What kind of accent does he have?
Never heard anyone speak like this before.
I found it incredibly annoying.
Am I the only one?
Yea, not sure if it's his accent or just his ego, but it's a bit like bleeding to death from the ears. What a dreary, pompous fellow.
shareEvidently you're not the only one, no, but I do wonder why people find his accent and/or the rise in pitch during declaratve sentences to be so objectionable. Maybe it's just that I'm Irish-American myself and have been around that kind of speech for a really long time. I didn't know who it was who did the narration until I checked later, but I did nail the accent as being Ulster.
shareBecause his narration and the constant RISE in inflection as if asking a question is DISTRACTING. I'm trying to focus on the film shots he shows, and it's twice the work - no, make it three times the work - to translate his speech and try to follow and enjoy the film clips.
shareI am in the camp that just can't get into his narration. Just awful sound.
I've survived watching it by using subtitles on TCM and just turn the sound off.
I've never met a Northern Irishman with such an annoying mode of speech. Just imagine if Jimmy Nesbitt or Liam Neeson had narrated this?
Whole different kettle of fish.
Two other Ulsterman of note as narrator, Neeson or Nesbitt, and it would have been great.
So it simply seems to be the way this particular man speaks, not his regional accent that's the grating monotonish tedious endless and simply boring.
His voice is just not suitable for lengthy narrations unless you want to clear a room in short order....
Yeah, I actually think that's right. Nesbitt would've been a real difference, but of course (as you know) we have this narrator because of who he is in the film world, not because he's an Ulsterman.
We were watching the segment on the '30s last night and I told my wife you can always pick out an Irishman who's totally in love with the sound of his own voice -- worse yet when it's a Norner. (Both of us are from Irish-American families, and I play in a trad band with a guy born in Belfast, so we're allowed to make such observations without reproach or reprisal, thanks.)
No reprisal from me! LOL
I'm not in the camp that thinks there's something critical in simply acknowledging regional or accent differences that certain areas and populations are known for.
Guess my mention of Neeson or Nesbitt was simply to think about two other Ulstermen who if narrating would not have been as detracting from the thing--i.e. it wasn't the N.I. accent, but just the particular man's voice.
But I guess when it's his train set, Cousins can do what he wants with it.
Thank goodness for subtitles! Sound setting on 0.
And in purely a commercial sense, it wasn't the right move. When I first saw this DVD set, it seemed like a dream come true for movie buffs. But after hearing the narrator's voice, the idea of a couple of dozen episodes of that made me decide never to buy the DVD for my collection.
Will look elsewhere to see if there is a similar series without the grating voice.
Yeah, I agree with you about Neeson and Nesbitt. Also about simply acknowledging regional speech. I do agree it's just that particular guy's voice -- probably more the rise and fall of it, certain nuances of expression and such, more than the accent itself. I actually like the NI accent in general. But yeah...it's his train set, all right. And it's a really worthwhile series, I think. Not utterly definitive, obviating the need for all other film histories. But definitely worth it.
Now here's a moneymaking idea for anybody who wants to do it: DVD-makers should put alternative narrators on the discs, maybe two others. Wouldn't cost all that much. We'd share royalties from the idea. How about it?
I don't think it's his accent that is really the problem. It's his bizarre intonation and delivery - a whispery voice with inexplicably long drawn out pauses, followed by a relentless vocal uptick at the end of EVERY. single. sentence. It seemed like a complete affectation. There was simply no variation in his speech at all, so that when a talking head segment came on, it was a blessed relief to hear someone else speak.
The combined monotony and aggravation drove me insane after about 10 minutes. 40 minutes into the first episode, I simply had to turn it off - I just couldn't take it anymore.
It was very disappointing for me as I'm a big film buff & was excited to start watching the series when I stumbled across it in the TV listings. He really should have hired a narrator - a potentially fascinating show ruined by godawful narration. I came away with the impression that he's someone who loves the sound of his own voice. Unfortunately it's torture for anyone in the audience.
This may be one of the times when my deafness is a blessing...
Please tell me it is closed captioned.
