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Re: Persona, subtitles and dubbing

216.244.13.87

Posted by Bambi B on June 28, 2004 at 21:14:19

In Reply to: Re: Persona, subtitles and dubbing posted by Gee LP on June 28, 2004 at 20:39:56:

Gee LP,

It's interesting that there was a period - really up through the 50-60s in which the use of Americans for other nationalities was taken as read and accents were either minimal or not attempted. Mostly Americans were being everything else- even Asian (Charlie Chan) or playing foreigners of all kinds. This changed eventually and, for example, Streep in "Sophie's Choice" caused a new demand for accurate, realistic performances.

But, even though the makers- and the public became more sophisticated became simultaneously so profit driven and immensely expensive that producers would not fund something without at least one name brand US box office star. This made the use of inapproriate actors go full circle ot the early carefree era. Profit pressure on movies forced the Big Names into all kinds of roles: Ryder in "Dracula", Witherspoon in "Importance of Being Ernest", Depp in "Pirates" the and etc. Your example of Costner as Robin Hood is among the best of the stomach turners. But, today the standard is somewhat higher and with extensive coaching Witherspoon and Depp did reasonable accents- though Depp's varied considerably from rural Somerset to way downtown of Sloane Street.

And, there's an even more confused situation at work. If the foreigner is famous enough- he becomes American and there are Hopkins (Silence), Micheal Gambon, Thomapson, Bohnam-Carter (Mighty Apgrodite) and Tim Roth in American parts.

We can laugh over the this return to silliness of not using "real" foreigners, as it it is sometimes strikingly odd, but I see this as a sad lowering of standards for actors. There are enough good actors of every nationality that the banality of forced accents just shouldn't have to be.

Cheers,

Bambi B

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