why do so many films use US or UK accents instead of the one the real life film is set?

[joko]

such as valkyrie - why do they all speak us or uk accents?

fair enough not shooting in german language, but they could have at least kept in the real life 'feel' of germany by using german accents...

ive seen this a few times and found it vaguely confusing of whch characters are genuinely british/american

do they think we are too dumb to understand a german accent? or is it a stupid attempt to 'americanise' nazi germany to make audiences more comfortable?

whats the point?

thanks

[saxy_jag]

Because too many Americans are unable to do a convincing European accent. Renee Zellweger and Dustin Hoffman and pretty good, and there's a handful of others, but the rest of them really don't get it.

What's really funny is when you hear Americans who have spent time here or who have British parents. American with dropped 'h's - weird!

[jackthehat]

Because you'd have films which were trying to be authentic to the period with the actors sounding like they've just escaped from 'Allo 'Allo...

If they are not speaking the 'correct' language and translating using subtitles, they may as well speak the language of the, likely, largest audience, i.e. English.

[joko]

i agree that many wouldnt be able to do a good one, but i found it slightly annoying and distracting, and im sure im not the only one
id much have preferred a not great german twang that a mix of british and full on american!

and im sure someone of tom cruises calibre could master even a slight german accent!
they lengths many actors will go to for their role i think falling at the minor hurdle of accent is a bit weak.

besides bad accents rarely seem to bother the makers of other films, why in these ones?

[andy-hughes]

The general approach seems to be a 'suspension of disbelief' which means that the audience allows itself to hear the American accent even though the cast are mostly, if not all, German speakers.

I think it makes a film easier to follow than a disparity of accents which really draw attention away from the plot.

These characters are speaking in their native language, which is not English with an accent - so simply ignore the illusion and enjoy the film.

[jno]

so what are you saying, you want them to speak British English with a German accent instead of American English with a German accent? I don't see why; either they speak German with no accent, which the real life people would have spoken, or they can speak the language of the people who made the film, which is Hollywoodese.

[joko]

andy and jno - you have missed the point there...not sure why either of you have come to those conclusions from my post...

the point is, i expect hitler, guerring etc, when speaking english to do so with a german accent - not a hollywood american and uppercrust english one

the language they speak is english not german

check out the film mentioned - valkyrie - to see my point

it is full of british and american actors who do not alter their real life accents one bit for this film tom cruise etc

it is very odd to hear hitler etc sounding like an american

i have seen it on a few other occasions too.

[jno]

no, I got your point joko. I was just saying that in real life Hitler didn't speak English at all. So they've had to 'pretend' he did, for the purposes of the film. Since they're pretending, they can pretend anything they like. As andy said, they've decided to pretend they spoke without accents because they think that is easiest for audiences to follow.

[joko]

yes i realise thats what they have done, but why...? i dont see that having that distinctive german 'twang' make things harder to undertsand.

i understand doing it in english was necessary for the internded audience, but a slight accent would make no difefrence other than to add some semblance of authenticity....it is expected that germans that learn english speak it in a certain accent

if hitler ever spoke english he would have had a german accent.

i do not understand your point about my choice of british english with german accent or amercian english with german accent... neither is better and neither was used in valkyrie
that choice of accent was made by the actor playing the role presumably

it just seems lazy to me and odd to just say to the cast - forget that you are meant to be german at all and speak like a brit or an american...

i work in films an i have never heard of any accent being lost to aid audience comperhension...lessened maybe..but not lost completely

[mike11111]

Far from adding authenticity it would do the exact opposite and, as has been pointed out elsewhere on this thread, sound like something straight out of 'Allo Allo!' Foreign accents should only be used where the character is speaking English which is not his first language. That IS authentic. Would you want to sit through a film such as Dr Zhivago or Anna Karenina, where every line was spoken in a Russian accent?

[society]

Good point Mike. Omg imaging how utterly boring it would be to sit through a film with the entire language spoken in 'Allo Allo' dialect and accent! (-:

[Backdrifter]

I agree with the above - it makes me cringe to see those old war films in which German officers conversing with each other do so in German-accented English. I genuinely don't get why you think that would be better, I think it's silly. You do mean when they speak with each other, don't you? Not when speaking to English or American characters?

One of my favourite films is Conspiracy, showing the senior figures in Nazi Germany formulating the basis of the Holocaust. It's just a bunch of men around a table, talking, and is riveting. They too adopt the approach of everyone just speaking 'normally'. If they all adopted German accents, it would be near-unwatchable for me.

The idea is that, as with many things in films, we use our imaginations to accept they are speaking German to each other. The use of a cod accent is then not necessary.

I did want to see Valkyrie when it came out but never got around to it.

[jno]

joko, ignore my bit about British/American English, I did misunderstand you there. But I stick with the rest of it, as I said and others have: German accents would be distracting to the audience. (This is especially so for UK audiences, who are accustomed to accents being seen as 'funny' thanks to Allo Allo.)

Basically what the actors are playing are people who speak their own language without an accent. So that's what we hear too. I think - once you've decided not to film it in German - that's an authentic approach.

[jackthehat]

Have you ever seen 'Alexander' with Colin Farrell ?
I hadn't realised that the man who had conquered most of the known world by the time he was 32 (and his father, Philip of Macedon) had a strong Irish brogue.........
It was quite discombobulating to watch the film and try to ignore the weird variety of accents being used (and *yes* I have read the reasons/excuses for it) and remain 'invested' in the film.
Far better that the actors had all tried to speak reasonably unaccented English.....

[missnemesis]

Considering this is a film and not a documentary it is obviously easy for the viewer to 'believe' that during the movie Tom Cruise is in fact Hitler so why not also his accent or lack thereof?

Anyone who thinks actors should use accents other than their own need only watch Braveheart! 180 minutes of this pitiful attempt at a Scottih accent was painful to listen to and did indeed distract from my (and plenty others) enjoyment of the film.

If you can believe he's Hitler then believe he's German.

[jno]

jack, being discombobulated by a man with a strange accent was the point of Alexander, so I thought that worked. Since it's not the point in Valkyrie it would just be a distraction

[Backdrifter]

Just out of interest:

@ jackthehat: "Far better that the actors had all tried to speak reasonably unaccented English"

- is there such a thing?

[whiskeryron]

Some of the most interesting & to me authentic films are those where the German ( or any other characters ) are speaking the language they are portraying with the translation in English printed underneath, this to me makes the film totally believable.

[jackthehat]

I mean without a 'Noo Joisey' twang, a Texan draaaaawl, an Irish tickle (or bark) or a Glaswegian gargle............:o)

'Highlander' is an odd film. Christopher Lambert (very French) plays a Scotsman........Sean Connery ('nuff said) plays an Egyptian.

Neither accent is a success...........

[yogi-bear]

American actor, Don Cheadle's botched up attempt at a cockney accent in the "Oceans" films ( 11, 12, and 13 ) is just plain embarrassing for any london cockney, and comes on a par with Dick Van Dyke's one in Mary Poppins ( well, ok...maybe not hat bad then )

Sean Connery seems to play the same accent in whatever film he's in whether he's supposed to be American, a Brit, Egyptian or Russian as in The Hunt For Red October........"We have a Sh1ituation"......lol

[jno]

always impresses me how people go on about how "unrealistic" Dick Van Dyke's accent was... in a film about a flying nanny.