Title: The Oxford Murders
Director: Álex de la Iglesia
Screenwriter: Jorge Guerricaechevarria, Álex de la
Iglesia
Subject: Based on “The Oxford Murders” by Guillermo
Martínez.
Year: 2008
Cast: Elijah Wood, John Hurt, Leonor Watling, Julie Cox,
Dominique Pinon, Burn Gornman, Jim Carter, Anna Massey,
Alex Cox, Danny Sapani.
Duration: 108’

Production Country: United Kingdom, Spain, France.

Production Company: Telecinco Cinema, Tornasol Films, La
Fabrique de Films
Plot: Martin is an American exchange student at the
University of Oxford. He admires Arthur Seldom, a
professor that Martin wants as his thesis supervisor. In
order to increase his chances to meet him, Martin takes
an accommodation in Oxford at the house of Mrs. Eagleton,
an old friend of Seldom, in which also Mrs. Eagleton’s
daughter lives. After attending a lecture, in which
Seldom quoted Wittgenstein’s Tractatus to deny the
existence of an absolute truth, Martin contradicts
Seldom’s idea and feels humiliated. In returning home, he
finds Seldom himself in front of the door willing to
visit his old friend. The two men find Mrs. Eagleton
murdered. They both start to investigate, assuming that
whoever killed Mrs. Eagleton was a serial killer that was
using murders as a mathematical and logical weapon to
challenge Seldom’s intelligence. At last Martin, thanks
to his cleverness, discovers the truth.
Main Source Language: English
Target Dubbed Language: Italian

Target Title: Oxford Murders-Teorema di un delitto
Dubbing Director: Ludovica Modugno
Dubbing Company: First Line Service
Dubbing Actors: Davide Perino, Ugo Maria Morosi,
Selvaggia Quattrini, Paolo Lombardi, Barbara de Bortoli,
Francesco Venditti, Marzia Ubaldi.
Language Varieties in ST: American English (Martin),
British English/RP (Seldom, Mrs. Eagleton, Beth,
Inspector Petersen, Frank), slight Spanish accent
(Lorna), a dubbed English of the Russian character Yuri
Ianovich Podorov, American/Irish accent (Lorna).
[…]the terrible dubbing of Burn Gorman's character.
[https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/931300/the-oxford-murders]
Both Beth and local nurse Lorna (Leonor Watling, whose
accent hovers between American and Irish) fall for him.
[https://variety.com/2008/film/markets-festivals/the-oxford-murders-
1200548576/]
Leonor Watling as Lorna, a Spanish nurse.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oxford_Murders_(film)#Cast]
Function of Language Varieties in ST: British vs.
American, Social commentary, Time and Place, Idiolect.
Dubbed Language Rendition: Standard Italian
SCENE 1
Instance Description: Seldom is taking a lecture on
Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and,
unexpectedly, receives a question from Martin, the
American student who admires him and who tries to impress
him.
Instance Start Time: 2’42’’

Instance Duration: 2’01’’

Instance Web Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rob3mb0hn5Y
ST Instance Transcription:
Seldom: Oh, it seems that someone does wish to speak. It
appears that you’re not in agreement with Wittgenstein.
That means either you have found a contradiction in the
argument of the Tractatus or you have an absolute truth
to share with us all.
Martin: I believe in the number Pi.
Seldom: I’m sorry, I didn’t understand you. What was it
you said you believe in?
Martin: The number Pi, in the Golden Section, the
Fibonacci series. The essence of nature is mathematical,
there is a hidden meaning behind reality, things are
organized following a model, a scheme, a logical series.
Even the tiny snowflake includes a numerical basis in its
structure. Therefore, if we manage to discover the secret
meaning of numbers, we will know the secret meaning of
reality.
Seldom: Impressive. Translating his words into the
Queen’s English. We found ourselves with a fresh rousing
defense of mathematics as if numbers were pre-existing
ideas in reality. Anyway, this is nothing new since man
is incapable of reconciling mind and matter, he tends to
confer some sort of entity on ideas because, because he
cannot bear the notion that the purely abstract only
exist in our brain. The beauty and harmony of a
snowflake. How sweet. The butterfly that flutters his
wings and causes a hurricane on the other side of the
world. We’ve been hearing about that damn butterfly for
decades, but who has been able to predict a single
hurricane? Nobody!

TT Instance Transcription:
Seldom: Oh mi sembra che qualcuno laggiù desideri
parlare. A quanto pare lei non è d’accordo con

Wittgenstein. O ha trovato una contraddizione nelle tesi
del suo Tractatus o lei possiede una verità assoluta da
dividere con noi.
Martin: Io credo nel numero Pi.
Seldom: Mi scusi, non ho sentito bene. Ehm, in che cosa
ha detto di credere?
Martin: Nel numero Pi, nella Sezione Aurea, nella
successione di Fibonacci. L’essenza della natura è
matematica. C’è un significato recondito al di sotto
della realtà. Le cose sono organizzate secondo un
modello, uno schema, una successione logica. Anche un
fiocco di neve racchiude, nella sua struttura, un
principio numerico. Di conseguenza, se scopriremo il
significato nascosto dei numeri, conosceremo il
significato nascosto della realtà.
Seldom: Sorprendente! A parte che non si pronuncia “pai”
ma si pronuncia “pi”, ci troviamo di fronte ad una nuova,
appassionata difesa della matematica, come se i numeri
fossero idee preesistenti all’interno della realtà. In
ogni caso, non è una cosa nuova. Dato che l’uomo è
incapace di conciliare pensiero e materia, tende a
conferire una sorta di concretezza alle idee, non
sopportando il concetto che quello che è puramente
astratto esista soltanto nel nostro cervello. La bellezza
è l’armonia di un fiocco di neve. Che delicatezza. La
farfalla che batte le ali e scatena un uragano dall’altra
parte del mondo. Si sente parlare di questa dannata
farfalla da decenni, ma qualcuno è stato capace di
prevedere anche un solo uragano? Nessuno al mondo!