Return Of The Film Corner Thread

[A Lark Ascending]

I always find it disconcerting when hearing a well established British actor speaking in an American accent. I've no way of knowing how authentic the accent is but my brain is expecting the familiar voice. Hugh Laurie was especially difficult to adjust to. In my mind he's type-cast as an incompetent, upper class World War I officer. 

Though I suppose it's no odder than when thespian types take on British regional roles. 

Edited August 31, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[kinuta]

Tale Of Tales - Matteo Garrone (2015)

Three intertwined ' fractured fairy tales ', beautiful to watch and done with great style, grit and verve.

It reminded me of something Terry Gilliam might have dreamed he could pull off in collaboration with Guillermo del Toro.

Plenty of gory bits, not for kiddies.

I really liked it and would rate it as one of the most memorable films of the year so far.

It might not be everyone's cup of tea but if you like fantasy films at all then it's a must see.

 

[fasstrack]

4 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

I always find it disconcerting when hearing a well established British actor speaking in an American accent. I've no way of knowing how authentic the accent is but my brain is expecting the familiar voice. Hugh Laurie was especially difficult to adjust to. 

FWIW He convinced me as House on American TV. Had no clue he is a Brit until someone later told me...

[kinuta]

1 hour ago, fasstrack said:

FWIW He convinced me as House on American TV. Had no clue he is a Brit until someone later told me...

The one that most surprised me was Idris Elba as Stringer Bell in The Wire.

He wasn't known to me at the time and I was most surprised when I found he was British, as were at least others in the cast.

I think British actors playing roles as Americans are more highly motivated by potential earning power if they can crack the US market.

They also enjoy vastly better dialect coaches than were around in days of old. Remember when everyone was awestruck by Meryl Streep's skill at non American roles ? That kind of thing is commonplace now.

Edited August 31, 2016 by kinuta

[fasstrack]

Uh huh. Never saw The Wire---didn't own a TV for years, and won't pay for cable---but heard it was very good. So I'm unfamiliar with Idris Elba, first time i've heard the name...

[duaneiac]

9 hours ago, BillF said:

I'm not sure that this is true, but if it is, couldn't it be something to do with the amount of exposure we get in Britain to American media, in contrast to the rarity of British media in the US?

But this phenomenon goes back at least to Vivien Leigh who used a very convincing Southern accent in GWTW, long before TV was a mass medium able to spread American entertainment programs around the world.  Sure she must have had speech coaches on such a big budget, high profile film, but American actors would have had access to similar Hollywood speech coaches at the time, and over the following decades, if they needed to perfect a British accent.  Perhaps the lack of exposure most American film audiences had to British films -- although a number of British actors became genuine Hollywood movie stars:  Laurence Olivier, Rex Harrison, Ronald Coleman, James Mason, etc. -- allowed them to accept even the most hit-and-miss attempt at a British accent by an American actor.

[fasstrack]

4 hours ago, duaneiac said:

But this phenomenon goes back at least to Vivien Leigh who used a very convincing Southern accent in GWTW, long before TV was a mass medium able to spread American entertainment programs around the world... 

She was British? Never knew that...

[BillF]

1 hour ago, duaneiac said:

But this phenomenon goes back at least to Vivien Leigh who used a very convincing Southern accent in GWTW, long before TV was a mass medium able to spread American entertainment programs around the world.  Sure she must have had speech coaches on such a big budget, high profile film, but American actors would have had access to similar Hollywood speech coaches at the time, and over the following decades, if they needed to perfect a British accent.  Perhaps the lack of exposure most American film audiences had to British films -- although a number of British actors became genuine Hollywood movie stars:  Laurence Olivier, Rex Harrison, Ronald Coleman, James Mason, etc. -- allowed them to accept even the most hit-and-miss attempt at a British accent by an American actor.

OK, but American movies seen by audiences of millions familiarised Brits with American speech from the time of the talkies of 1929 onwards.

[JSngry]

Not as ridiculous now as it once was, but the same issue occurs with American Southern accents (yes, plural). A lot of people don't have as good an ear for detail as they apparently think they do!

[paul secor]

Hugh Laurie was totally believable as an American, at least to my ears and eyes.

Could the difference be that many (probably not all) British actors are better trained than American actors?

[JSngry]

Vivien Leigh...the only Southern women I've known who talked like that were...the type of woman that she played, and stereotypes to the contrary, there are more who are not like that than those who are, especially as time goes by. Thankfully...

And even there, a true "Southern Belle" will have a lot, and I mean a LOT, of nuance in her speech. "Accent" alone is not sufficient. It's even beyond speech, eyes, nostrils, face, body language...this is probably true for all people, but you get actors trying to play a "type" and so often they sorta go LCD on you. That's just not good enough.

[duaneiac]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Vivien Leigh...the only Southern women I've known who talked like that were...the type of woman that she played, and stereotypes to the contrary, there are more who are not like that than those who are, especially as time goes by. Thankfully...

And even there, a true "Southern Belle" will have a lot, and I mean a LOT, of nuance in her speech. "Accent" alone is not sufficient. It's even beyond speech, eyes, nostrils, face, body language...this is probably true for all people, but you get actors trying to play a "type" and so often they sorta go LCD on you. That's just not good enough.

