very chaotic couple of days in Madrid. Rapid-fire, comic, and a good test of whether you can keep up with Spanish at its most theatrical. B2.

6. Mar adentro (2004)

Alejandro Amenábar’s film about Ramón Sampedro, a Galician man who fought for the right to end his life, with Javier Bardem in the lead. Serious, articulate conversation — much of it argument — which makes it excellent for hearing how Spanish speakers reason and disagree. B2.

7. El orfanato (2007)

J. A. Bayona’s ghost story about a woman who returns to the orphanage where she grew up. Relatively little dialogue and a great deal of tension, so on the second viewing you can concentrate on each line. B1–B2.

8. Los lunes al sol (2002)

Fernando León de Aranoa’s portrait of a group of men left unemployed after the shipyards close in a northern port city. Bar conversations, dark humour, men talking over each other: very realistic, very rewarding. B2–C1.

9. Ocho apellidos vascos (2014)

A hugely popular comedy in which a young man from Seville pretends to be Basque to win over a woman from the Basque Country. The whole joke is regional stereotypes and accents, so it is a crash course in how differently Spaniards speak — and a little baffling until the second time round. B2–C1.

10. El buen patrón (2021)

León de Aranoa again, with Bardem as a factory owner whose paternalism turns sinister in the week before an award inspection. Workplace Spanish, polite menace and a lot of subtext, so the second viewing is where you notice what is really being said. C1.

Making the second viewing count

A few habits make the difference. Keep a notebook and write down no more than five phrases per film — ones you understood but could not have said yourself. Rewind a scene you liked and repeat the lines aloud, matching the rhythm. And if one film is well above your level, do not abandon it; put it aside and come back in six months. The difference will tell you more about your progress than any test.

If you prefer series to films, the same method works, and we have a list for that too: the best Netflix series for learning Spanish.

Vocabulary

• la película / la peli — film
• los subtítulos — subtitles
• la versión original (V.O.) — undubbed, original language
• doblada — dubbed
• el director / la directora — director
• el guion — script
• el reparto — cast
• la escena — scene
• el final — ending
• destripar / hacer spoiler — to spoil (the plot)
• rebobinar — to rewind
• me ha enganchado — it hooked me

Where to go next

Films give you more listening than almost anything else, but they never ask you anything back. Talking about a film you have just watched — what happened, what you thought, who you would have cast — is one of the best conversation lessons there is, because you arrive with something to say.

Bring one of these to a tutor and discuss it in Spanish. You can book a single Spanish lesson on Parlazo — pay for that one lesson, no subscription.