How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name

[colinr0380]

It could be worse, I remember getting my pronunciations of Gaelic and Gallic mixed up interchangably for a while before someone gently corrected me on it!

[matrixschmatrix]

I once got corrected by a roomful of English Lit students in an upper-level course in college on my pronunciation of 'quixotic', which they universally insisted should be pronounced 'kee houtic'

[domino harvey]

I have nothing to contribute except to say that when I was a kid I thought the Jurassic Park author's name was pronounced Michael Crickton

[Feego]

On a similar note to some of the names above, Cate Blanchett's name is frequently (that is, pretty much always) mispronounced. Most people pronounce it blan-CHET or with a French twist, blon-SHET. The actress pronounces it BLAN-chit.

[knives]

With Sidney Lumet is it pronounced Lew-May or Lew-Met? I thought it was the former but on TCM they pronounced it as the later.

[domino harvey]

It's Loo-met

[knives]

Thanks, I wonder why I thought it was a silent t.

[Mr Sausage]

Thanks, I wonder why I thought it was a silent t.

Probably because it looks like it has a French origin (which I do believe is the case).

[Kirkinson]

I also thought it was Loo-MAY for many years. And then for several more I thought it was "LUMM-itt," thanks to a film studies instructor in college who pronounced it that way. I still mess up sometimes and use that one since I made such a conscious effort to pronounce it like that while I was in his class.

[MichaelB]

Thanks, I wonder why I thought it was a silent t.

Probably because it looks like it has a French origin (which I do believe is the case).

Which is an excellent opportunity to bring up Jules Dassin, mentioned only briefly at the very start of the thread in a post made nearly a decade ago.

When I shot the recent Thieves' Highway video piece with Frank Krutnik, there were loads of outtakes in which he kept pronouncing Dassin as though he was French, and then cracking up - because he knew that it was "Joolz Dassin" (with every consonant from the "J" to the "S" to the final "in" clearly enunciated, the last bit pronounced exactly like the English word "in"), but he'd rarely had cause to say it out loud before, so kept reverting to what sounded more convincing to his ears.

It's all Rififi's fault, of course - not least because it features Dassin himself onscreen speaking French. So why would his name not be pronounced "Zhool Dassan"? And has any French critic ever pronounced it any differently?

In actual fact, the surname is of Eastern European origin, not French, and his given first name was Julius - "Jules" was an abbreviation that stuck. And he was American, not French.

[Big Ben]

It's ROWE-BEAR BRESS-ON? Correct. I've always had problems with French names and wanted to double check.

[MichaelB]

First syllable is "rob", and the final "on" should sound authentically French.

[MichaelB]

Unless my search technique is at fault, István Szabó doesn't seem to have come up yet - and he's another one that's hard to remember because Hungarian pronunciation rules differ from those of surrounding countries. In Polish, for instance, "sz" is "sh", but in Hungarian it's a hard "s", and it's the letter that's written "s" that becomes "sh".

In other words, Ishtvahn Saboo (the final "ó" being slightly extended).

[Trees]

Boon-Well shows us how to make a dry martini. Shot on film!

[swo17]

Boon-ywell

[repeat]

In other words, Ishtvahn Saboo (the final "ó" being slightly extended).

That's funny, I was just wondering about this: how audible is the difference between the two different "a"-wovels? I've understood that the one without the accent should be slightly more "open"?

[MichaelB]

It's audible, but not as audible as the double-accented "ő" would be.

[ccfixx]

It's audible, but not as audible as the double-accented "ő" would be.

If no one is aware, Forvo.com is a great translation site, I've found, to help out with foreign names and titles. It allows users to upload their pronunciation of a particular word or phrase and it indicates the user's country of origin and their gender. Some words have many uploads so it's cool to hear a variety of dialects. Coincidentally, there's one upload for István Szabó from a Hungarian male. Click on the blue arrow next to the name to listen.

[knives]

Unless my search technique is at fault, István Szabó doesn't seem to have come up yet - and he's another one that's hard to remember because Hungarian pronunciation rules differ from those of surrounding countries. In Polish, for instance, "sz" is "sh", but in Hungarian it's a hard "s", and it's the letter that's written "s" that becomes "sh".

In other words, Ishtvahn Saboo (the final "ó" being slightly extended).

So like a Samyech?

[beamish13]

Anyone know the correct pronunciation of Jean-Jacques Beineix? I've seen him introduced as BY-NICE and BY-NESS.

[MichaelB]

"Bennex", I think, but that may not be reliable.

[Trees]

Boon-ywell

All these damn perfectionists around here.

[jindianajonz]

Boon-ywell

All these damn perfectionists around here.

I think you are looking for the "Close Approximations of Your Favorite Director's Name" thread.

[domino harvey]

"I was saying Boon-well"

[domino harvey]