christopher columbus with a french accent

crselvz,

Not only that, but it is believed that the Genoese dialect of the time was much more similar to provincial French than modern Italian.
But in a movie where characters who would've actually been speaking exclusively in Romance dialects (be they Italian, Iberian, or other) are shown speaking English, it really is a moot point.
Also, let's not forget that another French actor (Tchéky Karyo) plays a prominent Spanish character (Martín Alonso Pinzón), and other actors play Spanish characters with various accents. For example, Americans Sigourney Weaver, Armand Assante, Frank Langella, and Mark Margolis all use (more or less) their normal speaking voices (and accents), while American Kevin Dunn and Canadian Michael Wincott choose to affect their own approximations of Spanish accents. There were even a couple of Spanish actors using genuine Spanish accents while playing Spanish characters, such as Fernando Rey and Angela Molina.
Another Spanish actor (Fernando Guillén Cuervo) played Columbus' brother Giacomo, while an English actor (Steven Waddington) played Columbus' brother Bartolomeo. This led to each of the three Columbus brothers speaking with a completely different accent.
In the end, I think that we can just assume that accents didn't really matter much to Ridley Scott, and that he cast the roles based on other factors, and just let each actor sort of do their own thing as far as accents were concerned.
It's also interesting to note that Georges Corraface - the actor who played Columbus in the other Columbus movie that year (Christopher Columbus: The Discovery) - is also from France.