Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2009 June 26

= June 26 =

Music from Stealing Beauty
Can someone identify the music in this scene from Stealing beauty ? RefDeskDoppleganger (talk) 04:16, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * It will be presumably be one of those listed on the film's IMDB page here. Might help narrow it down a bit.  I don't think it's any of the pop songs listed on the Amazon page for the soundtrack album here.  But in fact it sounds more to me like a piece that was specially composed for the film. --Richardrj talkemail 11:27, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Name the movie
Sorry this is the only thing I can remember about this movie: It contained a witch who had a cabinet of different heads, she removed her head several times to replace it with one from her cabinet. If I remember correctly this also changed her personality. I think it was some childrens fanstasy adventure movie. Thanks, --217.84.175.126 (talk) 15:18, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Sounds like Mombi in Return to Oz. 164.156.231.55 (talk) 17:14, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks, that's the one... :) I was only little at the time, you see...--217.84.175.126 (talk) 19:21, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Violent acts inspired by violent media
I am looking for notable examples of violent acts inspired by violent media (such as computer games or TV shows). Statistics on violence inspired by violent media are also welcome, but I need examples more. Thanks.
 * Wikipedia articles you may want to start with:
 * Video game controversy
 * Media violence research
 * Combat in film
 * Violence
 * From these articles, you can likely find other Wikipedia articles, or perhaps follow some of the external references (print and online) for more details. There are literally THOUSANDS of research studies on this topic; you should have no problem finding them.  You would be wise also to read post hoc ergo propter hoc, which is a logical fallacy often stated as "correlation implies causality", which is a false idea.  Be careful of any study that implies causation from a mere correlation of data... Over 90% of murderers drank milk as children, but that does not mean that drinking milk makes people do murder... --Jayron32. talk . contribs  18:34, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * As said above. For example if it is found that 80% of perpetrators of school shootings played violent video games, that might mean that video game violence spawns real-life violence, or it might mean that those who were already pre-disposed to violence find such video games appealing, or it might mean that 80% of teen aged American males like violent video games.  65.121.141.34 (talk) 20:30, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Also be careful about agreeing with a criminal who claims his crime was "inspired" by this or that movie or TV show or computer game. He's probably just trying to avoid culpability.  "The game made me do it!"  Tempshill (talk) 21:05, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Yesterday I watched Charlie Chan at Treasure Island, which is set in San Francisco and has a villain who calls himself Doctor Zodiac. The disc has a featurette about the Zodiac Killer, who operated thirty years later in and around San Francisco.  (The link seems tenuous to me.) —Tamfang (talk) 17:07, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

Dumbbell-shaped floats
At the gym pool the other day, I found these dumbbell-shaped objects, where the "weight" parts are made of foam that is very buoyant. What are these for? I couldn't figure out how to use them, and swimming float is not much help. Thanks, Beland (talk) 17:44, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Regular dumbbells are about resisting gravity. Pool dumbbells are for resisting buoyancy. For example: stand on bottom of pool and push them down with your hands -- triceps exercise. --jpgordon:==( o ) 18:06, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Aha, that makes sense. -- Beland (talk) 18:35, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * See Water aerobics. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 22:28, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

"Hollywood English"
So I'm trying to pin down a cinematic technique which I think of as "Hollywood English". This happens when two characters speak a foreign language and there are no English speakers around. Instead of actually speaking the foreign language and filling in the audience with subtitles, the actors actually speak English, with the dramatic convention being that they are actually speaking some other language; it's just show onscreen as English for the audience's benefit. After searching around online a bit, I don't think this is the correct name for this technique; does anyone know if there is a more common name for this technique? Or for the tendency of movies to just ignore the language issue altogether? -- Beland (talk) 18:47, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Like Sean Connery and Sam Neil do in the Hunt for Red October? I'm not sure there is a formal name for it; I always call it "Like that thing Sean Connery does in the Hunt for Red October"... --Jayron32. talk . contribs  19:17, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Hollywood English, you mean like Charles Dickens has French people speaking English? Or William Shakespeare -- wouldn't Romeo and Juliet have been speaking Venetian? --jpgordon:==( o ) 20:47, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Or some dialect of it. I suspect, though that in Shakespeare's plays, it was done both because I doubt he was fluent in Italian, and even if he was, his audience would not be, and subtitles and dubbing were not an option.   65.121.141.34 (talk) 20:52, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * (You mentioned the dialect before I corrected "Italian" to "Venetian".) The question of whether Shakespeare could read some Italian-ish is interesting. Several of his plays -- R&J, Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Much Ado, and All's Well -- are taken from Italian sources. Did Shakespeare, or whoever wrote the plays, read them in the original Piedmontese or whatever? (What dialect did Matteo Bandello write in, anyway?) Or did he learn the stories from the William Painter translations? --jpgordon:==( o ) 21:06, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, the Oxfordian theory is supported by the the historical fact that Oxford went to Italy and spent time in every single one of the places he later set plays in. There are a number of allusions in the plays to specific venues Oxford is known to have visited, but which a non-traveller would be unlikely to have ever heard of.  The Stratford guy never visited Italy.  --  JackofOz (talk) 22:06, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Isn't the technique here that they start out speaking whatever language they should be speaking, then switch to English? That's what happens in Hunt for Red October. Using English right away isn't really a "technique". Adam Bishop (talk) 12:03, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Same thing happens at the start of Valkyrie. Tom Cruise starts off in German (with subtitles) and very soon switches to English.  I believe this is done because the Studios want a top star (like Cruise or Connery) and they think subtitles will put audiences off - particularly in the US market.  Astronaut (talk) 12:36, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
 * The term "'language transfer'" is sometimes used to describe voice-overs and dubbing, and it seems to also fit similar variations. On radio dramas, language transfer involved a slow fade-out from the original language as English faded in. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956) was notable as a major mainstream Hollywood film which did not revert to English but retained the original foreign language in lengthy WWII flashback sequences with subtitles. Pepso2 (talk) 13:04, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't like seeing actors on movies pretending to be of other nationalities and using an accent like he/she would be of that nationality. But this depends on lot of stuffs, and movies. It makes the movie more authentic and more realistic if it uses the original language. I really like a scene from The 13th Warrior when a man sited around Norse people and understanding nothing, after a while the fellows around him started to use one or two English words while talking, after some more time they used more and more English words, to be fully talking English at some point. This was nice, maybe they could return to Norse back, as we understood he learned a new language, but it had not. I don't think it's bad to make movies in English only, it just makes the movie more English (and not authentic), nothing else. If you want a movie to be made by English people but to give the feeling of other nations, use other languages, use other music styles, other culture. Do and watch what you wish, I prefer variations though. --TudorTulok (talk) 13:21, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Just don't watch K-19: The Widowmaker because Harrison Fords attempt at a Russian accent is almost unbearable. Maybe he was channeling his inner Sean Connery. Livewireo (talk) 19:56, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

V vor Vendetta translation
When V goes on his long speach where like every word starts with the letter V, what does all that mean in English? It is not the most simple language to understand. 65.121.141.34 (talk) 20:41, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * It's an impressively crafted dialogue. There is quite some discussion of it at this blog. The comment by "X" on January 29, 2008 at 12:51 am is a good approximation of the text in plainer English. -- Flyguy649 talk 21:10, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * It is in English. It's perfectly easy to understand, and I don't mean it in a bad way; I find a dictionary helps.174.3.103.39 (talk) 10:42, 27 June 2009 (UTC)