Tiny Pleasures
jetsetwilly
Liverpool, UKPosts: 1,048MI6 Agent
This is the topic for those strange, obscure things that you like about Bond films, but you suspect no-one else does. I'm not talking obvious things like "Ken Adam's sets" or "Daniel Craig's performance" or "Denise Richards' enormous breasts"; I'm talking strange, bizarre, one off moments and things that give you a little smile.
My first is... Helga Brandt's accent. She has that thick, furry German accent, which somehow turns all her dialogue into a constant delight. The roll of her rrrr's, her clipped edge of hysteria as she says, "It vos in all the newspapers!", and best of all, the way she says, "And er... who do you zuggezt?" I love, love, love the way she says that, and it is in fact the only way I can say that line in real life: I can be discussing staffing issues in work, we talk about putting someone in a particular team, and I find myself purring like Karin Dor. It's raised a few eyebrows, I can tell you.
As a character, Helga's just a German Fiona Volpe, and nowhere near as interesting. But her husky, slightly slurred reading of every line is just a thing of wonder to me.
My first is... Helga Brandt's accent. She has that thick, furry German accent, which somehow turns all her dialogue into a constant delight. The roll of her rrrr's, her clipped edge of hysteria as she says, "It vos in all the newspapers!", and best of all, the way she says, "And er... who do you zuggezt?" I love, love, love the way she says that, and it is in fact the only way I can say that line in real life: I can be discussing staffing issues in work, we talk about putting someone in a particular team, and I find myself purring like Karin Dor. It's raised a few eyebrows, I can tell you.
As a character, Helga's just a German Fiona Volpe, and nowhere near as interesting. But her husky, slightly slurred reading of every line is just a thing of wonder to me.
Comments
"I have a reliable Greek contact here, an Anglophile. He helped us out last year on a smuggling operation."
(And then during their meeting with Kristatos)
"Milos Columbo. His name came up in connection with a smuggling operation last year."
Luigi's two favorite nouns. Smuggling and operation.
Oh well , in that case i'll sit this one out then gentleman.
Anyway, I have always absolutely loved the moment in LTK when Dario looks out the hole blown in the wall by the shotgun that Pam has fired at the Barrelhead Bar. He gives the most evil grin I've ever seen on film, and his eyes are so black and lacking in conscience or humanity that I would have been afraid to be around Benicio del Toro on that set (though from the interviews I've seen, he seems like a really nice guy). And there is a tiny little flash of blue light that plays across his face right at the end that somehow, in a weird way, seems to emphasize the expression.
Every time I watch it, it gives me goosebumps, and I remember when I saw that at age 11 for the first time, it was the one and only time a Bond film truly, truly terrified me. I was so frightened of Dario that I had to leave the room, and it still has that effect on me to this day (though I don't leave the room anymore haha).
Dario got what he deserved, if you ask me
You've taken my beautiful topic and cheapened it.
@merseytart
That incredible pregnant pause, as Greene and his entourage eye the tuxedoed Bond from across the room, as Tosca plays over it...and Bond stares back.
B-)
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
One scene that always gives me a tiny pleasure is a scene in DAF. As we all know Big Sean's auto-pilot was on auto-pilot in this movie, but he still delivered greatly in one scene. On the oil rig when he is looking at the control panel that Blofeld is using to control the laser with he ejects the cassette tape. After the tape lands on the floor, Bond gives Blofeld this hilarious look that was I suppose representing disappointment. Of all the things to give a fake and sarcastic look of disappointment about Bond gives that face in this scene. Every time I see it I burst out laughing. Big Sean sure is a great actor when he wants to be!
There's a superb dissection of the subtext of this scene on the forum of Empire magazine, empireonline.com. Based around their shared movie, Munich.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I'm shocked you expected anything else of me, jetset
The beloved and I just love that scene when he comes bounding up the path with a terrifically cheery greeting, totally breaking the moment and then didn't even bring Bond some chocolates.
It's a bizarre scene, probably one of the most forgettable of the film but makes me really chuckle every time I watch it.
I just had to go and find that on the Empire sight - I trust I've got the right(rather succinct) one and lmao really doesn't cover it
I liked that scene too. {[]
One of my farvorite scenes is with Herr Doktor Kaufman in Bond's hotel room in TND.
That's a great scene, and he's a good character (not everyone hates him!). When Bride Of Barbel, who's German, first saw the film- I'd seen it first solo then with Son Of Barbel- she said "You can tell he's Swiss- he speaks his lines first in French, then English, then German!"
As a matter of fact, Ludger Pistor is GERMAN.
