How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name

[MichaelB]

I'm a little surprised that there is not one person at BFI with good knowledge of one Slavic tongue, as then it wouldn't really be difficult; since, even if the endings differ, the system is the same and thus mostly easy to determine the name, even in another language.

The word "mostly" is the giveaway!

[Solaris]

day-ved hair

[harry]

What about Dusan Makavejev?

[MichaelB]

Not gospel, but Dooshan Makavye-ev has always worked for me.

[aox]

Dreyer

is it 'Drayer' (rhymes with Tray and Day)

or 'Dryer' (rhymes with Fry and By)

[swo17]

I believe the way it's actually pronounced is way off from both of those, but here in America dammit, we just say "Dryer."

I know Ordet is actually pronounced something like OH EHDT, inflected like that Michael Jackson-voiced, masked blob from Spirited Away. But I'll be damned if I'm ever going to say it that way.

My apologies for all the damn swearing.

[mikkelmark]

Wikipedia is your friend. The links are for audio of Ordet pronounced is (and I can verify it is spot on, and without doubt recorded by a dane):
Ordet

Unfortunately there is no such voice on wiki for pronouncing Dreyer. I have been thinking for like 10 minutes about it now, and I do not think the sounds exists in english, or I am just not very good with english phonetics. If you have the criterion "My Metier" dvd, then go to "interview excerpts"->"Henning Bendtsen", there you can hear how it is said in danish. Maybe if someone else who is native english, can translate it into english phonetics. Also the ways ive seen with 'drayer' and 'dryer' both seems almost right. Where the 'drayer' would be kinda like some very old danish persons would say it, and the 'dryer' would be the more usual i think.

[domino harvey]

Casper Tybjerg pronounces it in his Dreyer commentaries

[martin]

Danes pronounce the 'Drey' part of Dreyer like the German word drei (three).

I don't know if that helps but at least German speaking members get an idea of the pronouncing. The tips given by mikkelmark and domino harvey are also useful if you have the dvd-releases.

[Peacock]

How did he pronounce his name Theodore? Would it be - Tay-o-door or Thay-o-door or Thee-o-door?

[mikkelmark]

How did he pronounce his name Theodore? Would it be - Tay-o-door or Thay-o-door or Thee-o-door?

It is Tea-o-door the h is silent in danish.

[unclehulot]

At least he wasn't talking about marmalade!

Of course he's not the only American commentator to mangle French pronunciations.

TCM's Robert Osborne pronouncing the director of "A Trip to the Moon" George Meleeze" would certainly be up there in that category!

[MichaelB]

At least Fritz Lang is virtually impossible to mispronounce, even if you actually try.

[jbaart]

At least Fritz Lang is virtually impossible to mispronounce, even if you actually try.

How's that? I'm not good at phonetics but if you pronounce him like land with a g that's certainly wrong. Can't properly explain how the correct German pronounciation would sound, sorry.

[Jonathan S]

A fastidious (American) friend of mine insists on pronouncing "Lang" differently according to whether we are discussing his German or American films.

[MichaelB]

A fastidious (American) friend of mine insists on pronouncing "Lang" differently according to whether we are discussing his German or American films.

Yes, I pronounce Hitchcock as 'Eetchcock' when discussing Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache. I'm sure it's what he would have wanted.

[Florinaldo]

A fastidious (American) friend of mine insists on pronouncing "Lang" differently according to whether we are discussing his German or American films.

Like people who insist on writing Handel or Haendel depending on whether they are talking about the British or German periods in his life.

At least he wasn't talking about marmalade!

Of course he's not the only American commentator to mangle French pronunciations.

TCM's Robert Osborne pronouncing the director of "A Trip to the Moon" George Meleeze" would certainly be up there in that category!

Looks dangerously close to the "mélasse", the French for molasses, or perhaps to "mélèze", the larch tree.

[HerrSchreck]

Or those obsessive compulsive nitpickers who insist upon calling Gordon Sumner "Sting" whenever he merely picks up a bass in public. How frigging over-the-top is that?

At least he wasn't talking about marmalade!

We sing our marmalade references around here.

[denti alligator]

A fastidious (American) friend of mine insists on pronouncing "Lang" differently according to whether we are discussing his German or American films.

I used to do that... Now I just switch depending on whether I'm speaking English or German, or speaking to English-speakers or German-speakers. It's more natural that way.

Now, back to the box. What a beauty! God bless MoC!

[knives]

Just seeing if I get five dollars. Lang would technically be pronounced long because of the umlaut over the A, correct?

[mikkelmark]

Just seeing if I get five dollars. Lang would technically be pronounced long because of the umlaut over the A, correct?

There's no umlaut over the a in in Fritz Lang.

[Tommaso]

Just seeing if I get five dollars. Lang would technically be pronounced long because of the umlaut over the A, correct?

A good title for a new documentary, then, would be "Le crime de Monsieur Lang"....

[knives]

Just seeing if I get five dollars. Lang would technically be pronounced long because of the umlaut over the A, correct?

There's no umlaut over the a in in Fritz Lang.

Are you sure, I remember one in the credits for M?

[TMDaines]

You wouldn't necessarily pronounce the vowel sound produced by the "ä" long anyway. There are both long and short vowel sounds represented by "ä" as in Mädchen (long) or Männer (short), but as the "ä" would be followed by a "n" it would be pronounced short.

For anyone interested here is how you would pronounce "Lang". It is the first word spoken in this clip: http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~joyce1/abini ... dio/70.mp3

[MichaelB]

There's no umlaut over the a in in Fritz Lang.

Are you sure, I remember one in the credits for M?

Fritz Lang absolutely categorically does not have an umlaut anywhere in his name. I've rarely been more certain about anything.