MovieChat Forums > The Statement (2003) Discussion > The accents

The accents

posted 18 years ago by Natwin-1
13 replies | jump to latest

It may have just been me but nearly all the major characters have an english accent. The people in the movie are supposed to be French. I just found it a little annoying. What's up with that.

[–] lildark 18 years ago

The people in the movie are supposed to speak their own language, ie French. They're not supposed to speak their first language with an accent.

[–] ddr_lemaire 18 years ago

The actors in this movie are all British! I am french and I haven't noticed one single French actor in the movie!

[–] childintime-1 18 years ago

Oh, who in hell cares?!? If they speak French and use subtitles, hardly anyone would bother watching it. If they use "French" accents while speaking English, people complain at how bad their accents are. Whatever they do, someone has to whine. In the end, it is all about the story and the acting. Let's get real.

[–] stevem-26 17 years ago

Good points, childintime.
I've noticed that some British productions use no accents for productions set in Germany, France, etc.

I've never known what their reasons were, but although I respect any decision made in a good production, I guess I gotta say that I do wish for the accents when I have watched some of these.
"Maigret" series, with Michael Gambon, had English as done by Brits, and was well enough made, by I sure did miss the gallicness of some nice French accents.
You know, there are many productions using actors of the country that can act in English, and that works out very well.

[–] bear022013-909-645034 10 years ago

Film was awful,just simply lies.

[–] pyota 17 years ago

hm, i think it would have been more contrived to have michael caine speaking with a fake french accent. all michael caine fans, of which i am one, know that his cockney accent is one of his trademarks. to me this did not detract from the realism of the film, just as when i see a film set in a non-english speaking country yet the actors are speaking english. art does not have to exactly mirror reality in order to be good art.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mj_togher 16 years ago

didn't bother me that they were speaking in english accents tbh

[–] jason-943 16 years ago

Think of all the Roman films ( Spartacus, Gladiator) Greek films (Troy) Egyptian films(Cleopatra)or even Henry V . We dont bat an eyelid they are speaking 20th century English. However French people speaking English does seem to niggle us all.

[–] tdoa 14 years ago

the accents are what they are and for me did not interfere with the suspension of reality. However I have 2 niggling points: one when Charlotte Rampling is traveling on the bus with a co-worker, who speaks with a very heavy regional English accent (cockney?) using for instance the word "sommit" for something; they should have all just stayed with "the king's English". The other when Ciaran Hinds towards the end gives Michael Caine a passport to Quebec in Canada and to MC's remark oh good they speak French there, CH replies yes some do, like it's some minority language there. Rather it should have been most or all do.

[–] goleafsgo27 12 years ago

tdoa: Canada is officially a bilingual country, but that very definitely does not mean everyone is bilingual. Far from it. It means the government runs things in both English and French. As for the people, these rough numbers are a decade old, but show that in a nation of 30,000,000, some 20,000,000 speak only English, 4,000,000 speak only French, and 5,000,000 speak both. Others speak other languages, such as various Asian and First Nations languages.

I have seen enough to know I have seen too much. -- ALOTO

[–] aldiboronti 11 years ago

Exactly. French is a minority language in Canada, although not of course in the province of Quebec where it is spoken by the majority.

[–] blanche-2 10 years ago

We assume in film and in plays that people are speaking their native language, not English with an accent. Therefore accents are not needed.

Chekov is not done with Russian accents, Strindberg is not done with Swedish accents, etc. If a film is set in France, and the people are French, they don't need an accent. Now, if they're French and living in America, that's another matter.