"the only Southern women I've known who talked like that were...the type of woman that she played"

Then Ms. Leigh's choice of accent was appropriate for the role she played.  That's about all one can ask for.  It's been at least 20 years since I saw GWTW, but as I recall, her accent was consistent throughout and did not come and go, which seems to happen a lot with American actors attempting a "British" accent.

Sometimes an actor playing a "type" might be just what one wants.  James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart were all really good actors with varying degrees of versatility, but if a film called for a gangster "type", they would be the go-to actors and they would handle that "type" of role perfectly.  Speaking for myself, watching them portray those "types" is not only "good enough", it's wonderfu.

[fasstrack]

FWIW in a lot of early American films, up til perhaps 1950, the (nearly exclusively white) actors put on affected English accents. This was, I guess, considered the correct way to speak...

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, duaneiac said:

"the only Southern women I've known who talked like that were...the type of woman that she played"

Then Ms. Leigh's choice of accent was appropriate for the role she played.  That's about all one can ask for.  It's been at least 20 years since I saw GWTW, but as I recall, her accent was consistent throughout and did not come and go, which seems to happen a lot with American actors attempting a "British" accent.

Sometimes an actor playing a "type" might be just what one wants.  James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart were all really good actors with varying degrees of versatility, but if a film called for a gangster "type", they would be the go-to actors and they would handle that "type" of role perfectly.  Speaking for myself, watching them portray those "types" is not only "good enough", it's wonderfu.

Individually, yeah, sure. But collectively it kind of wears me down over time.

Then again, I've not had a real interest in movies for about a decade or so now, precisely for that reason, same stories getting retold with only the "type" as the variable, and although the types of "type" are expanding, I don't know that the depth/accuracy of their portrays are following suit. The Ever-Expanding Shrinking Same.

So I am a bit of a whiner in that regard, and definitely an outlier as far as consensual opinion.

But as far as Vivian Leigh...I was born in 1955, in the American South and the Scarlet O'Hara "type" was already becoming something of a joke. None but the most clueless actually aspired to that type of thing. So, really, no love lost here between me and neither the whole Drawly Plantation Drama Queen "type" nor the "real thing" (aspirational or otherwise), none at all.

My mom, born and raised in Louisiana and oil-patch Texas loathed all of that stuff, yet I never could get her to define what "well I swan" really meant (and she'd get irked as hell when I pushed her on it). Halfway between swear and swoon was my guess, but I felt what she meant, even though I did not rationally understand what she meant.

So, yeah, "accents" per se don't really turn me on. But people, any people, who speak with their entire being, naturally and unprogrammed by anything other than environment and intent, that is music, quite literally, to my ears. And lord knows you can find that, still.

 

[Jazzmoose]

8 hours ago, JSngry said:

...yet I never could get her to define what "well I swan" really meant (and she'd get irked as hell when I pushed her on it). Halfway between swear and swoon was my guess, but I felt what she meant, even though I did not rationally understand what she meant.
 

In my area it was pronounced "swanny", but I never got an explanation either.

Last night's entertainment...

 

[duaneiac]

In very tiny print on the poster, you might see "Directed By Fritz Lang".  This was his first film made in America.  Fritz Lang is heard on a DVD commentary track being interviewed by Peter Bogdanovich and he said this 1936 film was loosely based upon a 1933 lynching which, for what it's worth, occurred within walking distance of my home (and I once worked with a man who was there when it happened).  The film is kind of stodgy and dated and does not really show much of Fritz Lang's style, but Sylvia Sidney gives a good performance.

 

 

Edited September 1, 2016 by duaneiac

[kinuta]

Michelangelo Antonioni  double bill.

L'Avventura (1960)

La Notte (1961)

[BillF]

6 hours ago, kinuta said:

Michelangelo Antonioni  double bill.

L'Avventura (1960)

La Notte (1961)

 

[fasstrack]

[BillF]

Good. Well-considered review of the problems of a woman of a certain age. A great antidote to the Almodovar melodramas I've been watching recently.

[kinuta]

Martin Scorsese double bill.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

Undermentioned and special as it's Scorsese's only film about a woman, beautiful acted by

Ellen Burstyn in a wonderful performance. I hadn't rewatched this for a long time and thought it was brilliant.

Hugo (2011)

[robertoart]

7 hours ago, kinuta said:

Martin Scorsese double bill.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

Undermentioned and special as it's Scorsese's only film about a woman, beautiful acted by

Ellen Burstyn in a wonderful performance. I hadn't rewatched this for a long time and thought it was brilliant.

 

One of my favourite movies of all time. Everything about this movie is perfect. The musical B plot is so beautifully there as well. The perfect role for Kris Kristofferson who shines with good hearted country nonchalance. 

[BillF]

Absolute crap IMHO, but then I'm not the person to ask about anything to do with the horror genre. Have to admit though it's very skilfully put together, as you would expect from a master director like this.

[rostasi]

Not much of a TV watcher, but we just finished watching (on DVD)
this BBC drama (ca. 7 hours and "The Making of...") and it was fun:

 

Edited September 3, 2016 by rostasi

[kinuta]

Max Ophuls double bill.

The Reckless Moment (1949)

The Earrings Of Madame De ... (1953)