It's the Oscar front-runner and a box-office hit, an outcome never anticipated by stars Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush when they signed on to the period film about [1] a stammering royal.
Colin Firth has spent the last three months bopping between continents, chatting and chewing through a whole mess of chicken dinners and vacuuming up awards for his work as the royal searching for a voice in "The King's Speech." If this sounds like fun [2], consider [3] how Firth greets his "King's Speech" costar, Geoffrey Rush, a man who has just scrubbed off his makeup after performing [4] a matinee show of "Diary of a Madman" in Sydney and flown [5] 15 hours to Los Angeles [6] to attend the Golden Globes.
[1] Apropå about. Skillnaden mellan A book about Africa och a book on Africa; i det senare fallet menar man att det är en seriös/akademisk bok om Afrika, passande specialister.
[2] Fun 'skämt, upptåg, skoj'. De två orden fun och funny kan vara svåra att hålla ordning på
skriver Jan och Rikard Svartvik i sin handbok i engelska. "När svenskar menar 'det var kul!´säger de ofta That was funny! 'Det var konstigt!' i stället för That was fun!".
[3] Consider kommer från latinets con tillsammans och sidus star > ung. betrakta och beundra stjärnorna
[4] Performance 'utförande, prestation'. Ett ord som vi (80-talet) har lånat till svenskan, men som vi endast använder om konstnärliga framträdanden. Det ersätter ofta det tidigare låneordet happening (60-talet), egentligen 'händelse', men happening kan involvera publiken på ett eller annat sätt, vilket inte behöver vara fallet med performance.Ett annat begrepp för händelse, event (90-talet) blir ett begrepp för större händeser.
"To think, I was in a chair this morning, putting on illegal amounts of makeup," Rush tells Firth, pulling up a patio seat at the Four Seasons at Beverly Hills. He's wearing a black fedora, owing to the shaved hairstyle he's sporting for the stage role.
[5] Fly /flai/ flew, flown. Här fly = to move or be moved through the air by means of wings. Även vinglösa fotbollar kan alltså flyga: Zlatan gave a great kick, and the football flew across the field. Och att tiden flyger iväg vet vi: The day has simply flown (by).
[6] Los Angeles 'änglarna' förkortning av spanska El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles
When we speak, Firth has, in the span of five days, collected awards from the New York and Los Angeles film critics groups and the Broadcast Film Critics Assn. [4] That night, he'll win a Golden Globe, and he'll go on to win the Screen Actors Guild Award as well. He's not complaining. But after all these acceptance speeches and having made the promotional rounds last year for "A Single Man," Firth, 50, is relieved to report that he'll be sitting out the next award season, having only a supporting role in the upcoming adaptation of John le Carré's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy." He's next set to start production sometime this summer on the Coen brothers' scripted remake of the crime caper "Gambit," likely for 2012 release.
[1] Ett vanligt problem är valet mellan amount och number.
* Amount används om 'mängd' och står alltså vid substantiv som inte kan räknas och inte har plural [uncountable nouns]:
a large amount of money 'en stor mängd pengar'.
* Number används däremot om 'antal' och står alltså vid substantiv som kan räknas och kan stå i plural [ ]:
a large number of people 'ett stort antal människor'
Eftersom vi på svenska kan tala om 'en stor mängd människor' säger många svenskar
a large number of people
a great many people
a good many people
* a number of (= Many) old cars are a danger to traffic. 'Många bilar är trafikfarliga.'
* the number of = 'antalet' har normalt verbet i singular:
The number of cars on the roads is increasing. 'Antalet bilar på vägarna ökar.'
* a lot of, lots of och plenty of kan ange kvantitet vid både räknebara och oräknebara substantiv:
There are lots of photos from our honeymoon. 'Det finns massor av bilder från vår smekmånad.'
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. 'Det är omöjligt att njuta helt av sysslolösheten om man inte har mycket att göra.' [Jerome K Jerome]
[2] Det tyska låneordet smink (schmink) börjar ersättas i Sverige av make-up (1938). Från början är det en teaterterm i engelskan, men från 1930-talet får ordet en bredare användning.
[3] Det är inte bara svenskan som har lånat det engelska ordet job, utan många andra språk också. Andra sådana ord som många språk har lånat är all right, flirt, smart och bluffa.
[4] BFCA är Nordamerikas största filmkritikerorganisation
[1] David Seidler, filmens manusförfattare alltså.
"It just didn't feel like a thing that people would want to go see," Rush, 59, says, chuckling, with Firth quickly adding that on top of that, the king involved was famous for having no charisma.
But as it turns out, a lot of people want to know about them. The film has cleared $84 million after just recently going into wide release and earned 12 Oscar nominations [1] , including acting nods for Firth and Rush.
