Rome

Sep. 11th, 2005 12:35 pm
graculus: (hero)
[personal profile] graculus
Just started watching Rome, which looks very entertaining already (and yes, I'm going to copy it for you, [livejournal.com profile] cycnus39 as I'm sure you'll be interested - alas, I will only have a couple of eps before we next meet but I'm sure the rest can follow).

For an HBO show, I find the casting quite entertaining - have to say Ciaran Hinds as Caesar is inspired. But did they just decide to only cast British actors? ;)

Date: 2005-09-11 11:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tenaya.livejournal.com
In my mind, Romans will always have an English accent; it's just one of those weird facts of life. ;-p

Date: 2005-09-11 11:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] graculus.livejournal.com
I guess it's the legacy of I, Claudius? ;)

Date: 2005-09-11 12:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] st-crispins.livejournal.com
No, it goes back even further than that. In Spartacus (1960) all the Romans are played by British actors, the slaves by American actors. I think it's true of Ben Hur as well.

"Patrician" in American culture means British. :)

Date: 2005-09-11 12:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] graculus.livejournal.com
Hmm. I hadn't thought about that where Spartacus is concerned, primarily because I suppose for me the default accent is English.

I guess it works the same way as Brits making the best villains? ;)

Date: 2005-09-11 01:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] st-crispins.livejournal.com
Oh yes. I was at a Pop Culture conference and someone delivered an excellent paper on the place of British-speaking character in SF.

Brits are often the villains, but they are stylish, intellectual ones. They can also be the paternal good guys ---as in The Day the Earth Stood Still. Michael Rennie is the alien.


Even after two centuries, you can see that our view of the 'mother' country is ambivalent, mixed. But then, even our Revolution was ambivalent as well.

Date: 2005-09-11 01:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] graculus.livejournal.com
And, after all, in movies such as Spartacus and Ben Hur, the Romans are the villains of the piece... doubly cursed to have a British accent! :P

Date: 2005-09-11 01:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tenaya.livejournal.com
The accent carries with it an innate authority and the assumption the speaker is of a higher class in your old colonies. And once you cast one Brit to be Caesar, you gotta make the accents all match, right?

But what about Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves? Does this mean they had to cast a Yank in the role of R. Hood because he was a lowly criminal??

Date: 2005-09-11 01:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] graculus.livejournal.com
Everyone knows that when there's a Brit villain, the American must be the hero! :P

Of course, the fact that none of the American heroes bar Morgan Freeman could act their way out of a paper bag is beside the point... ;)

Date: 2005-09-11 02:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tenaya.livejournal.com
Ah, but Morgan Freeman was a Moor, iirc. I was actually rooting for Alan Rickman to win to tell the truth.

And we don't supply American actors, we supply American STARS. Acting is not a requirement for a lead role over here. Who needs actors anyway, when there are Brits around? ;-)

Date: 2005-09-11 02:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] graculus.livejournal.com
Who needs actors anyway, when there are Brits around? ;-)

I think you hit the nail on the head there! :P

Date: 2005-09-11 01:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] st-crispins.livejournal.com
Actually, the villain in Ben Hur is played by an American, Stephen Boyd.

But in Spartacus, the Brits are classy villains, and Olivier's character does love his Rome and tho his failing is hubris, one can even see his POV.

Date: 2005-09-11 01:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] graculus.livejournal.com
Actually, Stephen Boyd was a Brit and didn't emigrate to the US till he was in his 20's.

And then of course there's the whole homoerotic subtext in Spartacus... ;)

Date: 2005-09-11 04:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] st-crispins.livejournal.com
Oh wow. I didn't know that about Boyd. He sounded American in the movie.

RE: subtext.

Oh yeah. What do they say in that scene? Snail and oysters or something like that?

Date: 2005-09-11 04:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] graculus.livejournal.com
I didn't realise till I went looking: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Boyd

Yep, they talk about oysters and snails in the famous bath scene, nothing more. And it's still too provocative for the audience of the time. ;)

Date: 2005-09-11 03:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] atdelphi.livejournal.com
I've heard - I believe in the 'making of' special, that they decided to cast all British actors because they wanted to show the Roman class system via the accents. And since, unfortunately, they didn't film in Latin (*g*), they figured that the 'hierarchy' of British accents would make things clearer.

Date: 2005-09-11 04:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] graculus.livejournal.com
Which may work for people over here (I know, it's joint funded by the good old Beeb) but I'm not sure that the majority of Americans watching are necessarily going to be able to pick up the subtle differences between the accents of Kenneth Cranham and David Bamber. ;)

Still, I've watched and enjoyed the first two eps and am keen for more! :)

Date: 2005-09-12 02:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tenaya.livejournal.com
Since it was joint funded by the BBC, is it airing in the UK now? Or did they let HBO have a head start in televising it?

Date: 2005-09-12 05:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] graculus.livejournal.com
It's due to air over here sometime mid-October, I believe...

Date: 2005-09-11 07:52 pm (UTC)
cycnus39: (CaesPomp)
From: [personal profile] cycnus39
Yay! :-)

Date: 2005-09-11 08:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] graculus.livejournal.com
Not as pretty as that, sorry!

Date: 2005-09-11 09:35 pm (UTC)
cycnus39: (Default)
From: [personal profile] cycnus39
Boo :-(

Date: 2005-09-13 12:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] penfold-x.livejournal.com
I remember watching a biography of Telly Sevalis, in which he relates the story of when he was working on some (cannot remember) roman epic pic and the director ragged on him to speak with a British accent. Despite pointing out that the romans did not speak english, so the matter of the accent was entirely bogus, the director would have none of it. Apparently, Hollywood is convinced the nothing says 'ancient Rome' like a British accent. Uh, yeah.

But I do buy that to be a truly cool villian, you have to have a british accent. :P

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