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A man who will shower you with millions of red roses. Aww, just look at this boy in love.

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Edward Daniels & Chuck Aule | SHUTTER ISLAND (2010) What the hell, boss? I’m your partner, for Christ’s sake. ​​​

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pinches his cheek

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Kiss

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Vanquished.

George Hitchcock.

1895.

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Vanquished.

George Hitchcock.

1895.

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Maria Theresa of Austria was the only one of Joseph II’s children to survive infancy. He was very close with his daughter, the only reminder he had of his much loved first wife, Isabella of Parma. Sadly, the little Archduchess died of pleurisy just before her 8th birthday, leaving her father heartbroken. He wrote this letter to her governess, Christine de Trazegnies, Marquise d'Herzelles, shortly after her death:

Madame,

If decency permitted, it would be with you alone that I would be pouring out the sorrow which… pierces my soul. I have ceased to be a father: it is more than I can bear. Despite being resigned to it, I cannot stop myself thinking and saying every moment: ‘O my God, restore to me my daughter, restore her to me.’ I hear her voice, I see her. I was dazed when the terrible blow fell. Only after I had got back to my room did I feel the full horror of it, and I shall go on feeling it all the rest of my life, since I shall miss her in everything. But not that I have, I believe, fulfilled all the duties of a father - and a good father - one [duty] remains which I hear my daughter imposing on me: that of rendering thanks to you. Madame, where would you wish me to begin? All your trouble and care have been beyond price. But [she] would never forgive me if I did not at least try to induce you to accept the enclosed offering as a memento of all that I owe you and a pledge of all that I should like to do for you. In addition the sincere respect and true friendship that I have sworn to you can in some way discharge [my obligation], you can be sure it will be unshakable. I venture to ask only one favour from you, which is that no one shall ever know anything about it and that even between ourselves - since I am counting on our weeping and talking again together about this dear child - there will never be any mention of it, or you will at once cause me to regret fulfilling this duty. I beg you to urge the same absolute silence of Mlle Chanclos, for whom I also enclose a letter; it is for me a point of importance. As my daughter’s sole heir, I have just given orders… that I should keep only her diamonds. [You are to have everything else.] One thing that I would ask you to let me have is her white dimity dressing-gown, embroidered with flowers, and some of her writings. I have her mother’s, I shall keep them together. Have pity on a friend in despair, and be sure that I can hardly wait for the moment when I come to see you…

Your true friend and servant,

Joseph

This unhappy 23 January, which has overturned our happy and so successful household, 1770.

No one knows for certain what the exact nature of the relationship between Joseph and the marquise was: some have though he proposed some form of morgantic marriage to her, some have said he wished her to simply stay in Vienna to act as his friend and hostess. By then he’d been twice widowed, and declared he had no intention of remarrying. Whatever his proposal was, it was rejected by the marquise and she left Vienna shortly afterwards.

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Inktober Day 12: Loss

Some post Ostagar vibes. The babes need some hugs 💙

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inspired by this post 

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Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), “View of the Arco Valley in the Tyrol,” (1495), pen, ink, watercolour, and gouache on paper, 22.1 x 22.1 cm.

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w.a.m. why is Ronan Vibert so fking slaaay

[Robespierre] was a democrat by conviction and an autocrat by temperament  He loved equality as a matter of principle  but did not really brook equals. He might have been an excellent dictator, for he was just, immensely capable and not unmerciful, but since he thought it unwise or impossible to assume dictatorial powers, he should have adopted a less dictatorial attitude. Had he been less imperious, less intransigent, more diplomatic, he could have accomplished infinitely more. 

Ralph Korngold, Robespierre and the Fourth Estate

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"Evey? E. V. Of course you are. […] It means that I, like God, do not play with dice and do not believe in coincidence."

V FOR VENDETTA (2005) dir. James McTeiguee

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― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

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[On Joaquin Phoenix’s performance] “Joaquin studies the psyche, and the psyche of Napoleon is so strange The film feels like that. It’s kind of peculiar, and there’s an intensity in that. Napoleon wasn’t stoic and wonderful like Russell Crowe was in Gladiator. He was a dictator, a war criminal, really. It couldn’t be rousing, because that man killed hundreds and hundreds of thousands of men, in my opinion needlessly. And for what? To get an empire, for what? In the end, it all disintegrated anyway. That psyche run wild is dangerous as hell, and very strange. And this is a portrait of that.”

—Vanessa Kirby

[Phoenix’s visit to Napoleon’s tomb, and to the military hotspots] ” I went to all the museums and, yes, it’s very interesting but, yeah, you’re looking at swords and blah, blah, blah, who gives a fuck. I mean, honestly, I want to make it a great thing to talk about for your piece, but yeah, you walk around and you look at the things and you go, ‘Oh yeah, that is a very small jacket.'”

—Joaquin Phoenix

[On Napoleon and Josephine’s divorce scene where Phoenix slaps Kirby in agreement] “My biggest compliment for any take or scene, is, ‘Christ almighty, where did that come from?’ That wasn’t planned. He just fuckin’ slapped her. She didn’t know it was coming either. The whole room went [sharp intake of breath]. And you know, what could’ve been a boring scene suddenly had magic.”

—Ridley Scott

Trivia: Scott has a super cut that goes into Josephine’s life before Napoleon. So you fans of Josephine, don’t give up hope!

This is such a mess. You have English actors being typical English and hate Napoleon but for some reason want to do a movie about him anyway even though he is a Hitler and Stalin and according to Kirby a war criminal. Fantastic. Nothing like approaching a subject neutrally.

Joaquin isn’t impressed with museums much I see.

Okay Scott, wants us to know that the film isn’t a love letter to Napoleon and he’s a bad dude, they aren’t showing just good things Napoleon did. So instead they will show things Napoleon NEVER did like SLAPPING JOSEPHINE AT THE DIVORCE CEREMONY. It’s not as if Napoleon didn’t do shitty things to Josephine that, if you want to show their dynamic you could go to. Yes, Napoleon did shoot at her swans at Malmaison. Yes, Napoleon did force her into carriage rides when she was suffering migraines. But making stuff up out of whole cloth is infuriating.

So on top of the already inaccurate information out there: Napoleon was racist and shot the nose off the syphinx and shot at the pyramids proves it, Napoleon was short and therefore he had to conquer the world, we can now also get Napoleon was a wife beater. And surprise, the misinformation still comes out of England.

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CRINGE

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Benjamin Lavernhe and Maïwenn

in JEANNE DU BARRY, 2023