"One of the things that's been leveled at us a bit is that somehow the movie's formulaic," Firth says. "Disability. Monarchs. Old-fashioned period piece [2] . People think we bought the ready-made awards kit from IKEA. (!) "
"The King's Speech" was assembled not in Scandinavia but, initially at least, in Toronto, where Firth, Rush, screenwriter David Seidler and director Tom Hooper met [3] in a Radisson hotel basement for a three-week rehearsal in October 2009. Diaries kept [3] by King George's speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Rush), had surfaced just weeks before, and the team pored through them as they honed the trajectory of the men's relationship.
[1] Bästa film: producenter Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin,
bästa regi: Tom Hooper, bästa manliga skådespelare: Colin Firth, bästa manliga biroll: Geoffrey Rush,
bästa kvinnliga biroll: Helena Bonham Carter, bästa originalmanus: David Seidler, bästa foto: Danny Cohen,
bästa kostym: Jenny Beavan, bästa klippning: Pariq Anwar, bästa originalmusik: Alexandre Desplat, bästa ljudmix: Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen, John Midgley och bästa art direction: Eve Stewart, Judy Far.
[2] Piece är exemple på ett homofon, alltså ett ord som uttalas lika eller nästan lika som ett annat ord, men har olika stavning och betydelse (peace). Exemepel på andra engelska homofoner: key/quay, plain/plane, son/sun, there/thir och write/right.
[3] Met och kept. Meet och keep har alltså förståndet att åtminstone ha två temaformer lika: meet, met,met resp keep, kept,kept. Tillhör den s.k. sleep-gruppen som förutom sleep ju har t.ex dream, feel, lean och leave.
What they continued to find was that the rap against George wasn't entirely fair. The stammer made him
shirk [1] from public speaking, but it was as if the rest of his personality gathered itself [2] around the problem and created a perfectly fine intellect that was then largely condemned to the shadows.
So lines were added at every opportunity to showcase his wit [3]. When, following the film's climactic speech, Logue tells the king that he "still stammered on the 'w,'" King George's reply came straight from Logue's diary: "Well, I had to throw a few in so they knew it was me."
[1] Shirk 'söka undandra sig (smita)'. Shirk school 'skolka'; shirker 'skolkare.
[2] Diverse uttryck motsvarande 'själv/själva' från "Engelsk universitetsgrammatik (Jan Svartvik/Olov Sager):
The Prime Minister himself wound up the debate in the Commons. 'Själve (självaste) premiärministern avslutade debatten i underhuset.'
My husband is kindness itself. 'snällheten själv'.
He had to do his own typing. 'Han var tvungen att skriva maskin själv.'
I can't give you the actual figures, but the result loks promissing. 'själva siffrorna'
He hated the very idea of it. 'Han avskydde själva (blotta) tanken på det.'
Det adjektiviska very 'själva' har en viss känslobetoning: 'just', 'till och med', 'blotta'.
Jämför följande två meningar:
- They live in the very centre of Glasgow. 'De bor i själva centrum av Glasgow.' (man tänker på den sjudande aktiviteten)
- They live in Glasgow itself (in Glasgow proper). 'De bor i själva Glasgow.' (dvs. inte i någon förort).
[3] Wit 'vett, förstånd, klokhet, itelligens'. Från anglo-saxiska witan 'att veta' (jämför tyska wissen)
(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English: "Half-wit = a weak-minded or stupid person").
Så wit jag vet översätts ordspråket 'där vinet går in, går vettet ut' till 'where the liquor is in, the wit is out'.
"It instantly got rid of the idea that stuttering should be held as this worthy disability of the week," Rush says.
Adds Firth: "If he can mock [2] himself, the audience can engage with him. Because the man had undergone a lot of damage [3]. And that could be alienating or, worse, sentimental."
[1] I svenskan talar vi om 'en strong insats' där 'strong' betyder 'förnämlig' som på engelska motsvaras av uttryck som a fine performance. I engelskan betyder strong bara 'stark' överhuvudtaget.
[2] Mock betyder ju exempelvis 'göra narr av'.
Apropå 'mock' och 'king': mock king 'kung till namnet', 'skuggkung' (även 'teaterkung'). 'Mock' kommer från latinska muccare och betyder något som kommer från näsan (snor). Lätt igenkännligt på latinspråken som t.ex. italienska moccolo, portugisiska monco och spanska moco.
[3] Är det korrekt med ordet damage här? Jag är inte säker. Önskar att någon engelsklärare, eller annan mycket kunnig, hör av sig.
