Just wondering.I get the basic premise -the character speaks with German accent so we should accept that he is German. As if we couldn't figure it out ourselves. Seems like a lot of bother for no apparent reason .I'd prefer if their either speak regular or in native language.
Again I get why but don't get why this is expected. You then get some jarring performances. (child 44 comes to mind)
Absolutely agree! I didn't know the background story of the movie and therefore when I saw Murphy and the Fall guy I assumed they would be playing (probably not Irish) but British spies! Czech`? Wtf?
shareI agree. As far as I've seen Tarantino seems to be the only big US director that doesn't do this. To me speaking English with accents is just comical.
shareYou need to get out more. English is always spoken with an accent because everyone has an accent. Throughout the world, English is spoken with thousands of accents and they are all just as legitimate as whatever accent you are used to hearing.
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I obviously mean in movies where they put on heavy accents on purpose to give the sense that they are speaking another language. In real life I speak with a slightly accent myself.
shareIn the real world where in any major city a foreign person is accosted by local police or authority it is incumbent to Have no eglesese. This requires sending for the emergency on call interpreter for that dialect/accent/language. I am sure real 'paddys' have refused to talk to the cops in English before now. What I recommend is that when foreigners are represented in a tale one should be hired from that land who also speaks English as a learned language. now that presents a problem. Character is 18 but only a fifty year old can be. Well a great many of our tales descend maybe from the Greeks but today our Willie may have covered most of the plot devices in any given story. Many countries were represented in those tales but traditionally were played in normal English. Maybe recently with the plays being put on film the accent has crept in. I mean on Broadway are they all spoken with the English accent being used. Macbeth was a Scottish setting. Of course it can never equal it when spoken in Klingon or "taH pagh taHbe'" .
I enjoy the accented english in for egample Hogans Heroes. This is done for totally comedic purposes. ALLO ALLO is a parody of perceived pronunciation of certain language groups. Man would say racist of course. Here we are treated to overly English [nice but dim] RAF airmen in hiding. An english spy planted as a french policeman who mixes his vowels up to show that his french is not great. This does result in mostly POTTY humour and I have NO idea who this translates into other languages. Obviously we have the french family and bar staff in mock english french. There are Germans of course occupying the town/village. Some seen as normal and the Gestapo as hard but bungling. A character who represents the 100% french civilian resistance who for the most part speaks in the mock french. But frequently changes this when speaking to the airmmen to perceived english accent. An Italian does get included who is a popinjay of course with nothing but love for the ladies. I really do not see how this plays out in the rest of the non english speaking world.
Agreed that many times the accents are annoying and stereotypically not accurate.
Sean Connery was exceptionally jarring in Red October. Liam Neeson is difficult in most non normal accented tales. Michael Caine will also struggle with accents. However even in the US there are problems with actors from an area with a heavy accent taking on roles of one from another area. Can you imagine how hard it is to try and speak like some people from deep Louisiana who sound really strange to me.
Mind you the native american only knows how to dress in traditional costume due to the movie industry?? But that use of pidgin english may have been racist for how long. Only worse when you watch westerns that have been dubbed into the German language.
What this thread has taught me is a lot of people just love to whine and complain about something pretty meaningless instead of just enjoying a well made film.
I agree. Some people would apparently prefer all historical movies to take an extra 8-9 months to complete so that the actors can learn a new language lol...and not even perfectly well and they would still probably have an even more awkward accent being that its not their native language. So on top of memorizing lines, actors would have to memorize lines in a new language lol...that will go well. If you want to pay like 20 dollars for a movie ticket and have 1 movie take 5 years to complete that might be a good idea. Otherwise...I think its great as it is. When you have a cast of multiple actors from multiple countries, you cannot make them all learn a new language,and even if you were dumb enough to do so they would then all have variations of the "native" language and would probably sound even more awkward, and worse. (I am an actor and a director, and I can tell you this is a supremely stupid idea. Just enjoy the movie and do not complain about things for which you do not understand.)
I don't get it either.
I am from the Czech Republic and I saw only trailers. Those fake accents discourage me a lot from watching (apart form horrible Anna Geislerova, she is too old for that part and has absolutely no chemistry with Murpy whatsoever), I wish they'd do it properly in English, or make it in Czech language entirely.
Many people don't speak proper English, that's true, but accents can be learned. It's their job to "pretend".
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I guess it's either the English-speaking actors speak English with the foreign accent or they learn/parrot the actual language. Which would you prefer?
It's funny, I don't consider myself particularly stupid but this issue has never occurred to me in 40+ years of watching movies.
Suppose a Czech director made a movie based on a British true story to sell to a Czech audience - would his actors speak Czech with an English accent? Is there such a thing? I guess there must be.
Film and theatre is all about accepting conventions that seem silly for the sake of telling a story - or marketing a story - you accept and watch or you avoid, your choice.
I disagree. Should they speak with British or American accents then? Or should they speak in a foreign language most of the world want understand and many would not even bother to watch as a result? Speaking in English but using German (or whatever language is their native) accents is effective.
share