MovieChat Forums > Café Society (2016) Discussion > Kristen Stewart's use of "Vocal Fry" in ...

Kristen Stewart's use of "Vocal Fry" in the film ruined it for me

posted 8 years ago by jodcindy-271-889195
11 replies | jump to latest

The movie took place in the late 1930s, so WHY did Kristen Stewart recite most of her lines with that IRRITATING and OBNOXIOUS vocal fry that so many teenage girls (and girls in their 20s) insist on using nowadays? I'm certain that young women didn't talk like that back then. Why didn't Woody Allen catch this and insist that she rein it in? Stewart had ZERO believability in the role. Zero appeal, too. She is an AWFUL actress.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jodcindy-271-889195 8 years ago

I pass. I don't argue over the Internet with people I don't know. I just stated my opinion, and you have stated yours. And the world, it keeps right on turning.

[–] Metatron_Fallen 8 years ago

I, for one, love 'vocal fry'. Although I never knew it was called that- I just thought it was the way some people spoke. I speak like that myself and I'm a bloke. I never realized I spoke like that until just now though. I suppose you can always learn something new about yourself- even at 50 years old.

At any rate, I like that scratchy kind of talking from women. I've always found it sexy.

Thanks for posting the Mae West clip. I was just going to watch a few seconds of it to confirm that people 'back then' spoke that way but could not stop watching ;-)

Mae West, now she was something else...

Man: 'Are you trying to drive me to the mad house?'
Mae West, 'No, I'll call you a taxi'.

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] Squeeth2 8 years ago

I expect it was rarer in the past because smoking 20 Capstans a day had the same effect. 

Marlon, Claudia & Dimby the cats 1989-2010. Clio the cat, July 1997 - 1 May 2016.

[–] ACME_Horses 8 years ago

Angry much? Must suck to be you.

[–] jodcindy-271-889195 8 years ago

I pass. I don't argue over the Internet with people I don't know.

[–] shelemm 8 years ago

Men have 'vocal fry' too, but it's just a sexist thing to notice only when women have it. NPR did a story on this and how only the women announcers get singled out, though it happens with men too.

[–] liscarkat (19427) 2 years ago

Men do fry, but far more women do.

[–] dagger-7 8 years ago

I fully agree with the OP. Her vocal fry was cringe-worthy and did not match the period of the story. I was going to create a post about it, but I'm glad somebody else beat me to it.

[–] liscarkat (19427) 2 years ago

I've been listening to young women talk for nearly seventy years, and I watch a lot of old movies, too, going back to the late 1920s. Vocal fry, also called "creaky voice", is a fairly recent phenomenon. It is definitely an anachronism in any movie about the 1920s, '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s, and probably even '70s. In the past couple of decades it has become common among many young women, and some young men. Allen should have had Stewart not talk that way, if she's capable.