Everything Right With Diamonds Are Forever

Bond says guten abend ( good evening ) in Dutch it would be “avonde”

Product placement aside, Lufthansa flying from Amsterdam to the states would be like Qantas flying from Luxembourg to Ireland

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Firstly, thank you for getting me to rewatch the scene and be reminded of Connery kissing himself, brilliant. Guten abend or not, the accent is definitely Dutch, albeit Connery was being Irish in the untouchables and Lithuanian in Hunt For Red October so maybe …

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This movie is so much fun

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Also French in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

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Forgot that one, oh Spanish/ Egyptian in Highlander.

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Bond speaking German with a Dutch accent adds yet another example of the fluidity/intermixing of character/identity on display in DAF.

On even the most mundane level, the film sparkles like a …

Is there no limit to its genius?

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I may have solved it …

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But maybe not…

The lift fight …

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If in DAF…

A car can enter a narrow alley tilted on its right-side wheels, and exit said alley on its left-side wheels

&

A machine can transform one person’s voice into an undistinguishable copy of another person’s voice

&

Bond can be descend five levels below the surface, acquire a clipboard and lab coat from no discernible source, and–having been found out–immediately return to the surface via a single straight cut, the most basic element of film grammar

&

Plenty, after being thrown into a swimming pool (that her tosser did not know existed), can show up at Tiffany’s (whom she has never laid eyes on) rented house, gain access, try on her wigs, and, being mistaken for Tiffany by Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint (hey, they’re gay), be killed in a second swimming pool

then

Lufthansa can fly between Amsterdam and the United States.

I feel certain now that it was Silvertoe’s ancestor, Argentum Pollicem Primus (Arpo to his friends) who, after reading a first draft of “The Aeneid,” told Vergil that no one would believe the Greeks went undetected in that wooden horse.

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They do also call Penny, Plenty…

The solution is as simple as that: Bond didn’t fly from Amsterdam, he flew from Frankfurt.

A fellow member from the German Club made an in-depth research on this a few years ago. The scenes were shot in Frankfurt because they couldn’t get a permission to shoot at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Lufthansa made it possible for Frankfurt on short notice, but they of course provided a Lufthansa plane for that and not a KLM one. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
The announcement in the movie says it’s coming from Amsterdam, but according to old flight plans, it really started in Frankfurt with just a brief stop over in Amsterdam.
Unfortunately, the hangar where it was shot doesn’t exist any more, but my club fellow located the exact spot so we could go there when we had a club meeting in Frankfurt. It’s not part of the usual airport tour, but once again: the name “James Bond” is able to open many doors :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

From Lufthansa archives:

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Bond visiting Blofeld in his apartment is excellent and you can see elements from the Craig era. SPECTRE (leaving a female in a room to head outside) and Skyfall (dangling from a height near a lift, with the Las Vegas lights instead of Shanghai). Ken Adam never disappoints with his sets either. Something else I like is the way the Bond theme slowly builds during the Moneypenny briefing before being played in full for the hovercraft journey. One of the best uses ever, in all honesty.

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I am from The Netherlands, it would have been “Goede avond!” in Dutch. I don’t hear any Dutch accent either. Most of the time in English or American movies they don’t have a clue of how the Dutch language sounds and most of the time they just speak German.

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Thank you so much stromberg. Much appreciated.

So now we have (partial list):

Bond as Franks
Franks’ Corpse as Bond’s Corpse
Plenty as Tiffany
Blofeld as Whyte’s Voice
Bond as Blofeld’s Voice
Blofeld as Drag Blofeld
2 1/2 Henchmen as Blofeld
Decoy Blofeld Pussy as Real Blofeld Pussy
Frankfurt Airport as Schiphol Airport

The trope of masquerade is manifest throughout the film on levels large and small. This thematic richness, combined with the movie’s many other pleasures, unmistakably announces that the time has come for DAF to be accounted the masterpiece it is by one and all.

I propose for the sake of community integrity that henceforth, when Best-of-Bond lists are posted in threads, DAF should never again appear in 11th position or lower (I was going to say fifth, but it is the holidays, and I am feeling generous).

Those community members who continue to maliciously under-rank DAF may be subject to a chiding or reprimand, possibly along the lines of:

I am, of course, open to amendments to my proposal.

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You forgot a couple.

  • Bond as Klaus Hergersheimer
  • Ersatz astronauts faking a Moon landing
  • Tiffany, Blofeld and Bond all in wigs (Bond’s even changes shape, length and shade throughout)
  • Souza marches cassette as satellite control cassette

But you have convinced me. DAF is now officially in my Top Ten Connery Bonds list.

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I’ve always found DAF rather watchable, way more so than YOLT. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. And MrKiddWent constantly points out its merits that I miss. It’s one of the few Bond locations I’ve been too (Las Vegas, NY and SF being the others.)

But Connery is way more a sadist in this movie regarding women than others. From choking Marie, to hitting Tiffany, it’s far more ruthless than other instances (FRWL, OHMSS, TMWTGG.)

It’s an odd juxtaposition with the silliness of the moon buggy chase, or Blofeld in drag, the sheriff chase and the circus gorilla attraction. Its gangster elements you’re tempted to say channels the Godfather, but DAF came out a full year before. Barry’s lounge score pinpoints what an odd, guilty pleasure this is. Much like Vegas itself–cheap, glitzy, camp, a knockoff or pale imitation of the real thing.

And yet it’s the one Connery movie I’d like to live in, like an extra watching Bond drive Tiffany’s Mustang Mach One on two wheels go by. Its malice is offered as entertainment, but without the threat inherent in the first six films. You don’t feel like you’d die in this, that a pool would find its way underneath you should you be thrown out a ten story window.

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Oh wow! Thanks for that! I am glad I’m not the only one who questioned the flight!

Last time I flew from Frankfurt it was on Lufthansa, I had flown in from liepzig and changed planes there to fly back to London.

I have also been to "Frankfurt’ Hahn airport! Great Destination if you like former American cold war bases now turned into an airport in the middle of nowhere!

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Ja!

It mentions it here

I do speak a little Dutch,use to spend weekends In Rotterdam visiting friends there and used to be a roadie with a Dutch band

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Again refer to Irish accent in the Untouchables, both are similarily close

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And the pink thing around Connery’s neck, masquerading as a tie

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