TV/Movies Megathread

[Tamas]

I am told that happens a lot with spoken Polish in movies.

Hungarian is much more rare and not too bad. The guy in the Usual Suspects I remember sounds like proper Hungarian just maybe somebody who did not speak the language regularly for a while.

The British actors in Tailor Tinker Soldier Spy make an admirable effort of playing British agents who speak Hungarian, I appreciate the effort, but of course in the real world they could not blend in even for  a second with such extreme accents.

[viper37]

The British actors in Tailor Tinker Soldier Spy make an admirable effort of playing British agents who speak Hungarian, I appreciate the effort, but of course in the real world they could not blend in even for  a second with such extreme accents.

It's the same when American actors speak French in a movie.  They're often good at it, but there's no way they'd pass for a native French speaker.  It's extremely hard to master a 2nd or a 3rd language without an accent.

[Maladict]

Matt Damon had a few lines of very good Dutch in one of the Bourne films. Native English speakers probably have particularly hard time getting rid of their accent when speaking Dutch, but he does it very well.

[Sheilbh]

Just listened to a very good episode of In Our Time about Alan Turing and I am, once again, unreasonably furious about The Imitation Game.

[celedhring]

Just listened to a very good episode of In Our Time about Alan Turing and I am, once again, unreasonably furious about The Imitation Game.

Those "great man" oscar bait biopics are all awful. I wouldn't get worked up about them.

[Sheilbh]

Those "great man" oscar bait biopics are all awful. I wouldn't get worked up about them.

I know - they are all awful. But it just annoys me that they entirely invented the spy story between him and the Cambridge spy where he gets blackmailed. It didn't happen, and it actually reinforces one of the narratives that actually hurt Turing about gay men being security risks

[The Brain]

In Hollywood, Swede plays you. Foreign actors portraying people who are supposed to speak Swedish well isn't extremely common I think, at least few come to mind right now. I vaguely recall some atrocious B movie crap, but that was B movies.

[celedhring]

Those "great man" oscar bait biopics are all awful. I wouldn't get worked up about them.

I know - they are all awful. But it just annoys me that they entirely invented the spy story between him and the Cambridge spy where he gets blackmailed. It didn't happen, and it actually reinforces one of the narratives that actually hurt Turing about gay men being security risks

I was annoyed at how all the shit he had to go through after the war was a mere afterthought in the film, mostly relegated to a caption - which stressed how his legacy has been reabilitated since. EVERYTHING HAS TO BE A FEELGOOD STORY.

[Sheilbh]

I was annoyed at how all the shit he had to go through after the war was a mere afterthought in the film, mostly relegated to a caption - which stressed how his legacy has been reabilitated since. EVERYTHING HAS TO BE A FEELGOOD STORY.

Yeah. And there's two annoying things about that because he committed suicide a year after the conviction so it wasn't directly linked but was something he'd considered before since the 20s (he also went into Jungian psychotherapy to try and become bisexual so he could have a family life) - it's almost more damning and wider than just the chemical castration treatment causing his suicide.

Plus, which I didn't know, he was at that point in his life starting up a new research group at the University of Manchester and actually pioneering mathematical biology which was a very new/interesting feeling. They do make all that an afterthought as you say - and I actually think there's almost a more interesting story in those last years. Starting a research in an entirely new field, having known every secret in the core of the Anglo-American alliance, been a huge part of the war and not allowed to say anything, plus the consequences of those long-term issues social attitudes to homosexuality.

They also quoted some of his letters to friends and I don't think he was just Sherlock. The letters just sounded quite camp and very bitchy - it probably goes against how we like our geniuses but would have been interesting.

[Josquius]

That could make for an interesting alternative version of the film. Offensively stereotypical camp gay Turning amidst the stodgy scientists.

[Eddie Teach]

I'd like to hear more about mathematical biology.

[celedhring]

I was annoyed at how all the shit he had to go through after the war was a mere afterthought in the film, mostly relegated to a caption - which stressed how his legacy has been reabilitated since. EVERYTHING HAS TO BE A FEELGOOD STORY.

Plus, which I didn't know, he was at that point in his life starting up a new research group at the University of Manchester and actually pioneering mathematical biology which was a very new/interesting feeling. They do make all that an afterthought as you say - and I actually think there's almost a more interesting story in those last years. Starting a research in an entirely new field, having known every secret in the core of the Anglo-American alliance, been a huge part of the war and not allowed to say anything, plus the consequences of those long-term issues social attitudes to homosexuality.

Absolutely. We are culturally trained to tell stories that finish at the "peak" which is ok when you're doing fiction (Star Wars ends with the Death Star blowing up and everybody getting a medal), but that kinda doesn't work that well when you're telling a real story. So somebody looks at Turing's life story and probably gets fixated on the "he helped win WWII!" part, and everything that comes afterward is an epilogue.

The greatest biopic ever made is probably Raging Bull, and it doesn't end when he wins the championship.

[Josephus]

I am told that happens a lot with spoken Polish in movies.

Hungarian is much more rare and not too bad. The guy in the Usual Suspects I remember sounds like proper Hungarian just maybe somebody who did not speak the language regularly for a while.

The British actors in Tailor Tinker Soldier Spy make an admirable effort of playing British agents who speak Hungarian, I appreciate the effort, but of course in the real world they could not blend in even for  a second with such extreme accents.

I was in Poland once, and sitting in my hotel room I was flipping channels and came across an episode of MASH dubbed in Polish. But the cool thing was, one dude was doing all the voices, including the womens'

[Josquius]

Giri/Haji- this is a very very good series. Amazing it's made by BBC though as its the opposite to what I expected. An adventure of Japanese people in the UK rather than the Brit being a fish out of water in Japan. Seems to have just as much (more?) Japanese dialogue as English. 2 eps off the end now and sad to hear there was meant to be a series 2 but nobody will pay for it.
I really wonder about the production story of this one. Seems to not be a British /Japanese Co production.

[celedhring]

Giri/Haji- this is a very very good series. Amazing it's made by BBC though as its the opposite to what I expected. An adventure of Japanese people in the UK rather than the Brit being a fish out of water in Japan. Seems to have just as much (more?) Japanese dialogue as English. 2 eps off the end now and sad to hear there was meant to be a series 2 but nobody will pay for it.
I really wonder about the production story of this one. Seems to not be a British /Japanese Co production.

Can't speak for this particular production, but in the past BBC has happily jumped into foreign productions when they include a British element. Heck, "let's put a brit in this and try to rope in BBC" was a common trick to try to raise money for Spanish productions in the 2010s