#setting:1930s

[of-fear-and-love]

Maggie Smith in Death on the Nile (1978)

[weirdlookindog]

Frankenstein (1931) R-1947 Lobby card set

[dozydawn]

[danskjavlarna]

Source details and larger version.

[midnight--sadness]

1930’s mob au Inhun…. Gi-hun runs a restaurant that’s in the mob’s territory, and he has to pay monthly protection to the mob so they won’t damage his storefront. The food is good but Gi-hun’s stress makes the quality decline, especially after his wife leaves and his debt to the mob keeps on piling up and up.

One day, a handsome stranger comes to his restaurant. Gi-hun is sure that this man is from the mob and here to hurt him for not paying his debt, but goes to meet him anyway.

The man introduces himself as In-ho, and says that he’s the head of the mob now that Oh Il-nam has retired. He says that the mob’s protection fees now aren’t mandatory, but will provide protection from cops, other gangs, and even disasters. He wants to help his community, especially since he grew up on the streets. Gi-hun is speechless already, but then In-ho takes his hand, squeezes it, and tells him that his debt is forgiven. It’s enough to make him start crying. Before In-ho leaves, he runs back to the kitchen and makes him some food, packs it up to go, and gives it to him on the house. In-ho takes it with a smile, then leaves.

He’s back the next day, ordering the meal Gi-hun cooked for him the night before. He says it’s the best food he’s had in a while, and it pales in comparison to the food people serve in those really fancy restaurants. Gi-hun admits he’s never been to even a nice-ish restaurant in years because he’s never had enough money. So, the next day, In-ho comes in and orders his favorite, and pays for it with a box of pasta from a really nice Italian place on the other side of town. They start eating together after that, and In-ho watches as Gi-hun’s mood and health slowly improve.

It’s not long before In-ho starts to shower Gi-hun in gifts. He gets Gi-hun a nice coat, leather gloves, and sturdy boots. Gi-hun jokes that he’d get him anything he looked at for too long, and In-ho responds by getting him a silky, orange dress he saw Gi-hun staring at for too long. He also starts pulling strings to get his restaurant to be more successful. He convinces a food critic to go to his restaurant, and the positive review drives a ton of business to Gi-hun. Gi-hun asks In-ho how he could ever repay him, and In-ho suggests they get drinks together. Gi-hun shows up to the date in his orange dress, and In-ho realizes then and there that he never wants to let Gi-hun go.

They don’t even make it to the bar. In-ho tells his driver to go take a smoke break, and rails Gi-hun in the back of his car until Gi-hun’s legs are shaking

this is amazing anon 🫶🫶😩😩😩😩

the silk orange dress is going down in history....... inho makes sure gihun always wears it around bc it gets him going (👀) like nothing else

[teasetsotw]

--- Designer/Brand: Eliel Saarinen & Paul A. Lobel / International Silver Co., Wilcox Silver Plate Co Region: Connecticut, United States Time period: 1932-1935

[ilovemesomevincentprice]

Vincent Price - The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

[starrysharks]

got some chara designs for a little death game oc project that i kinda want to develop further so why not post some chara designs from it ?!?!!?!?

[normasshearer]

With Barbara Stanwyck and Franchot Tone in attendance, Joan Crawford hosts a charity polo match at Will Rogers Memorial Field, Santa Monica, California. June 22, 1936

[arthistoryanimalia]

PenguinAwarenessDay tea party, anyone? 🐧☕️

ArtDeco 3-piece tea service (teapot, creamer, sugar bowl), penguin-form Indian, c.1920–1930 silver w/ Bakelite handle Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2013.628.1,2,3

“This tea service, delightfully comprised of emperor penguins (endemic to Antarctica), bears the arms of Ganga Singh, Maharaja of Bikaner from 1888–1943, on the left wing of each piece. The royal arms includes the motto (in Hindi): ‘Victory to the King of the Desert.’ Ganga Singh was one of many Indian maharajas who developed a taste for Art Deco in the early 20th century. The modern lines of this tea service would not have been out of place in his palace, which also featured an Art Deco swimming pool.”

[lights-at-night]

i might be shot but tbh i think fiction podcasts have an issue with racial representation

[of-fear-and-love]

Matte painting shots by Albert Whitlock from The Sting (1973)

[athenasdragon]

In thinking about how the Dragon Age games have changed since Origins, I’ve been thinking about genre conventions and the inspirations for the series.

Dragon Age: Origins is very very heavily lifted from Dungeons & Dragons, and my impression is that this is because Baldur’s Gate was a big inspiration. I think it’s especially obvious when you open up your character profile. Like that is straight up a d&d character sheet. You can map the d&d classes onto the DA:O subclasses too (e.g. some of the warrior subclasses are champion [classic fighter], templar [paladin], and berserker [barbarian]). The heavy focus on tactics and the top-down combat option also evoke TTRPGs to me.

And of course, because we’re existing in the genre tradition here, we have a lot drawn from the Lord of the Rings as well. Darkspawn/Orcs are an unambiguously evil species that exists just to cause destruction! Humans are the predominant species, but we have nature-connected elves and subterranean dwarves! Our story takes place in among the ruins of a past civilization that existed in a distant age! We’ve got themes of history and faith and a little fellowship going on a journey to defeat an evil dragon.

So with that in mind, we have a pretty straight up and down medieval-inspired dark fantasy. It follows so closely in this tradition that we even see the writers struggling to break out of molds that they explicitly set out to avoid—for example, certain gender politics.

I really think the character who starts to break that is Varric. Not only is he a well-known author (requires not just widespread printing but widespread literacy and reading for fun—now we’re talking much more recent history in our world) but he’s writing (Kirkwall-flavored) hard-boiled detective fiction, which is explicitly an American* post-WWI tradition. This is a genre that explores the gritty reality of life in cities, interpersonal and systemic violence, and often positions a lone morally grey hero in small-scale opposition to those larger forces. Kirkwall (and DA2) isn’t a bad place to add that flavor.

Inquisition starts to feel more 20th century to me as well. We’ve got international espionage and geopolitics. We’ve got anxieties of a dramatic apocalypse brought about by man’s hubris. We’ve got, effectively, some variety of civil rights movement for both elves and mages.

What really got me thinking about this is that Neve and Lucanis feel like they’re some the same genre to me: the jaded, brilliant, but somewhat poorly-upkept big city detective and the heir-apparent of a powerful mafia family caught up by a betrayal both feel very interwar noir imo. Emmrich’s look is also SO 1930s. I can only speak for myself but I think that’s where a lot of the change in “vibe” can be traced.

It feels to me like Varric’s narration of the series has tugged the story itself into the genre he exists in.

Anyway, whether you wish the series stayed more straight up and down sword and sorcery or like the direction it chose to establish itself, I think it’s interesting to think about!

* I might ramble about how deeply North American the geography of Thedas is another time lol

[davisbette]

Bette Davis as Joyce Heath in Dangerous (1935)

— dir. Alfred E. Green

[danskjavlarna]

Source details and larger version.

Much ado: vintage theatre imagery.

[onefootin1941]

Joan Blondell and Max Factor on set.