Author Topic: Movies I Love to Listen To: Dialects and Accents (Read 26111 times)

mouser · « **on:** April 01, 2011, 09:43 AM »

I have a low tolerance for re-watching movies.. Usually after I see a movie I won't ever want to watch it again.

But there is an exception to this rule -- there are certain movies where just listening to the actors speak is extremely enjoyable because of the dialects or accents.

I thought maybe we could have a thread and share our lists of movies that we love to listen to because of dialects and accents.

A few to start us off:

Blood Diamond
True Grit (2010 version; great cowboy language)
Fargo
Gone Baby Gone (Boston Accents)
Glengary Glen Ross

Note: the imdb trailers seem to be completely unhelpful as examples of why these movies are nice to listen to, so don't judge them based on that.

phitsc · « **Reply #1 on:** April 01, 2011, 10:04 AM »

I've just seen True Grit last weekend and have to agree. That movie came to my mind when I read your topic title. A European classic concerning cool dialect is Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis. It's a French movie.

nosh · « **Reply #2 on:** April 01, 2011, 10:14 AM »

I remember this bit from The Usual Suspects cracking me up. [NSFW] In English, please!

CWuestefeld · « **Reply #3 on:** April 01, 2011, 12:12 PM »

Much as I wish I could hate him, I think Brad Pitt is a phenomenal actor. I think the speech patterns he used in the movie Snatch were fascinating.

Also, I'm continually amazed by Eric Idle's ability to gush forth enormous amounts of text, almost a monologue, while smoothly inserting wordplay into it. I can't imagine the amount he must have rehearsed. See for example, Monty Python's Travel Agent Sketch. (Transcribed here)

40hz · « **Reply #4 on:** April 01, 2011, 12:53 PM »

+1 for Fargo and Glengary Glen Ross

I'd probably add

Shakespeare in Love - it's the Bard after all!
The Number 23 - some of the best narrative voice-overs
The Usual Suspects- something about that back and forth between Kevin Spacey and Chazz Palminteri
Serenity - gotta love that neo-antebellum dialect spoken in Josh Whedon's 'Verse
Chocolat - as pleasant to listen to as it is to watch. Binoche, Olin, Moss and Dench all in the same film? Plus Sally Taylor-Isherwood doing the voiceovers? What's not to like? (Great soundtrack which includes some fine Gypsy jazz guitar if you're a Django Reinhardt fan too!)

nudone · « **Reply #5 on:** April 01, 2011, 01:49 PM »

Dead Man's Shoes - es th all talk lek wot i do.

tomos · « **Reply #6 on:** April 01, 2011, 02:35 PM »

Dead Man's Shoes - es th all talk lek wot i do.
-nudone (April 01, 2011, 01:49 PM)

Looks good - or more to the point, sounds good

mouser · « **Reply #7 on:** April 01, 2011, 02:42 PM »

If you like listening to british accents and wonderful natural dialog, it's extremely hard to beat Mike Leigh.

Abigail's Party:

zridling · « **Reply #8 on:** April 01, 2011, 05:02 PM »

I'll start with the French doing French accents, just because I was married to Catherine Deneuve in another life:

-- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) [her wardrobe was so colorful, too]
-- Belle de Jour (1967)
-- My Fair Lady (1964) [Audrey Hepburn delivered Cockney and RP with aplomb]
-- Peter Sellers schools us all in Dr. Strangelove (1964) [YouTube clip]

Good accents:
- Minnie Driver
- Hugh Laurie
- Kelly Macdonald
- Craig Ferguson imitating Sean Connery

Accents I hate:
- Just about any American trying to pull English, Welsh, Scottish, or Irish accents. (They don't even try after starting out badly.)
- Non-southern people trying to do Southern (American) accents. They're never as hickish as in the movies.
- Anything by Keanu Reeves, Kevin Costner, Nicholas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Greg Kinnear, Robert Downey, Jr.

Deozaan · « **Reply #9 on:** April 01, 2011, 05:10 PM »

The funniest accent I ever heard in person was from a friend of a friend. He was raised in Turkey but living in the USA, and he did an impression of The Crocodile Hunter: "Crikey! Ain't she a beauty!"

It was so funny to hear someone with a Turkish accent try to impersonate an Australian accent.

40hz · « **Reply #10 on:** April 01, 2011, 06:20 PM »

I was married to Catherine Deneuve in another life
-zridling (April 01, 2011, 05:02 PM)

Awesome!

(Now if you'll just pass that bottle of white lightning you're drinking on over to me so I can take a swig, I'll tell you all about that night with Angelina Jolie which netted me a chronic back problem, bad limp, and several tattoos...)

Yeah right!

zridling · « **Reply #11 on:** April 03, 2011, 11:50 PM »

(Now if you'll just pass that bottle of white lightning you're drinking on over to me so I can take a swig, I'll tell you all about that night with Angelina Jolie which netted me a chronic back problem, bad limp, and several tattoos...)
-40hz (April 01, 2011, 06:20 PM)

I won't lie: it was only while she was young and uber-hawt. But she was lovely.

TheQwerty · « **Reply #12 on:** April 04, 2011, 06:05 AM »

I'm gonna add In Bruges.

