I know, it is "just a movie" and scene was working up the tension, but I finally ended up laughing at her, "Hello? Hello? Hel-lo? Hell-o? He-llo?"
I say, "Hello?" when I answer the phone, and if I don't hear anything I say it one more time. If nothing, I just hang up.
I didn't see anything out of the ordinary about what she did....simply because I grew up watching my parents say "hello" about 20 times before finally hanging up the phone. It's ridiculous, but I guess I'm just used to it. I refuse to do it. I like to think that I have better phone manners than my parents do.
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Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen 🎇
I agree (although, in this age of auto-dialing telemarketers, I don't stay on long enough to give a second "hello"). Every time it comes on, I find myself shouting through the TV at Margot, "Enough! Hang up already!"
shareThought the same thing, also wondered as to if she was curious why he said nothing to her repetitive hello's when he was obviously the one calling since she spoke to him after she killed Swann. Also, since he said nothing, why (after she had just killed Swann) would she go to the phone and say "call the police" or whatever she said... as if someone was going to reply after all that silence, even though that turned out to be the case. Eh whatever, still enjoy the film.
shareThought the same thing, also wondered as to if she was curious why he said nothing to her repetitive hello's when he was obviously the one calling since she spoke to him after she killed Swann. Also, since he said nothing, why (after she had just killed Swann) would she go to the phone and say "call the police" or whatever she said... as if someone was going to reply after all that silence, even though that turned out to be the case. Eh whatever, still enjoy the film.
shareObviously you never had to deal with old-style British pay phones. :) The coin box was a separate unit, with a standard telephone wired to it. When you placed a call you deposited the coins. When the call was connected and you heard the "hello" you pushed a button to complete the connection and speak. Up until that point you could get your coins back -after you pushed the button the coins were not refundable. The whole thing was a rather complicated procedure, and as a result most British people were very patient while waiting for a caller's voice. Not at all unusual to say "hello" several times.
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Zaphod's just zis guy, you know?
Very true. I can (just about) remember those old style pay-phones. They were quite cumbersome and awkward to use, you'd put the coin in, dial the number and wait for the other side to answer and when they did you'd press the button and there would be a series of rapid beeps before you'd be connected. Sometimes the coin would be rejected and you'd have to rapidly search your pockets for another one and insert it before the beeps stopped otherwise the connection would fail and you'd have to start from the beginning again.
With this system in place it was not unusual for phone answerers to say hello several times before putting the phone down.
Another side effect of this system was that the continual beeping would drown out the answerer's response. When I'd pick up the phone in work, I'd answer it with 'Hello, Cleves Investments Ltd, can I help you' and nine times out of ten there would be a series of clicks and then a voice would say, 'Hello, is that Cleves Investments?
Phones were fun and games in those days!!!
My dad's 70 and he said when he was young, people often had to say "hello" multiple times when there was no answer because back then the phone connections weren't always that strong.
share