środa, 18 stycznia 2012

On foreign accents in American motion pictures

Every film genre has its set of qualities which immediately help us recognize it. A genre is something that we like or not, and if we fall in love with one we want more and more of it despite the recurring structures, since in movies champions of structuralism should feel at home more than in literature or other arts, similar characters and predictable ending. In truth, if a director proposes something that is not typical of the genre, the viewer feels strongly disappointed.

Beside the differences that make us tell one genre from another, there are also features which are typical of particular period in the history of cinema, e.g. the music of the 1960s is immediately recognizable because it is different from that of the 1970s. We can also talk about some characteristics of French cinematic productions, German films and American or Hollywood motion pictures. The latter is more often than not criticized by people pretending to have more sophisticated tastes than a common mortal on the grounds that Hollywood releases just commercial pulp. Even if I can agree with this judgment, simultaneously I must admit that these commercial pulp is a very good commercial pulp. I hardly ever expect Fellini or Bergman from Hollywood. What I really know I’ll see is Spielberg, Scorsese or another director who does not try to operate with scarce yet artistically miraculous means of expression but will use the well-known stars, opulent decorations (if necessary), breathtaking scenery and special effects which nobody in the world cannot apply better than the Americans. What is more, commercial cinema may be good or bad and it is something we should bear in mind too.

American movies have, however, one idiosyncrasy that I cannot understand I do not really want to understand. I mean English with a foreign accent spoken by foreigners who are supposed to speak their mother tongue. I understand perfectly well a scene where a Russian in America tries to speak English but does it with a Russian accent. This requires no explanation since it is natural. However, when two actors play, for example, two Russian government members who certainly speak Russian (why should they speak English between each other?), actually speak English with a Russian accent, it sounds ridiculous. It would be much better to put Russian words in their mouths and place English subtitles than force them to speak English with a foreign accent. The effect is an impression that the Russian dignitaries cannot speak any language properly.

Hollywood directors are said to look for immigrants or actors from other countries to play foreigners in their pictures because their funny English sounds more natural then. Why should it, however, sound foreign? If a Polish director were to shoot a scene of a Polish film where, for instance, two American detectives speak to each other in Polish but with an American accent, everybody would take it as a comedy. First, because English-speakers using Polish sound much funnier than native speakers of other languages, and second, because the first association the Polish viewer may have is a Pole from a village in the sticks returning home after a year in the US and showing off with his American accent. A foreign accent gives an impression that its user just could not learn the target language correctly whereas foreigners depicted in movies are supposed to speak their mother tongue perfectly well. To my liking the actors speaking with a foreign accent produce an unintended humorous effect.

All in all, it is just my subjective observation. As a foreigner with little cultural awareness I may not understand certain nuances of this enormous umbrella genre called Hollywood motion pictures.

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