MAJOR GOOF IN THE SCENE W/ LORD DE GUISE

De Guis is supposed to have a wicked, almost supernatural aura about him. A lot of his mannerisms are extremely subtle, but old-school villain traits.

His narrow chin is straight Victorian Era Phrenology. Phrenologists believed that the shape of the head reflected the shape of the brain, which reflected character traits. A narrow chin is supposed to indicate weak morals.

Not a single shot shows his head perfectly vertical. This implies that the man is "Crooked" in every way, perhaps even "not straight," or "Spineless."

They've also used a lot of stock Villain filming techniques.

Several times, De Guis is shown walking away from Nicholas, and then in the very next shot, he's face-to-face with Nicholas. This is classic Dracula, and is supposed to subconsciously bother the viewers, by making them feel as if the man can be everywhere, or has eyes in the back of his head. This works best if the other character reacts with a little surprise at having the villain in his face again, but occasionally, it will be done without that, in the hopes that it will only register on a subliminal level with the viewers.

His words, and mouth might have intentionally been placed out of synch. If this is done subtly, the viewers will register it subliminally, but not consciously, and get the impression that the villain is speaking directly into their brains. Of course, if you REALLY catch it, it changes from creepy, and atmospheric to silly, and bad editing.

You'll also notice that De Guis embraces Nicholas THREE times just before leaving the chambers. This is to emphasise the fact that Nicholas has been stabbed, but in a medieval movie, the triple take seems a bit excessive.

All of this final dialogue seems somewhat hastily put together. Probably their budget was running short, and they had to get going soon for some reason. It's also possible that some major construction, or other loud events were going on during the actual filming, and that everthing was dubbed. Dubbing work these days is getting pretty good, but in lower budget films, serious flaws can occur.

Maybe it was intentional for a creepy effect. More likely, it was a casualty of budget, perhaps one of the reasons this film hardly saw the light of day.

Talking without moving his lips is for dramatic effect?

It's obvious that the scene was edited like this on purpose. It made the character of Lord De Guise appear sinister and gave the scene a slightly supernatural twist.

if it was a goof, it was pretty noticable...BUT I don't think it was....like a few posts have said already....i think it was for dramatic effect!!!

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