Colin Farrell and Brendan Glesson using their normal Irish accents.
Ralph Fiennes in there too (though I'm not recalling his voice at the moment).
And, in case the title didn't give it away, it's set in and filmed in beautiful Bruges, Belgium.

However, it's not one to leave on when the kids (or strangers) are around:

The "F"-word and its derivatives are said 126 times in this 107-minute film, an average of 1.18 times per minute.
-IMDB Trivia

JennyB · « **Reply #13 on:** April 04, 2011, 06:40 AM »

+1 for Fargo and Glengary Glen Ross

I'd probably add

Shakespeare in Love - it's the Bard after all!
The Number 23 - some of the best narrative voice-overs
The Usual Suspects- something about that back and forth between Kevin Spacey and Chazz Palminteri
Serenity - gotta love that neo-antebellum dialect spoken in Josh Whedon's 'Verse
Chocolat - as pleasant to listen to as it is to watch. Binoche, Olin, Moss and Dench all in the same film? Plus Sally Taylor-Isherwood doing the voiceovers? What's not to like? (Great soundtrack which includes some fine Gypsy jazz guitar if you're a Django Reinhardt fan too!)

-40hz (April 01, 2011, 12:53 PM)

I haven't seen The Number 23, but I agree with all the rest. Chocolat is one of my all-time favourites. Strange how with just a little change in the direction it could have been a real chiller.

I haven't seen the recent True Grit either, but I can quote ad nauseam from the John Wayne version! Likewise The Shootist and The Quiet Man (though any resemblance to an authentic Irish accent there is purely coincidental.

It's not so much the dialect, more the delight in the formality and rhythm of language. The Magnificent Seven (the original, not the cheesy sequels) is another I could listen to over and over.

What else? Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, The African Queen. Any number of Thirties "screwball" comedies, but especially Bringing up Baby, His Girl Friday, and The Philadelphia Story. Scaramouche. Kiss Me Kate. West Side Story.

I suppose I'm just hooked on the oldies, but I must mention a couple more recent but in the same mould: The Princess Bride (of course!) and the magnificent Cyrano de Bergerac with Gerard Depardieu (in French, but the best /ever/ subtitles - by Anthony Burgess, no less!).

40hz · « **Reply #14 on:** April 05, 2011, 01:56 AM »

I'm gonna add In Bruges.
-TheQwerty (April 04, 2011, 06:05 AM)

Excellent excellent excellent choice.

Chocolat is one of my all-time favourites. Strange how with just a little change in the direction it could have been a real chiller.
-JennyB (April 04, 2011, 06:40 AM)

Wow! What an intriguing idea. And you're absolutely right. Just a tiny change would do it. Hmm...

What else? Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, The African Queen. Any number of Thirties "screwball" comedies, but especially Bringing up Baby, His Girl Friday, and The Philadelphia Story. Scaramouche. Kiss Me Kate. West Side Story.

All superb. Love that stilted 30s pseudo-posh dialect and accent that AFAIK was never spoken by any American except while on the silver screen.

Bringing Up Baby is one of my all-time favs. The fictitious Riverdale was based on New Canaan CT, a few towns over from where I live too!

I was just thinking, you could also add Desk Set. The dialog and diction in the exchanges between Hepburn and Tracy are priceless.

brahman · « **Reply #15 on:** May 16, 2011, 11:11 AM »

British accents so interesting, the English sound track had to have English subtitles:

Snatch

Unfortunately a lot of violence but off-beat funny.

Not only British speak, but also Irish, British/Irish-Gypsy, Jiddish-English, Italo-American, Jive, Pig-Speak and a few I probably forgot.

Best watched using VLC with which you can easily jump back and slow down

.

40hz · « **Reply #16 on:** May 16, 2011, 02:32 PM »

Just recently saw The Boys & Girl from County Clare.

Sweet little comedy with superb (real) Irish accents. So authentic I sometimes had a little trouble following a few of the more passionate and rapid dialog exchanges.

Colm Meaney and Bernard Hill are perfect as two estranged brothers who have dragged their lifelong sibling musical rivalry to new heights of ridiculousness and banter. And the ever lovely and musically brilliant Andrea Corr (of The Coors fame) is superb as Anne, 'the girl' in the title. Now that I've heard her speak more than a few sentences at a time, I can't decide if I'd rather listen to her fiddle playing - or her voice.

katykaty · « **Reply #17 on:** May 19, 2011, 02:56 PM »

British accents so interesting, the English sound track had to have English subtitles:

Snatch

Unfortunately a lot of violence but off-beat funny.

-brahman (May 16, 2011, 11:11 AM)

Or you can watch the same movie here in just a minute and 40 seconds

mouser · « **Reply #18 on:** August 24, 2011, 11:24 AM »

Great southern accent movie:
http://movies.netfli...Corndog_Man/60035068

40hz · « **Reply #19 on:** August 24, 2011, 12:48 PM »

Have to add in The Medicine Man.

Movies I Love to Listen To: Dialects and Accents

Sean Connery doing Sean Connery - and the (then) young Lorraine Bracco as Dr. Rea Crane complete with a "Noo Yawk" Bronx accent to die for.