Along [1] with banishing sentiment (or, at the very least, earning it), the "Speech" team sought to counter the gilt-edged poshness typically found in movies about the royals. Whenever [2] you see Logue, Hooper made sure he's surrounded by family and teapots and toys, the wonderful clutter of a functional life. By contrast, Hooper isolated George in empty, comfortless environments [3], usually [4] putting the character at the edge of the frame to emphasize the sense of bleakness.
[1] Ordet along tillhör de engelska ord som jag läde mig först ('come along!' ;)
[2] Whenever 'närhelst' ('no matter when' eller 'any time when´).
[3] Environments. "Longman dictionary" förklarar vad vi redan vet:
'The natural conditions, such as air, water, and land, in which people, animals, and plants live' (Obsservera komma följs av 'and')
Det amerikanska "Naturvårdsverket": Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
[4] Usually. Eftersom used to endast förekommer i imperfekt, är omskrivning nödvändig i andra tempus, oftast med usually, generally, ibland normally, regulaly, as a rule + verb eller be in the habit of (det senare endast med personsubjekt).
Presens:
We usually have visitors in June. 'brukar ha'
Perfekt:
We've usually had visitors in June. 'har brukat ha'
Dessa omskrivningar kan också användas (jämte used to) i imperfekt.
Had used to förekomme ribland men är inte allmänt accepterat.
Källa: Eng. Univ. Grammatik (Svartvik/Sager)
"The first scene I shot was George sitting in Logue's office," Firth recalls. "[Hooper's] using this wide-lens, 18-millimeter camera, which we called the Edvard Munch lens. It's a wonderful lens if you want to portray the cry of a desperate spirit in an indifferent universe. It's not very good for your jaw [1] line, however."
"And I'm sitting against a crumbly wall," Firth continues, "no distractions, just my face, the stammer, about to plunge into a 10-minute scene ..."
[1] Jaw 'käke'. Jaw-breakers är ord som svåra att uttala. För mig har det till exempel varit sedan länge ett för de flesta realtivt lätt ord: 'apologize', men jag har jobbat på det... appålågais...apålådjais. I Amerika är jaw-breakers även ett slags hårda karameller.
Rush interjects: "A scene we weren't sure would hold an audience's [1] attention. Two people, sitting two meters from each other, talking for 10 minutes."
Not that they weren't determined to make it work. And why not? Conversation for these two comes easy. With Hooper, Rush says he and Firth formed a "three-way bromance," sometimes at the exclusion of others. Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Elizabeth, George's wife, perpetually rolled her eyes at their antics. At one point, probably not long after the two actors spent hours rewriting the tongue-twister scene, Hooper forbade them from engaging in any more anecdotal exchanges.
[1] Audience 1 hörande, 2 audiens, 3 personer inom hörhåll; samtliga åhörare, auditorium, publik.
Publik är ett besvärligt ord att översätta till engelska.
* public motsvarar bara delvis svenskans 'publik'. The public betyder 'allmänheten':
The general public 'den breda allmänheten'
speak in public 'tala inför publik (offentligt)'This palace is open to the public. 'Det här slottet är öppet för allmänheten.'
The public loved Puccini's operas. 'Publiken älskade Puccinis operor'.' [Här avses den operaintresserade allmänhteen, inte publiken vid en viss föreställning, som heter the audience.]
* audience är 'publik = auditorium':
The audience was (were) clearly delighted with her performance. 'Publiken uppskattade uppenbarligen hennes framförande.'
OBS Engelskans auditorium betyder 'hörsal, föreläsningssal, teatersalong' och kan inte användas om publiken, 'auditoriet', vilket heter the audience.
OBS 'En åhörare heter a listener. Ordet auditor betyder oftast 'revisor'. Motsvarande verb är audit 'revidera, granska'.
Audit är också en vanlig term vid universitet i USA (to audit classes) med betydelsen 'att följa undervisningen som åhörare' utan att få betyg.
* audition betyder 'provspelning, provsjungning' och ordet fungerar även som motsvarande verb: Nicole is auditioning for a part in a new TV soap. 'Nicole provspelar för en roll i en ny tv-såpa.'
* spectators är 'publik = åskådare': Sixty thousand spectators watched the Cup Final. 'Sextio tusen åskådare såg cupfinalen.'
* crowd 'publik = 'åskådarmassa'.
* readers är 'författares publik = läsekrets'.
*attendance används med innebörden 'publik = antal besökare': Attendance at baseball games has been falling. 'Publiksiffrorna vid baseballmatcher har sjunkit.'
* gate används om 'publiksiffra, biljettintäkter'
* clientele motsvarar 'stampublik'.
Uttrycket 'ta publiken med storm' motsvaras av bring the house down.