And I loved him in the role as much as I have liked the character that he was playing.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
I know the actor's German- the character's supposed to be Swiss. You know, like having an Englishman play someone who's Scots/Swiss...
However, one of my long-standing favorites (and I enjoy it more with every viewing) is when Bond and Goldfinger are chatting at Stoke Poges just as Odd Job has decapitated the statue.
JB: But what will the club secretary have to say?
GF: Oh nuhzing, meezter bund; I own zee club.
It isn't the line of dialogue at all, but the fact that Frobe is clearing a bit of muck from the corner of his eye as he replies. It's a glorious comment on how little he cares about Bond, what just happened, his status as owner, or the entire events of the day for that matter. I've always wondered if the bit was something Frobe came-up with on his own (remember, he didn't speak English so he really didn't even know what he was saying) or if Hamilton suggested it (they're both lovely men but neither one of them has ever struck me as that methodical).
@merseytart
TR: The mechanism is... Oh James, James... Will you make love to me all the time in England?
JB: Day and night. Go on about the mechanism.
The way he says it cracks me up everytime.
Amother line I love is:
KG: Keim Bey! Kerim Bey! I no longer please you?
KB: Be still! Ahh... back to the saltmines!
:007)
Domino, What sharp little eyes you have
Bond, You ought to see my teeth
Domino, What sharp little eyes you have
Bond, You ought to see my teeth
- Moonraker, Chang's deflated, droopy expression after Bond destroys the flight simulator. I think someone on the DVD commentary said something like: "you almost want to give him a hug, don't you?". Chang just looks so DEPRESSED. If anyone on this forum decides to start an official "Chang Appreciation Club" in his honor, drop me a line and I'll sign up!
- TLD, the way Timothy Dalton says the words "STRAWBERRY JAM" at the beginning, when he says to Saunders "Just about enough time for someone to make STRAWBERRY JAM of him!" He puts so much agression and emphasis into those words.
- TLD, John Barry's instrumental of "If There Was A Man", which to me is right up there with "We Have All The Time in the World" as top romantic instrumentals in a Bond movie. Best use was in that great scene with Bond and Kara just before heading off with the Mujahadeen ("Are you calling me a horse's a**?")
- Dr. No, in particular, the timing of the use of the James Bond Theme when Bond arrives at the Jamaica Airport. The crash of the instrumental peaks at the moment when.... Felix Leiter/Jack Lord turns the page of his newspaper!!!!!!!
- LALD, Mrs. Bell.
- DAF, after Bond gets gassed in the elevator from his meeting with Blofeld at the White House, the swell of the strings on the soundtrack as the doors open to reveal Wint and Kidd never fails to give me goosebumps.
- DAF, When Bond escapes from the Metz laboratory, he runs through some sort of anti-gravity, moon surface simulation and gets the buggy. I LOVE the moment when someone shouts "Stop him, Harry!" and one of the astronaut suits tries to stop him but does so in slow motion as though in simulated anti-/low gravity.
- AVTAK, the Parisian taxi driver, whose only memorable quality is the way he screams "Oh, Ma KKAR! Oh!" Amazing too that he decides to scream this in ENGLISH, when apparantly he could/would not speak English to Roger Moore just moments prior.
- LALD, at the end, when Kananga fights with the knife. I don't quite get why on earth Kananga does that weird crane-like stance at the beginning of the knife fight, kind of like Ralph Macchio in the Karate Kid, but it looked cool.
- Not really a tiny pleasure, as it is really a major part of a lot of the early John Barry Bond films. I totally dig the 007 theme. Always brings a smile to my face. Dum, dum, DA, dum, dum dum. Duh da-da, duh da-da, duh dat-da-da, da dadrraaaraaah.
- OHMSS, when Bond tosses his hat to teary-eyed Moneypenny at the wedding.
- OHMSS, after Moneypenny saves Bond from himself (when Bond, in haste, writes a letter of resignation to M but Moneypenny instead writes a request for 2 weeks off), I LOVE the moment after Bond leaves and Bernard Lee chimes in on the communicator, "What would I do without you Miss Moneypenny? Thank you." A genuine tender moment between Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell. With that scene, we get what is perhaps the best realization of the M-Bond-Moneypenny dynamic.
- Goldfinger, Gert Frobe's voice is dubbed throughout the film, except for one moment, when he is in the rumpus room with the gangsters. He has the dubbed line something like "Man has made advances in science, shot rockets at the moon, made miracles in every field of human endeavor..." and then he shouts in what I assume is Gert's true, original voice "...EXCEPT CRIME!!" Go Gert!
I always enjoyed C. Murino's sweet accent in CR and her little moans, when in battle with Bond are a real turn-on.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!