MovieChat Forums > Zen (2011) Discussion > Accents - Puzzling

Accents - Puzzling

posted 13 years ago by Dentrassi
24 replies | jump to latest

Anyone else think it odd that they cast English Actors to play Italians but talk in English and then hire 2 Italian women to play Italian's but speak in English? I mean why hire Italian women as you are already going with the conceit of English being Italian so why not fully realise the conceit and hire 2 English Women for the parts of Tania and Mamma? Then in the second episode you can hear bystanders etc talking in actual Italian lol.

I know I know its not a big thing and I assume they are going to/have already dub/dubbed it in Italian and sell it to Italy but to me it kind of takes me out of the show. Seems odd to me that is all.

Also I don't notice the mumbling as I put subtitles on everything anyway as most bloody things, shows or movies, have mumbling through out.

Alright sir, you take the blonde, I'll take the one with the turban.

[–] Prismark10 13 years ago

The bystanders speaking Italian are going to confuse everyone.

Its that man again!!

[–] Dentrassi 13 years ago

It doesn't confuse me but it does feel incongruous.

Alright sir, you take the blonde, I'll take the one with the turban.

[–] rven3 12 years ago

"It doesn't confuse me but it does feel incongruous."

Incongruous is certainly the right word. Misleading? Bizarre? WTF were they thinking? also comes to mind.

This series began on Australian TV last night, and apart from this one anomaly I am finding it to be way above my expectations.

[–] delilah293014 13 years ago

I completely agree. I didn't know anything about Zen or the books, but I wanted to watch the programme because of Rufus Sewell. When the programme started I was distracted by something but could hear a bit of what was going on in the backrground and for the first few minutes I thought Rufus was a Brit living in Italy! It was only after I sat down and started watching it properly that I figured it out. The fact that the mom and secretary were Italian just made the fact that everyone else was British so obvious and took away from the story. I just couldn't beleive that any of them were Italian. They all just felt like Brit expats working in Italy!

They should have kept the entire cast British or they should have used actors who could fake Italian accents.

[–] paudie 13 years ago

Isn't Wallender similar? English actors in a story set in Sweden.

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[–] RepomanUK 13 years ago

Accents are not as important as the drama, go with it and enjoy the rhythm of the speech and it patterns.

The point of an accent if a drama is only to show the protagonist's differences to others onscreen, to highlight that there is a difference if you will.

What accent would you like the play Hamlet be uttered in? It's written by an Englishmen who had a Midlands accent, who had never been to Denmark, for an audience in London about people who would have spoken Danish. Or "Much ado about nothing" set in Sicilian Messina part of Italy now but ruled then by the Catalan speaking Spanish Aragon dynasty then.

[–] Prismark10 13 years ago

'Isn't Wallender similar? English actors in a story set in Sweden.'

With also some Swedish actors as well, speaking English in Wallender.

Just like Zen. As these films are international co-productions with Swedish money going to Wallender and Italian money going to Zen, then there is an agreement as to using local actors.

There is no way I could take Zen and Wallender seriously as a drama if everyone spoke with fake accents.

Its that man again!!

[–] laura1-07 13 years ago

There is no way I could take Zen and Wallender seriously as a drama if everyone spoke with fake accents

Rufus Sewell said as much during an interview I saw. He said he didn't want to put on a fake Italian accent and end up sounding like he was in "Allo, allo".

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[–] Backlot_Manager 13 years ago

I'd rather see it done in Italian and subtitled.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] rogerscorpion 12 years ago

<The point of an accent if a drama is only to show the protagonist's differences to others onscreen>

By the same logic, does having different accents (English & Italian), on characters with similar background, denote similarities?

I don't care if they're all English accents or all Italian, as long as they're similar. Don't have some Italians speaking with Italian & some with English accents. It's jarring.

Now, if it's a WW2 film, with Germans speaking the Yanks, with German accents---great, but, if 2 nazis are talking to each other, most likely they'll speak in German, which should be subtitled.

