#snowgrouse

[aikainkauna]

HAHAHAHAHA I knew it; my last post didn't show up on the sitewide tag for The Longest Day in Chang'an. Let's see if this one does.

If this got you as badly as it got me, I've got you covered re: wrongbad fic; see linked post above. *Cough*

[recycledmoviecostumes]

This purple doublet is an excellent example of how costumes are altered and adapted for new productions. 

The costume likely originated with the 1955 film The Court Jester, where Basil Rathbone wore it as Sir Ravenhurst, though it is possible that it came from an earlier production, as The Court Jester did recycle some of its costumes.

The piece was used again in the 1961 film Snow White and the Three Stooges, where Guy Rolfe wore it as Count Olga. The costume underwent alterations to give it the look of having slashed sleeves.

Costume Credit: Snowgrouse

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[technicolorfamiliar]

Well, it took me a year, but I watched a billion 50+ Conrad Veidt films. Some good, some great, some so bad that I hope I never have to see them again.

This post is a stand in for the entire second half of this filmic journey -- I'll link the original 5 posts that make up the first part below. But instead of reposting all of my reviews for all of these titles (the original posts for these are on Pillowfort), I'll just share some highlights below the cut.

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4 // Part 5

Bleaker and darker than I expected, but that makes sense if it's based on a WWI memoir. What happened to Martha was legitimately awful and hard to watch. Stilted performances aside, I would have also liked a whole separate movie about the lesbian spy aunt. But Commandant Oberaertz... [redacted]. He's so hot, despite the character being absolutely awful and creepy and intimidating. I actually said "wow" out loud about his body shape in that costume. That jacket is fitted within a millimeter of its life. How many other films did Connie use this lower register in? Not many, right? It's too much, TOO MUCH. I think this movie took ten years off my life.

I Was a Spy, 1933

Dir. Victor Saville

⭐3/5

Watched Feb 18, Snowgrouse's masterpost

Connie's performance in this is more sympathetic than it has any right to be. The movie very easily could have been sensationalist garbage, and I'm so glad it was handled with relative care and humanity. I liked his whole vibe, I am not immune to party boy Rasputin's charms; "he's got the kavorca, the lure of the animal!" He looks like he stinks, which in this case may not necessarily be a bad thing. I don't even know what to make of all the cooing and baby talk he does with Alexei, or for that matter Drunk!Rasputin dancing and climbing over furniture to get at his ladies. I wish we got to see more scenes with Rasputin and the royal family, how those relationships formed and affected matters of state. We only really get to know about any of that through dialogue among other court officials. And so the emotional turn at the ending was unexpected. The way he cried out after being shot, I've never heard a sound like that come from a human being. Needless to say I did not feel great when the movie ended, but I liked it way more than I thought I would.

Rasputin, Dämon der Frauen, 1932

Dir. Adolf Trotz

⭐3/5

Watched Mar 23, Archive.org

Almost all the performances in this are pretty excellent. The stripped back, realistic style with handheld, newsreel camerawork really suits these actors and the story. Apparently this is a remake of an English film which is based on a play, and it definitely feels like a play. I'm fascinated by this little movie, it's basically an anti-war film about British soldiers in WWI produced in Germany in the early 30s… how did this even get made?? Messages about the horrors of war aside, the homoerotic undertones (overtones?) alone make this a truly unique piece of storytelling for the time and place it was filmed. And those under/overtones are treated pretty respectfully, none of these men are the butt of a joke, how they are with one another is handled with a naturalism that isn't really seen again until maybe the 1950s. And Connie. The range. Can we talk about Stanhope? He's a gruff, messy drunk, a traumatized, hollowed out husk of a man. When Osbourne says something like "you'll be alright when this is over," NO HE WOULDN'T, HE'D BE WORSE. His relationship with Raleigh is interesting too, clearly they were more than casual friends. I didn't believe for a second that the tension between Stanhope and Raleigh was about the sister/fiancée, it's weak, weak I tell you. It's one of Connie's most underrated performances.

Die andere Seite, 1931

Dir. Heinz Paul

⭐3.75/5

Watched Apr 27, Snowgrouse's masterpost

Everyone in this movie looks like a Rankin Bass stop motion character. The ending was abrupt as fuck, Werner Krauss' Jack the Ripper got a lot less screen time and I wonder if they just tacked that onto the end after they realized they spent too much time on Emil Jannings' and Connie's characters. There's a lot of fondling going on in this movie, there's the guy with the bread in the first part, then Connie going all glassy-eyed caressing his globes. Ivan the Terrible is a certified DIVA in that diaphanous, white robe, even with the hard middle part and scraggly beard. What is he doing with his tongue the whole time, though?? Love that he crashes some random girl's wedding, lets her father get murdered by assassins, kidnaps her AND her husband, and brings them both home to his sex dungeon. Connie is doing the most -- the eyes, the gestures, all the greatest hits from his silent film acting tool box, he's whipping them out for this role.

Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (Waxworks), 1924

Dir. Paul Leni, Leo Birinski

⭐2/5

Watched May 29, Archive.org

I didn't like this movie, I just wanted an excuse to post this screenshot. But it actually is a very silly little movie, with what must have been an enormous budget for costumes and sets, and it has some cute physical comedy. Sadly, Connie's in too little of the film to save it from being obnoxious. I did like the Czar's body double who just wanted to work on his needlepoint, and the Court Spanker who was clearly really into his job. And of course Metternich, that sly dog, that velvet-clad scamp. Between the all the foxy, gap-toothed grinning he does and the way he's going to town on that dialogue, he is as always a pleasure to watch. The English version is on Youtube somewhere, so I may go through that and pick out the time stamps for Connie's scenes because I don't think I could sit through this whole movie again, especially not that stupid fucking "Wien und der Wein" song, jesus christ.

Der Kongress tanzt, 1931

Dir. Erik Charell

⭐2/5

Watched Jun 23, Snowgrouse's masterpost

Apparently this movie was considered a flop, and Connie wasn't super happy with this role and others around this time. I think I must have had that info in the back of my mind somewhere going into this movie, because my expectations were pretty low. So, as usual, I actually wound up liking it more than I thought I would. It's a lot sillier than it has any right to be, but yeah it's ultimately a piece of fluff compared to some of the other heavy-hitting films on this list. I love when Connie has a comedic foil like the Marius character, but it could have been a lot better if the dialogue was snappier and the timing tighter. And Connie's character promises to be this bad bitch at the top of the movie, but all we get is one quick, poorly choreographed sword fight and a whole bunch of nothing after that. There's all this build up, I mean, the character is nicknamed The Black Death, and the movie never really lets the character live up to the name. It's a missed opportunity for sure. That said, the Puffy Shirt with the open collar "ensconced in velvet" (to risk yet more Seinfeld references), jaunty hat, knee-high boots with spurs look is really doing it for me. And THERE ARE PUPPIES. Perhaps the most delightful thing that has ever happened in cinematic history. I couldn’t believe it. Connie picked up the first puppy and said, "You big boy, you!" and I hate him, like full Madeline Kahn Mrs. White "flames… on the side of my face." I hate him so much.

Under the Red Robe, 1937

Dir. Victor Seastrom

⭐2.5/5

Watched Jul 17, Youtube

[tenderlywicked]

I'm one third through Ghazal by Snowgrouse and versaphile—and I must tell you it's marvelous.

It's not just a Doctor/Master slave!fic (of which I approve in itself). It's rich, well-researched historical fiction painting a colorful picture of medieval Persia, and also a psychological/spiritual journey in a way. It's all the more compelling for me because I'm writing something related to the medieval East myself at the moment. Also: it's VERY kinky and VERY explicit, with whump included ;)

I'm going to put this fic on my Doctor/Master rec list later, when I have a bunch of other recommendations, but I'm so in awe of it that I couldn't but share it right now :)

[mormymoe]

Propaganda for Andersen

Gifs by snowgrouse, it wouldn’t let me add them

Propaganda below the cut! (Note: contains spoilers for Contraband.)

Musashi Miyamoto

The manga will never update but I swear irl he adopts like 7 kids he was a father. And he loves his fictional wife.

Captain Andersen

Because Capt Andersen is played by Conrad Veidt, he has a seductive blend of fem and masc characteristics. (Spoilers upcoming) As part of the plot, he consensually ties up an ally so they don’t arouse suspicion. Later he and a band of buddies punch Nazis.

[ushas42]

snowgrouse replied to your post “In honor of the date I’d like to state for the record that if you want...”

I now have a vision of some horned cartoon character banging you on a bed of cash while you are also a cartoon and dressed like Descole. While the room is one big hotbox of weed smoke.

Damn, girl, you know how to throw a party.

[originallonemagpie]

Obvious question from me, but I'd love to hear your thoughts (for the public, not just our private gushings) on why you personally think Conrad Veidt is so great and why more folks should check him out beyond just the silent horrors or Casablanca & ToB. It took us way too long, considering the sort of stuff we've always been into, didn't it?! Why is he worth it? Which films do you recommend for that (acting, aura, type of role most wouldn't expect to see him play AND doing it really well, etc)?

