I'm always fascinated by foreign accents. As an American, Fassbender sounds like he speaks perfect German and I can't pick up on a particular accent. Is it just a slight accent that the other Germans pick up on? Or very noticeable to German ears? Could it be compared to as American vs. Australian accents?
shareHis German is very, very good. But it is indeed not entirely accent free. There are two things that give him away somewhat. One the one hand some of his words have a bit of an English tinge to it, on the other he also talks in a slightly stilted way as if he had to concentrate incredibly hard about every word he speaks. Both of these may be intentional for the movie and part of the character he plays. But both of these are also quite minor. If I didn't know his first language was English, it would take a fair bit of time before I'd realise that he has an accent.
shareEvery time I watch this scene, I think to myself, "Just tell them you were born in Germany, grew up in the U.K., and moved back some time ago. Problem solved." It is unlikely that would have disqualified him from military service. That said, the way QT wrote it is way more interesting.
shareNoobitar, that's exactly what I thought. Just as someone else here mentioned, many ethnic Germans from e.g. the US returned to Germany to fight for Hitler, as the poster mentioned we saw this in Band of Brothers.
However, I've just realised that this would then have prevented Tarantino from using the 'German three' sign as the clincher, since Fassbender would have had a perfect excuse for not knowing it was different from the Anglo-US version.
A great film and a fantastic scene.
He could have claimed to be Volksdeutsch. Some of them, from places like Poland, Yugoslavia or Romania, spoke standard German rather badly, or else unnaturally correctly. Their credentials as genuine Germans were often suspect. I speak German as a second language and while I did not detect obvious mistakes in what Fassbender's character was saying, his German seemed too stilted to be that of a native speaker. But maybe it was the hand gesture that was decisive.
"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."
There is a wide range of German accents, not to mention the accents of German speakers like the Austrians and the majority of Swiss. The Piz Palü explanation (this film's answer to the "commode story" in Reservoir Dogs ) was based on this reality and it looked like they would get away with it. Until the hand gesture...
Fassbender's German accent is a lot more convincing than Richard Attenborough's inThe Great Escape, even though that succeeds in deceiving the Germans, at least temporarily.
"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."
Ja,Ja
Nobody has brought Diane Krugers horrible German accent when speaking English, it (German) being her first language. Especially in the scene right after this one when she's on the vet operating table and being interrogated by Aldo. At times it sounds so fake when it shouldn't. Perhaps it comes down to her so-so acting
shareIs the 1-2-3 finger thing all that rigid too? I had an uncle (non German, may he RIP) who used to start counting with his thumb. I just thought it was just an old timer habit.
I don’t know why the Archie character spoke up so much in that scene. Wouldn’t it be better to fly under the radar a bit when speaking to some prying SS agent? I guess the drama has to be created somewhere.
But Archie's not a spy. He's a movie critic turned British officer.
The whole Piz Palu cover sounds exactly like something a movie critic would cook up, unnecessarily complicated versus the better solution mentioned above, that he was a German who'd lived abroad.