Carpe Noctem!

[–] GaelinW 13 years ago

Generally, I don't mind English or American actors playing other nationalities. Usually, if the story and acting are strong enough, it's not really noticeable, especially if the location is not a character in the story. While I found that the setting could have been anywhere, that is Italy wasn't really part of the story, the mix of accents is incredibly distracting.

There were several different British accents, and the Italian women had differing accents in that one had a very strong accent and the other didn't. Finally, Francesco Quinn was using some cross of American and faux British for his accent.

The end result was just a distracting mishmash that the story wasn't strong enough to counter.

“If they let Jack do it his way the show would be just 12” – snorgtees.com

[–] fanaticita 13 years ago

The accents didn't bother me at all. That's show biz. I know it's more authentic to see a film in the language where the filming takes place, but that's not always possible either. Like all the historical films where some of the languages aren't spoken any longer, like old-English, etc. I'm more interested in the acting and the story, and in this case Rufus Sewell! :)

[–] GaelinW 13 years ago

I understand why they made the film with English actors. Don't have a problem with that. I just don't think it was executed in the best possible way. Many films do it well. We all know the Ancient Romans and Greeks didn't speak with British accents, right? Or Nazis or Cold War Russian spies. When they do this kind of thing using Brits (or Americans) as some other nationality, a neutral accent is best. Rufus Sewell was great, he has a neutral accent. It was just some of the supporting players that just made me stop and do a auditory doubletake as it were.

but that's not always possible either. Like all the historical films where some of the languages aren't spoken any longer, like old-English, etc.

You mean unlike "The Passion of the Christ " and its use of the "dead languages" - Aramaic and Latin?

“If they let Jack do it his way the show would be just 12” – snorgtees.com

[–] cherubalways 13 years ago

I was put off by the whole accent thing too, and I almost gave up watching because of it. I really had to push myself to "suspend disbelief" and I'm glad I did so. I was okay after about 40 minutes into it. I love Rufus Sewell, so I push on!

[–] aureliaw 13 years ago

Did you watch the series Wallander last year? It took place in Sweden, but ALL the cast members were English. Zen was a BBC sponsered program, I think, so it makes sense the main characters were English.... I know there are countless Italian actors who could have been cast, but I wouldn't recognize any of them, and I would not have watched the show....

[–] Thomasina 13 years ago

The other crazy thing about this is that it has people pretending to be police officers and murderers in it when I know for a fact that they are all actors. Also, there is music in it that comes from nowhere that the characters can't hear, and the story spanned several days but took only two hours for me to watch, and it took place in Italy but miraculously I was able to see it while sitting in my tv room in the United States.

Either you suspend disbelief for fiction or you don't.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] fanaticita 13 years ago

Good point Thomasina!!!!

[–] GaelinW 13 years ago

Either you suspend disbelief for fiction or you don't.

So, if they made a film about, say, Ancient Greece and everything in the film was true to the era except the main character walked around wearing cowboy boots and carrying a gun in a holster - with no explanation whatsoever as to why - enjoyment of it would be a mere matter of suspending disbelief?

“If they let Jack do it his way the show would be just 12” – snorgtees.com

[–] trappl 10 years ago

I just finished watching all 3 episodes on Amazon Prime so I'll resurrect this thread. The accents didn't bother me but it was interesting to have a French actress (Catherine Spaak)speaking English with a French accent pretending to be Italian.

I also was wondering how Stanley Townsend(Moscati)would handle it but he just let it rip with his Dublin accent.

[–] hth16w 13 years ago

Thomasina --
I don't know who you are, but I love you! Great post.

[–] Harold_Robbins 12 years ago

Not only are the accents puzzling, but half the time I can't understand what's being said, especially by leading man Sewell.

"In my case, self-absorption is completely justified."

[–] jeffandsarah-1 11 years ago

Perhaps yoyu nare going deaf.
DEAF.