Zed or Zee?
Just asking.
"Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects". Will Rogers (1879-1935)
Ahahaha, good question. Considering that the explorer is British but the movie is Hollywood.
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MovieChat Forums > The Lost City of Z (2017) Discussion > Zed or Zee?
I've never heard of this city, but originally I figured it might reference the lost city of Zinge, until I saw this is Amazonian, not African. Now I'm confused.
shareWell its historical existence is debatable and Fawcett's disappearance doesn't have the same notoriety as say Amelia Earhart. But I digress, Z was thought by Fawcett to be a hidden South American civilization in the midst of the Amazon rain-forest. I don't know why he called it Z though.
What's missing in movies is same as in society: a good sense of work ethic and living up to ideals.
Well, if they have any thought to be correct, then it has to be "Zed".
It was Fawcett's own phrase and there's not the proverbial snowball's chance that he would have ever pronounced "z" as "Zee". But David Grann is American, and Americans in general do tend to have the awful habit of "forgetting", to convenience, that there should be respect for original pronunciation. And I did listen to a recording of him speak somewhere about LCOZ ages ago and I noticed then that he pronounced it "Zee". So I'd imagine that that's what they'll end up using for the film, but for the want of appropriate thought, it'll be inherently wrong.
So I'd imagine that that's what they'll end up using for the film
Just as I suspected.
I recently acquired a DVD copy of Splendour in the Grass (1961) whose original spelling was "Splendor" but as the title comes from William Wordsworth's poem Ode: Intimations of Immortality I feel the title change is justified. I would be outraged, as a Brit who spells colour with a U, if the titles to The Color of Money and The Color Purple, for example, were altered as these are American films based on American novels. Why can't Hollywood filmmakers (Thou whoreson Z, thou unnecessary letter*) show some tact?
*William Shakespeare (1564-1616) The Tragedy of King Lear Act 2 Scene 2
"Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects". Will Rogers (1879-1935) share
In his recent acceptance speech for an award at the Deauville film festival, Robert Pattinson called it the Lost City of Z (zee). So I guess that's what they're calling it on the set. He co-stars as Henry Costin, Fawcett's right hand man.
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Shame on Robert Pattinson, a British man pronouncing Z Yank-style - incorrectly.
shareYou can argue which form he should have used being British.
However "zee" is completely correct; in the United States
"zed" is completely correct; in Britain.
Languages change when separated and over time. The idea that American English is a perversion of British English is absurd; as would be the claim that Middle English is a perversion of Old English.
In the film itself they say "zed".
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