Les Misérables: So, what did you think?- Page 13
Les Misérables: So, what did you think?
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#301
Posted: 12/29/12 at 1:45am
^^^^Perhaps, but we'd all have been REALLY confused if they'd substituted Brooklynese to indicate working class.
(FWIW, I thought Sacha Baron Cohen was doing something other than pure cockney. At times, he seemed to be doing a French accent. I don't know why.)
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#302
Posted: 12/29/12 at 1:45am
Thanks Jordan-you made me smile and I love reading your comments all the way from Australia.
and for your reply Gaveston.
Broadway Star Joined: 11/24/04
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#303
Posted: 12/29/12 at 1:49amAmanda Seyfried should not have been cast in this film. It was painful to listen to her bleating.
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#304
Posted: 12/29/12 at 1:51amI thought Sacha sounded like he went French during Master of the House as well.
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#305
Posted: 12/29/12 at 1:52am
Yeah, he was the ONLY one doing a French accent which was actually off putting.
I don't understand why anytime a movie is made that takes place anywhere in Europe, the accents are British. I saw ANNA KARENINA a few weeks ago and was just so irked the entire time that this film taking place in Russia has all characters with British accents.
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#306
Posted: 12/29/12 at 1:54am
It's just a convention. It doesn't bother me, really.
NOTHING Sacha does is off-putting to me. I want to be his sex slave.
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#307
Posted: 12/29/12 at 2:03amYeah, it sounded like Sasha Baron-Cohen was playing Thernandier as someone with an English accent who sometimes faked a French accent. Why? Who knows.
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#308
Posted: 12/29/12 at 2:06amThenardier was definitely French-accented.
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#309
Posted: 12/29/12 at 2:06am
I don't understand why anytime a movie is made that takes place anywhere in Europe, the accents are British.
In Dangerous Liaisons they all had American accents. Granted, the characters were played by Americans. Still, they didn't attempt a faux British accent like Hathaway and Seyfried to pretend to sound like they're from ano-thah lahnd.
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#310
Posted: 12/29/12 at 2:11amAnd if they had all had American accents I'm sure there would be an equal number of people complaining about that.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/16/03
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/16/03
Stand-by Joined: 11/29/11
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#314
Posted: 12/29/12 at 4:03amIMHO, it was PERFECT.
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#315
Posted: 12/29/12 at 5:38am
Well, I will confess that as a dewy-eyed lad of 24, when I did my grand tour of Western Europe, I was quite surprised to find that EVERYONE in Europe speaks English with an English accent.
"Well, duh!", said I.
So while I agree that few characters in LES MISERABLES speak English, IF they did, they would do so with English accents. (Not Cockney, of course, because that would only be taught to actors. As discussed, that's a different convention to indicate class.)
But, yeah, if you have an all-American cast, use Standard American Speech or something similar. With an international cast, English accents make more sense than Australian or Canadian.
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#317
Posted: 12/29/12 at 7:35amI guess I was hoping they'd at least speak Cantonese to show a little Les Diversity.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#318
Posted: 12/29/12 at 8:44am
It's quite easy to criticize accents for works in English with international casts set in non-English speaking countries but I've come to realize there really is no good solution.
Love Dangerous Liaisons and love that Frears and company showed how a good American cast with American accents was just as valid a choice as Brits and or internationals with Brit accents.
Updated On: 12/29/12 at 08:44 AM
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#319
Posted: 12/29/12 at 10:02am"Amadeus" is another period film where director Milos Forman chose to have his (largely U.S.) cast use American accents.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#320
Posted: 12/29/12 at 10:03amSacha Baron Cohen only really used a mock-French accent during the first half or so of "Master of the House". The rest of the time, it as cockney. Because I think Tom Hooper just let him do whatever.
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#321
Posted: 12/29/12 at 10:20am
Personally, I don't mind the convention of British accents, regardless of country, in any period European movie, even if I'm always aware of it.
It's just another movie convention we all are asked to regularly accept, like:
Any time there's a night scene on a city street, the street is wet, whether it's raining or not.
Any time someone comes home with groceries, there's a loaf of French bread sticking out to let us know it's groceries.
If you are wounded in one scene, you will not have scars or bruises in the next, even if it's one day later. Even if it's a few hours later.
You can fall from a 50-foot height and recover without harm. You can be stabbed or shot and recover moments later without harm, and often without any serious bloodshed.
People can't sing in movies because that's unrealistic to most, yet they have no trouble accepting an 80-piece orchestra accompanying a war in outer space, or an intimate love scene, or just a walk in the park.
Women go to bed in full makeup with their hair styled.
There are always parking spaces available in front of the building you're going into.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#323
Posted: 12/29/12 at 11:32am
"Amadeus" is another period film where director Milos Forman chose to have his (largely U.S.) cast use American accents."
And he sure went full throttle with Elizabeth Berridge (Stanzi). I swear she had a full fledged Brooklyn accent, lol. Don't get me wrong, Amadeus is my favorite film of all time, but Berridge's accent stood out like a sore thumb!
Best Les Miz Summary Ever#324
Posted: 12/29/12 at 11:34am
Saw it again last night with a bunch of friends. I have to honestly say this movie really has no business even being considered as a Best Picture nominee. The bar really has been set so low nowadays. I hate Hollywood and how they choose box office over getting the right performers who can sing the material and preserve it in the very best possible way.
Sometimes Hollywood gets it right and sometimes they just get it wrong.
Russell Crowe had no business being in this film, but yet there he is desecrating "Stars". Amanda Seyfried was fine in Mamma Mia! but just wrong for this - - - she sounded like she sucked on a helium balloon before every single song she sang - - - painful! Hugh Jackman's "Valjean" was uniformally good until he opened his mouth and ruined "Bring Him Home" - - - disappointing to say the least. Glad my ticket was comped.
I won't be revisiting this one anytime soon if ever.
Kudos to Hathaway, Redmayne and Barks, they had their work cut out for them and turned in beautiful perfomances.
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