Källa Handbok i engelska (Jan och Rikard Svartvik)
"He said, 'Give me ideas,' and there were a few," Rush says. "In one of the early cuts — and it sounds terribly [1] vain — I said, 'Tom, I know you love this 18-millimeter lens. But you are covering a lot of wide stuff, and I feel there are terrific moments of performance from Colin, Helena and myself, and you need to give us little quick glimpses of close-up to tell what is happening in this part of the journey."
[1] Frightful is less than the tremendous, the tremendous than the terrible, the terrible than the horrible: shrieks may be frightful; thunder and lighting may be tremendous; the roaring of a lion is terrible; the actual spectacle of killing is horrible.
"And he listened," Firth says. "He just loved gathering those opinions. And it wasn't because he didn't have any of his own. Tom's a man bursting with opinions. He just wanted to cross-examine himself. He had faith in us. And, from that point of view [1] , it was quite an exhilarating collaboration."
"Even if that damned lens of his made me look like my grandfather," Rush adds, laughing.
[1] Point of view
Typical mistake: 'From my point of view, war is always wrong.
The expression from my point of view does not mean quite the same as in my opinion. It means something more like from my position in life (as a Greek, or as a student, or as a woman, or as a Catholic, for example). Compare:
In my opinion war is always wrong.
I think everybody should work a thirty-hour week.
From the manufactures' point of view, a thirty-hour week wouldcause a lot of problems.
Try to look at school from the child's point of view.
Källa "Practical English Usage" (Michael Swan)
(c) SÖ
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The Guardian:
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The King to His Peoples. H.M. King George VI from Buckingham Palace September 3rd 1939:
H.M. King George VI, broadcast speech to the British Empire from Buckingham Palace on September 3rd, 1939. During the 78rpm. Era several important speeches by the British Kings were recorded and published on 78rpm records, especially for very distant and isolated parts of the British Empire, where radio listening could be very troubled. This recording is the speech from September 3rd 1939, at the outbreak of WW2.
This is the text of that speech, which the King delivered standing up (even though his official portrait depicts him sitting down):
In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in history, I send to every household of my peoples, both at home and overseas, this message, spoken with the same depth of feeling for each one of you as if I were able to cross your threshold and speak to you myself.
For the second time in the lives of most of us, we are at war.
Over and over again, we have tried to find a peaceful way out of the differences between ourselves and those who are now our enemies; but it has bee in vain.
We have been forced into a conflict, for which we are called, with our allies to meet the challenge of a principle which, if it were to prevail, would be fatal to any civilized order in the world.
It is a principle which permits a state in the selfish pursuit of power to disregard its treaties and its solemn pledges, which sanctions the use of force or threat of force against the sovereignty and independence of other states.
Such a principle, stripped of all disguise, is surely the mere primitive doctrine that might is right, and if this principle were established through the world, the freedom of our own country and of the whole British Commonwealth of nations would be in danger.
But far more than this, the peoples of the world would be kept in bondage of fear, and all hopes of settled peace and of security, of justice and liberty, among nations, would be ended.
This is the ultimate issue which confronts us. For the sake of all that we ourselves hold dear, and of the world order and peace, it is unthinkable that we should refuse to meet the challenge.
It is to this high purpose that I now call my people at home and my peoples across the seas, who will make our cause their own.
I ask them to stand calm and firm and united in this time of trial.
The task will be hard. There may be dark days ahead, and war can no longer be confined to the battlefield, but we can only do the right as we see the right, and reverently commit our cause to God. If one and all we keep resolutely faithful to it, ready for whatever service or sacrifice it may demand, then with God's help, we shall prevail.
May He bless and keep us all.
Soon after the King delivered this speech, other Dominion governments also declared war against Germany.
The impact of the war upon the King, George VI, was incalculable. He died, at the age of 56, in February of 1952. He was succeeded by his daughter, Britain's current Queen Elizabeth II.
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British Declaration Of War - Radio Broadcast - 3 Sept 1939:
“I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room at 10, Downing Street. This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o’clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany. You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed. Yet I cannot believe that there is anything more or anything different that I could have done and that would have been more successful. Up to the very last it would have been quite possible to have arranged a peaceful and honourable settlement between Germany and Poland. But Hitler would not have it. He had evidently made up his mind to attack Poland whatever happened; and although he now says he put forward reasonable proposals which were rejected by the Poles, that is not a true statement. The proposals were never shown to the Poles nor to us; and though they were announced in the German broadcast on Thursday night, Hitler did not wait to hear comments on them, but ordered his troops to cross the Polish frontier next morning. His action shows convincingly that there is no chance of expecting that this man …
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World War II: Invasion of Poland
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Obs: filmen The King's Speech kan inte kallas dokumentär, men efter att ha sett detta drama så inspireras man (jag) att lära sig mer om Georg VI.