Oh, Connie... OK.

He’s one of those rare folks who covers a bunch of different sub-media in film, for starters. He’s got the visible dance training and devotion to pushing his art as far as it will go to make him able to act with whatever part of him is visible on the screen in a silent film - the face for close-ups, the whole body for long shots and wider framing, every part for characterisation or emphasis... But then he also has an interesting voice - capable of lightness and sinister timbre - for the talkies. And of course with the talkies he also still has the body acting skill-set from before, which he can now use in concert with the voice acting, often in deifferent ways than he did in the silents (obviously, because he doesn’t have the voice there), and so he kind of reinvents himself more successfully than others do, while still being very much the actor he was in the silents.

But wait; then he reinvents himself repeatedly when he becomes a part of wider European cinema, especially British cinema, and then goes to Hollywood (though sadly the material doesn’t always give him the best opportunities to use his talents.) Because Connie knows visual artistry as well as performance; he can tell impressionism from expressionism, and so adjusts to fit with the performance styles of those different cultures and fashions, while still be recognisably Connie. Which sound sobvious, because you’d think it’s something all actors should be doing, but most of them couldn’t. And he’s always doing something interesting when he’s on screen, whether it be movement or stillness. (Clint Eastwood had the reputation for being able to convey the most by doing nothing, but Connie got there way before, and differently - with Connie it’s part of the performance, whereas with Eastwood it was being smart enough to know when not to, and is all in the eyes - and became, oddly, overdone. And Christopher Lee is somewhere in between)

Movies I’d recommend... The usual ones, obviously- Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Student Of Prague, Hands Of Orlac, Spy In Black, Casablanca, Thief Of Bagdad...

Casablanca’s the first one- people should go and watch that, cos it’s a classic, and they’ve definitely seen him in it, but this time watch out for him. Especially when he first talks to Rick about his papers, and any scene with Captain Renault. Once you’ve seen that, go and find his other movies, and you’ll be amazed at how this is nothing compared to his overall range.

Next I’d go with Passing Of The Third Floor Back, because it’s one of my favourite performances of his - it mixes the charm, the implied darkness that he can fuck you up, the compassion, the stillness, and the movement.

If you like a bit of Bogie, All Through The Night is good fun, though Connie’s role isn’t really that big or noteworthy, but he’s fun in it.

A Woman’s Face is a must- his best talkie role, and if you liked the TV show Feud: Bette And Joan, it’s also got Joan Crawford at her best. Again, mix of charm, darkness, and that physical control.  Just ignore the last five minutes or so.

For a change of pace, there’s always The Men In Her Life, where he’s a dance teacher opposite Loretta Young from The Bishop’s Wife, or Ich Und Die Kaiserin, which is a romantic comedy (I think the English release is titled The Only Girl now)

FP1 is a bit of a guilty pleasure, but it’s rare sci fi for him, and you get to see how he can still act while totally off his skull on drugs and alcohol, to a degree that Nic Cage could only dream of.

Letzte Kompagnie is worth it for some of the framing and cinematography, which goes very well with his style.

If you want to directly compare Silent and Talkie Veidt, try for Wilhelm Tell (1923) and William Tell (1934), which both have Hans Marr as Tell and Connie as Gessler.

Lucrezia Borgia has a good barking spidery Cesare from Connie.

And obviously Anders vom die Anderen, 1919′s first LGBT rights movie.

I mean, I could go on, but there’s lots I have seen yet either... And sadly some of his very early ones are lost forever.

I still think he’d be a great wingman on a night out in Weimar Berlin, or anywhere else...

[crowfoot]

snowgrouse replied to your photo “aikainkauna: As the person with the dubious honour of having a) first...”

@crowfoot ahahahaa, yep. *Bows, tips hat* the agony is all mine.

:D

[kawasemi0726-blog]

