I'm always fascinated by foreign accents. As an American, Fassbender sounds like he speaks perfect German and I can't pick up on a particular accent. Is it just a slight accent that the other Germans pick up on? Or very noticeable to German ears? Could it be compared to as American vs. Australian accents?
shareYour question is even complicated by the fact that Fassbender was born in Germany, raised mostly in England. His first language is English and second German. So Fassbender most likely actually has an authentic German accent. Maybe he altered it for the role to sound a bit off??
..*.. TxMike ..*..
Make a choice, to take a chance, to make a difference.
He could've altered it but I'm not sure. I'm thinking that maybe his German has a British sound to it and maybe that's what the other Germans picked up on.
shareThe other German's found out he wasn't German by the way he ordered 3 beers. He rose up his index, middle and ring finger rather than his thumb, index and middle finger (the German sign for 3)
I didn't pick up on that beautifully subtle detail until I saw the Cinefix video.
[deleted]
>until I saw the Cinefix video.
But they point it out in the movie, Ms. Hammersmark explains it when the vet is working on her leg.
You can't assume things that the movie does not support. They picked him off by the fingers, not his accent, because he, and she, talked about how people from that mountain have a strange accent.
shareHis accent was what first arose suspicion though and the three fingers thing only confirmed what they originally suspected.
shareMichael Fassbender moved from Germany to Southern Ireland, not England. It may seem like a small mistake, but my best advice would be to never refer to someone from Southern Ireland as either English or British to their face. There is a possibility that they could get very hot under the collar.
According the to trivia on for this film, he considers German to be his first language and English his second.
Fassbender was actually brought up in the Republic of Ireland, not the UK.
Not sure about his authentic German accent, but I was thinking that when his character was challenged in the bar, he should've said that he was was of those overseas ethnic Germans that answered the call to return to the Reich. Think of that American German POW in the 2nd episode of Band of Brothers.
Fassbender was actually brought up in the Republic of Ireland, not the UK.
Not sure about his authentic German accent, but I was thinking that when his character was challenged in the bar, he should've said that he was was of those overseas ethnic Germans that answered the call to return to the Reich. Think of that American German POW in the 2nd episode of Band of Brothers.
The Volksdeutsche were organized in separate units, so it wouldn't make sense for Fassbender to hang out with German subordinates. Given that this film takes place in 1944, that would give Fassbender just 4 years to reach the rank of captain. That would in itself be noteworthy, if not impossible. So while it would explain his peculiar accent, it would raise a number of other questions that would be even harder to parry.
shareNobody said he was Volksdeutche. He could have joined up well before the outbreak of the war. Shortly after the Nazi's came to power in '33.
shareI'm from Germany and his accent was clearly hearble (?), ähh so a german would notice it. ^^
his accent sounds like an American who learned German ^.^
I think that sort of makes the point someone had above that he may have altered his German accent somewhat, as he is not an American who learned German. That said, I am born and raised in the States and I was told that when I speak French I sound African.
If you had used proper grammar, I wouldn't have had to correct you.
"when I speak French I sound African."
did you call the nurse?
I'm a native German speaker and what are you talking about? American? Doesn't sound like that at all.
His German is grammatically flawless, but it sounds like he is struggling just a little bit while talking. It's not a thick accent at all, but something sounds off and weird. He gets away with it by claiming its a weird accent from a little village which nobody ever heard of, which obviously wouldn't work if he had a thick American (why American, he's supposed to be English and Fassbender isn't American either) accent.
Upon re-watches, & granted bias from knowing, I start to hear a more deliberate accent than one naturally flowing.
We're talking about a guy repping as a Nazi officer, not some jabroni. Of course the suspicion is warranted.
[deleted]
[deleted]
Fassy was born in Germany by Irish parents. So he would absolutely have a "German-foreign accent".
But fassy also said that he hasn't spoke German for a while before shooting Basterds, so it fitted the film well with him being suspect.
A very similar event also happened to me in Germany. The only difference isthat it occurred 30 years after the war. I was riding with two Germans in a car as a hitchhiker, and after several minutes of conversation one said to me that he could not put his finger on what part of Germany I came from, and that he thought he distinguished a very slight French accent. I was born in Montreal, spoke German with my mother until the age of five, then went to French school, picked up English from my mother's friends. I can "fake" a Berliner accent for about 15 seconds, but then a "je ne sais quoi" becomes "spuerbar", and the SS would shoot me. Yes, there is something a bit off in Fassbinder's accent, it seems to be lacking in the Umgangssprache, in the colloquial; it's very hard to imitate as it is injected with deep emotional colours.
shareHis German is too perfect, too flat. No German speaks like that in everyday conversation. It's obvious.
shareYes "flat" is the word. Even a cold-hearted Himmler type would have more colour and "harmonics" in his speech.
sharethis was the comment a few friends have made as well.
it just doesn't sound like conversational German.
I thought he had a rather obvious British accent while speaking German.
shareWhile Fassbender speaks very, very good German (especially for a foreigner with English as his first language), his accent is still pretty strong and would've been very noticeable to a German native speaker. Some sentences/words are almost flawless, but others clearly mark him as a non-native speaker.
I'm pretty sure that if he lived in Germany for a while and spoke nothing but German, he would eventually be able to pass as a native speaker. But his German in "Basterds" wasn't quite good enough for that.
I might have bought the first group of soldiers not noticing the accent since they were drunk/partying. But the SS-officer falling for his "I come from a small village where everyone talks like this"-story was pretty laughable. Then again, he probably never fell for it at all, so ... :)
S.
I think the SS Major (Hellstrom) had his doubts, but the Piz Palu story was just plausible enough for him to accept. Plus MF was actually with the famous actress Bridget von Hammersmark, and Hellstrom knew that there definitely was a movie premiere, as he was involved in the initial security checks. So i think that despite his initial misgivings, he was going to let it pass. The finger gesture was the final trigger that confirmed his suspicions. You can see this on his face as he looks at it.
A brilliant scene all round.
Agreed. I took enough German in an American high school and college, LONG ago, that I had no trouble following the German (with subtitles to help). To me, everyone who spoke German (besides the actor playing Hitler) seemed to speak just a tad slow and enunciate everything a little more clearly than native speakers might normally do in a conversation. Almost like they were trying to be extra comprehensible and synched with the subtitles. That's always my sense of it.
As for Fassbinder's German, it seemed even more so like the above than the others. Almost like he trying really hard to speak flawless German, so much so that it comes off just a little too stilted and polished. As the poster above stated, his bizarre explanation of his accent, complete with super-detail about the movie scene, combined with his being present with two other (supposed) SS officers who clearly were native an Hammersmark, made it just sufficiently plausible to go with it...until his heightened suspicions were confirmed.
I took that as the director trying to further the image of the Germans as being so clear, conscientious and detailed - even in their speaking. The movie was kind of a throwaway, but I really enjoyed it because there were so many amazingly clever and funny scenes with suspense even more than a Hitchcock movie, and then contrasting that with absurd humor.
Gorlommy .... En-riiiiccccoooo Gorlommy