I am looking forward to it very much.
Emo Phillips
Gilbert Gottfried
Ben Stein
Howard Cossell (even with the quote from Sleeper in mind: "We weren't sure at first what to make of this, but we developed a theory: we feel that when people committed great crimes against the state, they were forced to watch this."
Jackie Vernon
Marjorie Main
Fran Drescher
Lina Lamont (character in Singin' in the Rain)
It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me
How about Robin Duke (as Wendy Whiner)?
Promise her anything, but give her a Pez!share
Oh yes, that would be a good one.
I was going to throw in Manfred the Wonder Dog from the old Tom Terrific series, but I wonder how many recall that?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PgniqcgdFo
It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me
Or perhaps Michael Palin in A Fish Called Wanda mode?
"Security - release the badgers."
Oh God, that would be a tough decision. The stuttering would only give Cousins more time to fill with trains, cars and "baubulllls."
I went looking further for the video on Cousins and De Palma, but it seems to have been pulled down from the ten or so sites that were in the search results. Could he (or his people) really be policing that well - it's not as if I can't find other clips from his shows.
I was thinking about Scorsese's documentary relative to this one. Marty also has a rather idiosyncratic delivery and while it can get on one's nerves, the thing that's evident regardless is his enthusiasm. I may disagree with his commentary here and there, but he does keep one awake.
Here's the two of them together, and thankfully Scorsese dominates. But notice how Cousins breaks the 180 rule - I found it distracting. The folks on TCM with their "Essentials Junior" showcase have been doing this for a few years, regardless of who is hosting and it's disconcerting to have the solo host shot from these reverse angles, or looking off to stage right as if he's suddenly talking to the cat on my window sill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B21xaf1zIU
It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me
Or they could go with another Irish accent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LJw6PAi5Q8
It has the added advantage of hiding the many factual errors in the show.
"Security - release the badgers."
Jeez, could you imagine? The comments on that page were even more amusing.
It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me
Agree completely with the original post. Incredibly annoying narration. The accent itself isn't the issue; as others have noted, it's the lilted sing-song style of ending every (EVERY) sentence or thought as if it were a question. After only a few minutes, I found myself not listening to the content, but instead waiting for the tonal up-swing at the end of the narrated sentence. The first episode (the only one I've managed to get through) was very well done, researched, photographed, edited, scored, etc.,...obviously a well documented, intelligent effort but... at this point, am afraid it may lose a lot of viewers due to the distracting narration style.
shareDitto. I came here because I was so flabbergasted when I started to watch this and I thought, is it me?? The narration was just so unbelievably annoying and distracting. And I tried staying with it, for me it did not get better. And, right, it is NOT the accent but the intonation, pattern of speaking...the sing-song style...just horrible. BUT...one of the posters commented about checking to see if it could be watched with closed caption. That's probably the only way I could ever get thru it. To me, this is definitely a good example of the downfalls of one person having too much control over a production. But that's just how it appears to me...
shareGlad I'm not the only one who thinks like this about the narrator - yes *of course* it's an Irish accent (Northern Irish to my ear), goodness me, you folks don't travel much do you? :-)
But what is almost unendurable is the constant breaking up of sentences into little chunks, all ending with that dreadful upward inflection. The sort of thing that rattles any voice teacher.
Add to that the ghastly explosive "t"s and the awful sibilant "s"s and you have a recipe for audio trauma. A lovely project almost ruined by the egocentricity of Mark Cousins.
Think how lovely it would have been to hear Michael Caine, or Ian McKellen, or Julie Christie narrating!
To add to the general discussion I am posting this on the end, not specifically replying to you iainhammer. Robert Osborne asked Cousins about his accent in the intro to part one shown on TCM last week. Cousins said he was born in Ireland and lived in Scotland and that his accent is a mixture of both. I agree that it is unusual, lilting, with an uptick on the end and took some getting used to, but I'm in the minority in that I like it.
shareI can see that I'm way outnumbered here, but I like the accent and the narration. Yes, it's quirky - and it doesn't sound like any other narrator I've heard. But for me, the oddness draws me in.
share