#famousgrouse #snowgrouse #blackgrouse #フェイマスグラウス #スノーグラウス #ブラックグラウス 以前からフェイマスグラウスのグラスでハイボールを作っていたのですが肝心のフェイマスグラウスでのハイボールを飲んでいないなぁと思い出して作りました。 飲んだ瞬間にシェリーの香りが広がりますが嫌らしくない程度、人によってはちょうどいいのかもしれません。 キーモルトはマッカランやハイランドパーク、タムデューなど錚々たる面々。 でもこのシェリー感どこから来てんだろう…と調べたらフェイマスグラウスはこれらの原酒を40種類程度ブレンドした後、後熟用のシェリー樽で1年間寝かせることで香り付けをしているようです。 日本ではウイスキー好きな人なら知ってて当然ではありますが、あまり関心のない人にとっては何それ？な感じだと思いますがウイスキーの本場、スコットランドではベルかフェイマスグラウスか、と言われるくらい消費されているウイスキーです。日本で言うところのブラックニッカvs角瓶みたいなものなのでしょうか笑 スコッチでは鹿が描かれている事が多い中でグラウス(雷鳥)が描かれているのも他社との差別化が出来ていますね🤔 鳥が描かれている事が多いのがアメリカンウイスキーですが、そっちに紛れていても違和感なさそう。ワイルドターキーの横辺りに置いてても違和感ないと思います🤣 このフェイマスグラウスのボトルデザインが好きで収集にハマっていた時期があります。 現行品として普通に購入出来るのは画像1のファイネスト、他にはメロウゴールド、スモーキーブラックの3種類と言われているようです。 ん？と思う方がいると思うのですがネイキッドグラウスも現行では？となりますが、これ現在作っていないと聞くんですがどうなんでしょ。確かにしばらく見かけないのですが終売と断言出来るような話もないんですよね。 ネイキッドグラウスはコスパ抜群と言うので私も飲んでみたいのですがないものはないので仕方ないですね😅 私の手元には上記の3種類に加えて何故か他に4種類あると言う🤣 そのうちの2種類が2枚目のスノーグラウスとブラックグラウスアルファエディション。 ��度見てもカッコいいと思いますがどうでしょうか。 左のスノーグラウス、免税店向けとの事です。でも国内で買えます笑 これ、ブレンデッドグレーンウイスキーと書かれる事があるのですが原材料が普通にモルト、グレーンなのでブレンデッドウイスキーでは？と思っているのですがなんでなんでしょう。 ニッカのオールモルトのように連続式蒸留器を使ったのかな？とモヤモヤしています。 分かる人いたら教えてください🙇‍♂️ 右も免税店向け商品ででスカンジナビア地方とロシア向けとの事ですがこれももちろん国内で購入してます笑 いずれもブレンデッドウイスキーなので驚くような値段でもないので飲む飲まないは別として部屋に飾っておくとその場だけカッコ良くなります笑 聞くところによるとスコットランドもコロナで大変なようなので蒸溜所には頑張っていただきたいので応援のつもりでウイスキーも飲み続けよう🥴#whisky #ウイスキー #scotchwhisky #スコッチ https://www.instagram.com/p/CB8Lm9sF6HB/?igshid=1vhnnikq43ssf

[aikainkauna]

[technicolorfamiliar]

Technicolor Familiar Watches Too Many Conrad Veidt Movies Part 5 of ?

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4

Contraband (Blackout), 1940 Dir. Michael Powell ⭐4/5 Watched Dec 18, Archive.org Uncle Erik: Your Captain, he is a beautiful man! From the first moment, I loved him! Me: Hard same. So much fun. By far my favorite of the Connie Spy Thrillers I've seen so far. Valerie Hobson is so slick, and the rest of the ensemble is pretty good for a change, especially the guys at the Danish restaurant. The bondage scene (not really, but... yeah, it is) lives up to the hype. The screenwriters really went off on this one, didn't they? I mean, this movie gave us Conrad Very-Serious-Actor Veidt whispering lovely things in the dark like "good girl" and "do you trust me?" The scene with the music box in the pocket watch? Too much, can't handle it. Connie's dry humor is a delight and all the sexy, flirtatious fun he's having in this role is like a precious balm for my tortured soul.

Above Suspicion, 1943 Dir. Richard Thorpe ⭐3/5 Watched Jan 3, Vudu Oh, filmmakers. Bless you for having Fred MacMurray get strangled in greeting by Conrad Veidt. A great film it is not, but it's definitely cute. And while it's a semi-tough watch as Connie's last film, I'm so glad it was this one where he's clearly having a ball -- whether on the dance floor (does Hassert always go out in the middle of the day to tango with mature, voluptuous women?), getting stepped on by Joan Crawford, sticking his fingers in bowls of cake batter, or climbing down trellises with his knees all out in the wind. He's very obviously living his best life and I love that for him. The movie is riddled with very silly, eyeroll-worthy one-liners, but the plot is enjoyable. Joan Crawford looks like she's having a good time too, and Fred MacMurray is pretty tolerable. I haven't seen Basil Rathbone in a lot of other movies, but I wish he got to be nastier and that he and Connie got to have some scenes together. Connie's physicality is so subtly funny, I really wish he had gotten to do more intentionally comedic films/roles.

