How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name

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Michael Kerpan
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#101 Post by Michael Kerpan » Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:37 pm

justeleblanc wrote:Bulle Ogier???
I believe --- Bool (rhymes with pool) Oh-zh(i)ay (not sure that is decipherable)

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orlik
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#102 Post by orlik » Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:47 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:
justeleblanc wrote:Bulle Ogier???
I believe --- Bool (rhymes with pool) Oh-zh(i)ay (not sure that is decipherable)
I think that's right - but, as a native English speaker, it's still hard not to look at her name and think 'bull ogler'. No disrespect, of course, to Rivette's muse and star of at least two of the best films ever made.

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justeleblanc
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#103 Post by justeleblanc » Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:54 pm

Thanks.... I'm seeing L'Amour fou this weekend with a friend, and we were totally lost as to how to pronounce her name.

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blindside8zao
Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2005 4:31 pm
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#104 Post by blindside8zao » Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:03 am

can someone tell me how to pronounce Wes Anderson for me?

By the way, all joking aside, do any other Americans find the Swedish pronunciation of Alexander to be far more exquisite sounding than an American pronunciation? Alex-sonder instead of sander?

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justeleblanc
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#105 Post by justeleblanc » Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:26 am

blindside8zao wrote:can someone tell me how to pronounce Wes Anderson for me?

By the way, all joking aside, do any other Americans find the Swedish pronunciation of Alexander to be far more exquisite sounding than an American pronunciation? Alex-sonder instead of sander?
Sure, but nothing beats a pronunciation by Werner Herzog.

Mise En Scene
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#106 Post by Mise En Scene » Fri Feb 02, 2007 10:50 pm

Fanciful Norwegian, thanks for the corrections regarding Thai and Vietnamese names and the rest of the info.

Lemmy Caution, thanks for the Yi Yi pronunciation.

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foggy eyes
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#107 Post by foggy eyes » Fri Feb 02, 2007 11:02 pm

Would anyone care to have a crack at Apichatpong Weerasethakul? (So far I've settled for "the guy who directed Tropical Malady" or "the Thai director, Joe".)

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#108 Post by Grimfarrow » Sat Feb 03, 2007 5:50 am

foggy eyes wrote:Would anyone care to have a crack at Apichatpong Weerasethakul? (So far I've settled for "the guy who directed Tropical Malady" or "the Thai director, Joe".)
Ah-pih-chaad-pong Weh-rah-seh-tah-kun

the "pong" part is the hardest to describe - it's not pronounced like the video game pong, but closer to the "ung" sound.

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foggy eyes
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#109 Post by foggy eyes » Sat Feb 03, 2007 2:39 pm

A big help, thank you!

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Arn777
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#110 Post by Arn777 » Sat Feb 03, 2007 7:11 pm

Re Bulle Ogier: Bulle doesn't rhyme with pool. it's a plain French U for which I don't think there is equivalent in English.

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Kinsayder
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#111 Post by Kinsayder » Sat Feb 03, 2007 9:24 pm

To get a French "u" you purse your lips into an "o" and say "e".

"Tu as vu le cul de Bulle?"

iangj
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#112 Post by iangj » Tue Feb 06, 2007 3:02 pm

Lemmy Caution wrote:Jia Zhang-ke = Jah Jahng Kuh
Jia: more like "Jyah" I think, otherwise it'll sound more like the pinyin zha (as in zha ji = fried chicken).

Ke: try "Keh", or, say, the first syllable of career. An English speaker will open his/her mouth too much with "Kuh".

mikeohhh
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#113 Post by mikeohhh » Tue Feb 06, 2007 3:05 pm

Kiarostami?

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dekadetia
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#114 Post by dekadetia » Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:54 pm

I found audio of the proper pronunciation of "Ingmar Bergman" at wikipedia. And I've heard John Woo call Tsui Hark "Choy Hock," but for all I know he was trying to insult him.

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Lemmy Caution
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#115 Post by Lemmy Caution » Thu Feb 08, 2007 2:10 am

dekadetia wrote:And I've heard John Woo call Tsui Hark "Choy Hock," but for all I know he was trying to insult him.
"Choy Hock" would be the Cantonese pronunciation, which is probably what Tsui Hark mostly uses.

