MovieChat Forums > Byzantium (2013) Discussion > Why does Clara still talk and act like s...

Why does Clara still talk and act like someone from the 1820s?

posted 12 years ago by s_campanale
27 replies | jump to latest

Saw it the other day and thought it was good though not up to classic Jordan from 20* years ago.

I'm a big Artherton fan and find her a good and interesting performer in whatever genre she tackles, but I was a little annoyed by the character she played here. She is meant to be from another time, yet she and her daughter have survived these 200 yrs by blending in and mixing with humanity generation after generation. Yet Clara still speaks like a "Whatch'a guvnor...Y'fancy any of me wares' what you seeing here eh?" comedy costume strumpet and is constantly singing old Napoleonic era ditties and songs. Obviously it reinforces the idea she was from another time, and contrasts her with Eleanor, who fits in perfectly with 2013, but it defies internal logic that she would have adopted and adapted almost nothing from her long life. She's almost as bad as last years "Dark Shadows" Barnabus Collins, but at least he'd just been dug up from 2oo yrs of being buried in a box.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] axlrhodes 12 years ago

Hmm, I can't say I found any of what you highlight as being particularly problematic. I think Clara was the more eccentric of the two, although I thought her accent and the style of Arterton's portrayal was fine.

[–] hexawiz 12 years ago

To be fair it was kind of lampshaded by others, not least by Eleanor who asked why they still had to live like they always had, and the brotherhood member at the beginning who chided her that she had learned nothing in all the time she had been gifted.

Perhaps one side effect of her transformation is that her mindset is also frozen in time, in the same way that her appearance is, so she doesn't easily learn new ways of thinking, speaking etc.

[–] s_campanale 12 years ago

That's pretty much what I had gathered...Still it might have been more interesting to make Clara a more rounded or nuanced character,one who was suffering the weight of time and timelessness on her shoulders in the way classic vampires are (before the Blade style fangs and action vampires started taking over)However Eleanor exhibited most of those characteristics, so I guess narrative wise it was correct to set her apart from her daughter to create the necessary tension and conflict in the 2nd and 3rd acts.

The idea of mindset being frozen could also explain why the Brotherhood haven't evolved their ideas about gender or class either I suppose?

[–] townroad2003 11 years ago

Two hundred years and she stilled only thought of herself as a prostitute. Sad you come across so many individuals that think the same way.

[–] eps_leon 10 years ago

I don't think it is a case of not wanting to be, or thinking she couldn't be, more than a prostitute. I think it is just the best option for them, given their situation.

They had lived the past 200 years on the run from a secret organisation that may well have its hands in everything (it had at least got into the police). It would be very hard, if not impossible, to have success in any other profession.

It's not addressed in the film, but they seem to require a feed after a few days. This forces them to move every couple of weeks, making it even harder to set up an alternative.

The sex industry is all she knew and is all she needed to know to keep her daughter safe. There would always be a demand, there was virtually no risk to her safety, it paid well enough and it was anonymous.

[–] Suntory_Times 10 years ago

No she thought herself as a mother. She simply sold her body for money and she at no stage in the present seems to be bothered by it.

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[–] fares002 12 years ago

that's a dumb question. Maybe because she IS from that era.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] iginlafan65 11 years ago

......and dumb answers.

[–] patidaba 11 years ago

epic

who loves all people of all gender,skin color, nationality, sexuality equally?
crocodile

[–] subase 11 years ago

Not really, her accent was a little old fashioned, but well within line of the lower class accent in modern Britain. And Gemma should know, she comes from a working class family, welder father and cleaner mother.

[–] Strazdamonas 11 years ago

She lived their life clinging on the past, as per her stry about her mother, so she also clinged to how she used to act in the past, both in talking and writing. she also states she does nto se phone, something that didnt exist back then. She was wilfully staying in her time.

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[–] BritFlickster 11 years ago

It's a perfectly normal accent, people talk like that. Her use of language is contemporary enough I think, she doesn't sound odd in conversations with other characters. The song she sings in the lorry is just for Eleanor's benefit, to remind her that Clara is her mother and does all this *beep* to protect her, so it makes sense to hark back to their own era.

[–] beckyvowles 10 years ago

I'm not aware that my mother is from the 1820's and she used to sing the baby going down the plughole song to me and my siblings when I was wee. Also I know and frequently sing several of the other songs featured in the film; the Unquiet Grave is one I sing a lot and Coventry Carol is one of the most gorgeous Christmas songs there is imo (also it MASSIVELY predates the 1820s!)

[–] ibbi 11 years ago

I didn't think it was that bad at all. I liked that there were some traces of her age in her performance, it just added to her character.

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