tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520807396714463309.post6790727865627145961..comments2024-02-12T02:22:30.561-05:00Comments on The Lousy Linguist: the incoherent accents of HugoChrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09558846279006287148noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520807396714463309.post-26466709539576309832012-01-30T01:20:18.902-05:002012-01-30T01:20:18.902-05:00The movie "The Train" suffered from Fren...The movie "The Train" suffered from French and German characters speaking French and German accented English to represent those same characters speaking real French and German with the leading "French-man" Burt Lancaster speaking American accented English which was supposed to be French. At one point the Nazi soldiers shoot the breeze (here, not literally) in "German-English" with two Resistance fighters who are disguised in Werhmacht uniforms. So as to maintain their dangerous charade, the Frenchmen, who only speak "French-English" and not "German-English" but must answer somehow to avoid discovery, grin wordlessly, shrug and roll their eyes, but of course are desperate not to speak out loud. The conversation is tense but short so our lads get away with it. I'd say the two mugged in wordless stereotypical Jacquerie fashion, pulling faces and all that, except that would give them away, too. "Germans" don't mug and wave their hands around, Gallic style, allowing a brief moué to answer all the questions of Man and explain the whole human condition, do they? Mais non! I mean, "Nicht !" Or just, "No!" Arrest them! They are mugging in..in.."French!!" And if they had slipped, what would come out? Movie "French-English"- or maybe they would try to fool the soldiers with their high school German, which to the Germans, in the story, would sound exactly like Resistance fighters trying to speak German (and they'd be caught) but we in Cloudland<br />would hear French-accented English, the only language we ever here them speak. Whew. Very inside. <br />I almost cared about this stuff until the director got the steam trains to start crashing together and the aerial bombardment of the marshalling yards. Beyond cool, way beyond, in 1968 or whenever.<br />Oh, and, the movie "Hugo" was terrible, embarrassing, cringe-inducing (I love that one! We didn't have it in '68), uneven, badly acted and 3-D ain't shit.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520807396714463309.post-44777213974247531812012-01-05T02:07:24.509-05:002012-01-05T02:07:24.509-05:00Aha ! this makes me think of B&W French films ...Aha ! this makes me think of B&W French films during the war : everyone spoke French ! but the British spoke it with a British accent, the Germans with a German accent, the Americans, with hum... a British accent too ! Always found it very funny (and ridiculous)Félicia M. https://www.blogger.com/profile/08577565893174179960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520807396714463309.post-34854103393201148602011-12-30T10:26:24.439-05:002011-12-30T10:26:24.439-05:00I've not seen Hugo, but I've always been b...I've not seen Hugo, but I've always been bothered that the (I'll probably spell this wrong) Thernardiers - the innkeepers - in the stage productions of Les Miserables always have some sort of bastardized Cockney thing going on.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01795895112007493591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520807396714463309.post-55889975326430842362011-12-30T10:23:13.215-05:002011-12-30T10:23:13.215-05:00While I've not seen Hugo, it always bothered m...While I've not seen Hugo, it always bothered me that (and I'm going to spell this wrong) the Thernardiesrs (the innkeepers) in the stage productions of Les Miserables always have some sort of bastardized cockney thing going on.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01795895112007493591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520807396714463309.post-51425718854872678262011-12-09T09:04:16.256-05:002011-12-09T09:04:16.256-05:00Richard, I hadn't noticed that and I didn'...Richard, I hadn't noticed that and I didn't know about the Harry Potter change. Weird.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09558846279006287148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520807396714463309.post-45350838459842573502011-12-05T13:45:44.935-05:002011-12-05T13:45:44.935-05:00Did you find it interesting that everything writte...Did you find it interesting that everything <b>written</b> in the movie was actually written in French?<br />Having all the displayed signage in Fr. isn't remarkable but when the children were seen doing some research, the book they were reading was also in French. So, no accents for the ears, but for the eyes....<br />Indeed not since the first Harry Potter, when a scene was shot in both Bringlish and 'Merican with a book having 'philosopher' in one and in the other 'sorcerer', has so much attention been paid to the written word in a movie. :-)richardelguruhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00839486187041394826noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520807396714463309.post-82657448379316670492011-11-29T02:05:27.034-05:002011-11-29T02:05:27.034-05:00The English accents bothered me for the first 1/4 ...The English accents bothered me for the first 1/4 of the movie, and then I had to just accept it (rather, ignore it). It just made no sense to me, and, frankly, was distracting as the movie clearly was intended to submerse the viewer into 1920's Paris. The only thing I can think of is that Americans are more familiar with an English accent than a French one, since we share more cinematic culture with the English (especially in trying to train the young actors to speak in an accent, probably way easier to go English accent).Lukehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10704356941259144350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520807396714463309.post-10022088708851236182011-11-27T19:31:37.223-05:002011-11-27T19:31:37.223-05:00nick, yep, fair points. It's interesting how s...nick, yep, fair points. It's interesting how story tellers have to think about these things to get the audience to suspend disbelief and go along for the ride. Part of the magic of movie making.<br /><br />That's also part of the story in Hugo, as well. The early days of movie making when film makers had to figure these things out on-the-fly.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09558846279006287148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520807396714463309.post-31675025145946554882011-11-27T16:15:01.433-05:002011-11-27T16:15:01.433-05:00I guess what I am saying is, what sounds more inco...I guess what I am saying is, what sounds more incoherent? Nazis speaking with German accents, or with native American English accents? It is clearly the latter, as they are not supposed so sound native to an American audience.nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12644870190804665977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520807396714463309.post-79523445667174424992011-11-27T16:13:43.375-05:002011-11-27T16:13:43.375-05:00"But here's the linguistically incoherent..."But here's the linguistically incoherent part. Back then, during WW2, when Nazis spoke to each other ... they didn't have accents! Not to each others' ears."<br /><br />But as you say, the point of the accents is for us, the audience. And to us, they do sound foreign. Within the reality of the film, all is well and we can pretend they are speaking German to each other. Yes, it would be nice if everyone in films spoke the language they were supposed to be speaking, but I don't think it's as dissonant as you say. (And I also agree that it's annoying when a British accent is used as the "default foreign")nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12644870190804665977noreply@blogger.com