I'm not sure of the Mandarin pronunciation without knowing the characters. I could guess on the family name, but no idea what "Hark" equals in Pinyin or what the actual Chinese character is.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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#116 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Thu Feb 08, 2007 8:35 pm

Wikipedia generally provides the original Chinese characters for Chinese names, along with the pinyin and (sometimes) Wade-Giles romanizations. (Tsui is å¾

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Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

#117 Post by Matt » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:17 am

ScreenLex: A Pronunciation Guide for Film/TV Studies has just been launched.

Yes, now everyone can speak like a film/TV professor!

ScreenLex contains pronunciations of key phrases and people's names from the
disciplines of film studies and television studies. Its items are available
in three ways:

1. As a podcast. Download them to your iPod or other mobile-audio device.
2. Online: Listen to them online at screenlex.org using a Flash-based
player.
3. As a downloaded MP3 file.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.screenlex.org

The first 30 pronunciations (see below) have just been released. More will
be added, on an irregular basis. Subscribe to ScreenLex's podcast to make
sure you catch each new item!

http://www.screenlex.org/podcast.php

Or, if you use iTunes, search for ScreenLex there, or go directly to

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSt ... =215516686

ScreenLex seeks suggestions for terms/names to be added to its collection.
We also seek native speakers in languages other than English that would
contribute (accurate!) pronunciations.

And, of course, we welcome corrections or alternative pronunciations!

ScreenLex is a free service of the Telecommunication and Film Department,
the University of Alabama. It is produced by Jeremy Butler and licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License.

If you'd like a flier to hand out to students or post somewhere (anywhere!),
please pull up this PDF file and print it:

http://www.screenlex.org/ScreenLexFlier_print.pdf

---- First 30 pronunciations ----

# anamorphic
# auteur theory
# Borzage, Frank
# bourgeoisie
# Brechtian performance
# camera obscura
# cardioid microphone
# chiaroscuro
# chroma key
# diegesis
# diegetic sound
# diegetic space
# distanciation
# kinescope
# kinetoscope
# lavaliere microphone
# mise-en-scene
# paradigmatic
# polysemy
# proletariat
# rotoscope
# segue
# semiotics
# simulacrum
# simulcast
# sync
# syntagmatic structure
# timbre
# verisimilitude
# videography

--
Jeremy Butler

www.ScreenLex.org
www.ScreenSite.org
www.TVCrit.com
www.AllThingsAcoustic.org

Professor - TCF Dept. - U Alabama

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Kinsayder
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#118 Post by Kinsayder » Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:32 pm

Howjsay is an audio pronouncing dictionary with some cinematic content. "Each word is individually pre-recorded and no form of synthetic speech is used." It seems to have most of the ScreenLex words, but with an English accent ("diegesis" is pronounced quite differently). Unfortunately it doesn't appear to have any proper names yet, though it'll offer the closest sounding word: I looked up "Brecht" and it said "erect". For "Hitchcock" it offered "spatchcock".

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Lemmy Caution
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#119 Post by Lemmy Caution » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:28 am

[quote="The Fanciful Norwegian"]Wikipedia generally provides the original Chinese characters for Chinese names, along with the pinyin and (sometimes) Wade-Giles romanizations. (Tsui is å¾

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foggy eyes
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#120 Post by foggy eyes » Mon May 14, 2007 4:04 am

I've scanned back through the thread, but can't find this one: Erice. Anyone?

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#121 Post by ByMarkClark.com » Mon May 14, 2007 8:53 am

Wow -- this is the best and most amusing thread on this forum in ages!

I don't think I can break the habit of pronouncing it KU-roe-SOW-ah, though. Sorry, Michael.

Now then. Ishiro Honda. Supposedly "Ishiro" is a more phonetically correct spelling than "Inoshiro." So how exactly is that one pronounced?

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Michael Kerpan
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#122 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon May 14, 2007 12:04 pm

The disjunction between the proper pronunciations of lots of four-syllable Japanese last names and the American ones is pretty striking. We really do like to make these all sing-songy.

Ishiro is probably straightforward -- I - shi - ro (with perhaps a tiny emphasis on the first syllable -- but no especially strong accent).

At least that's my guess.

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#123 Post by ByMarkClark.com » Tue May 15, 2007 1:39 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:Ishiro is probably straightforward -- I - shi - ro (with perhaps a tiny emphasis on the first syllable -- but no especially strong accent).
Good, then when I pronounce it EEE-she-row, I'm not mauling it too badly.

Cinesimilitude
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#124 Post by Cinesimilitude » Sun Jul 22, 2007 1:10 am

ok, Mike Leigh. Lee or Lay?

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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#125 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Sun Jul 22, 2007 3:58 am

Lee.

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