"Have you heard of someone called Asterix?"

Film I'm begin to lose faith in subtitled films.

Sorry, let me type that again.

I'm beginning to lose faith with subtitles in film.

For a while I've been watching international cinema with a certain amount of caution, not because the film's aren't great, because they are, but I'm losing the conviction that what my mono-lingual eyes are reading doesn't match the dialogue. For all I know, I could be getting the wrong idea about a range of characters and plotlines because I'm trusting the subtitler to do a good job. I was once watching the film Go with Fani and she was laughing now and then, and it turned out the Greek subtitles included jokes which weren't in the English version. The other week when reader Jay Griffiths said she'd been at a screen of Fellini's 8 1/2 the night after me and said that the screen words were not half as filthy as the spoken words.

Then tonight I saw La Haine and the wierdness continued. The film is about twenty-four hours in the life three Paris suburbanites, which in that city means tracksuits, drugs and guns. The three characters travel into the city to pick up some money from a gangster type whose nickname is Asterix. They aren't sure were he lives in an apartment so they decide to ring each flat in turn until his answers. Which means they have to ask each person if they've heard of someone called Asterix. That's Asterix. The Gaul. Small guy, helmet, blonde moustache. The three youngster are all saying Asterix. So why when one of them calls a flat and they ask:

"Have you heard of someone called Asterix?"

do the subtitles say ....

"Have you heard of someone called Snoopy?"

Now I understand the reason. The subtitlers are afraid that not everyone in the world has heard of the small French character. But this assumes that everyone in the English speaking world has read the work of Charles Schultz. It just seems wrong. But then -- the flat owner retorts with something along the lines of ...

"Yeah, and I'm Obelix."

with becomes ...

"Yeah, and I'm Charlie Brown."

The other issue is that anyone trying to learn the language would be particularly confused and wonder why if there is already and Asterix in France they decided to give Snoopy the same name. Unless like me they're aware of both properties and sit in wonder trying to work out why they made such a pointless change. Any other clangers out there?