Death was supposed to be Swedish, I think. He’s modeled after Death in the Seventh Seal, which is a Swedish film.
Teri Garr in Young Frankenstein had a German accent, and she was very sympathetic.
The current guy who is playing the governor of California is somewhat sympathetic, being that he is the henpecked husband of Skelator. He has an Austrian accent.
How about the Germans in Allo Allo?
Heidi Klum has a TV show, right? No-one seems to mind her accent.
Okay, but don’t forget Hitler in “Downfall,” then. Exterminating all them nasty Jews and disgusting Gypsies, finding some lebensraum for his poor, put-upon oppressed Germany? Definitely damned honorable–from his own p.o.v., of course.
He was Swedish. Obviously.
Walter on Fringe has some sort of Germanic accent (with the emphasis on manic).
She’s totally *un-*sympathetic, though. “That means you’re out. Please pack your things and go.”
Of course, comparing someone who turns in someone universally acknowledged as a thief and deserter (and who eventually practically adopts him) if perfectly comparable to Hitler.
Ah. I’d probably have to vote that his Swedish accent was off then. He needed more floopty.
I’ve never seen her show - but she’s pretty adorable her frequent guest spots on *other *shows.
I think German chicks get a pass from the general dislike of German accents.
Reading Barry Lyndon as unsympathetic (in either Thackeray or Kubrick) is only slightly stranger than reading Adolf Hitler as sympathetic. In the scenes I describe (trapping Barry into confessing how he came to be travelling through Europe, or forcing him to spy on the nobleman) Potsdorf is plainly unsympathetic. That he’s more sympathetic than Hitler is a point I’ll concede, but it really doesn’t advance your argument that he’s a sympathetic character very much at all. A charming or dashing villain is still a villain.
Barry Lyndon is a rogue. He’s sympathetic in terms of storytelling. But Potsdorf is completely moral and I identify more strongly with him than with Lyndon. Calling him a “villain” seems perverse.