Lucrezia Borgia, 1922 Dir. Richard Oswald ⭐3/5 Watched Jan 10, Archive.org I've been trying to watch at least one silent every once in a while. And while I have to lodge my typical complaint of these older films being a bit too long, this film is clearly a feat of production for the year it was made. The huge, open sets and beautiful costume details were incredible. As always, Connie 100% steals the show. He's delightfully wicked and nasty, slimy and pathetic. I wish he had better scene partners to receive and react to his intense performance as Cesare Borgia. But it's ok, it's like a Game of Thrones episode without the dragons or misogynist nudity.

Nazi Agent, 1942 Dir. Jules Dassin ⭐4/5 Watched Jan 14, Youtube I admit I chose to watch this one because I was charmed by the idea of Double Connies. But not even five minutes in and Otto had won my heart. I didn’t know anything about the movie itself going in, but was completely prepared for it to be cringey and mediocre. So I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually decent. Maybe I'm rating this one higher than it really deserves, but really those four stars all belong to Connie's performance/s. Daggers in my heart. So many moments in this little movie affected me more than I expected: Otto's line to Richten about being only one of however many million citizens willing to rise up against fascism; his look toward the Statue of Liberty at the end; the little glittering tears in his eyes when Fritz says, "We do what we're told because we must…"; his gentleness and deeply tragic sense of loss that permeates the film. And, perhaps most of all, how cute he was with his pet canary. Cue the waterworks. I have so many more thoughts about this and about his time in Hollywood in the 40s in general, but I'll save that for another time.

Kreuzzug des Weibes, 1926 Dir. Martin Berger ⭐3.5/5 Watched Jan 20, Snowgrouse's masterpost This movie was made nearly 100 years ago and we're still having the same conversations about reproductive rights today, especially now in the US after Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022. It's pretty disturbing how much of the script could be lifted from a dozen different arguments between contemporary conservative lawmakers and the people trying to better advocate for and provide safe reproductive healthcare. It's a pretty bare bones film, the story and performances clearly more important, appropriately so, than cinematic bells and whistles. Thought it was an interesting choice to have the lawyer's office so stately and huge, like the patriarchal systems he's operating in -- overbearing, empty and impersonal. The movie does feel like a public service announcement (which I guess it was), but that didn't really bother me. What bothered me was the ending, because OF COURSE the woman has to comfort the man even though she's the one who went through a major trauma. But the way Connie's character broke after the doctor told him what happened to his fiancée? I've never seen anything like that. He went fully offline. His whole nervous system got unplugged and rewired. P.S.: The extra half star in my rating is for all the monocle twirling.

[alittleoblivion]

My dearest @liliana-von-k,  I was going through the fanvids tag on AO3 and found this gem about Connie!  I don’t know if you’ve seen it before, but I think it’s quite well done and who knew the Pet Shop Boys would fit him so well!

Happy Birthday, darling! <333333

[aikainkauna]

#bird you are not a snowflake

Yellowknife Ptarmigans #2 by davebrosha on Flickr.

[suchamiracle-does-exist]

Tag Game

I was tagged by @miss-indigodaisies & @somewhere-at-sea, thank you very much!

Rules: Tag 9 ppl you want to get to know better

Top 3 ships:

It seems I concentrate more on a story than ships. But these are the ships I’ve enjoyed and have wished to last longer than the fiction have offered:

1) Klaus Hoffmann & Robert Ehrenberg (Das Boot, 2018) (I value their friendship they manage to build)

2) Uncle Charlie Oakley & Charlie Newton (Shadow of a Doubt, 1943) (Best friends - or crushes - ending up being something completely different is so intriguing)

3) Officer John Davis and the gang & Harry Callahan (Magnum Force, 1973) (Harry’s chemistry with the rookie traffic police officers leaves a bit distant, but it’s sparking!)

Last movie:

Documentary film: Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (2019). A big recommendation! Fictional film: Brexit: The Uncivil War (2019). Quite entertaining. Benedict Cumberbatch is the star who holds the story interesting.

Currently reading:

I’ve just finished reading for an exam about film production, distribution and exhibition. But on my bedside table there’s Anne Rice’s Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat (2018) waiting for to carry on reading.

Food I’m craving:

I’m longing to have Nepalese Palak paneer with a good company in a restaurant.

I’m tagging: @sternvonafrika, @lovelytschilling, @marijefvdb​, @snowgrouse, @classicmoviesseriesandmore, @tom--schilling, @klaus-hoffmann, @ulrichwrangel and @missholson.

[ushas42]

snowgrouse replied to your post “*A friendly, considerate female authority figure is impressed by or...”

Seduce her to get the job! Get the best of both worlds.

That would be the dream, honestly.

[monsterfromid]

HOW TO HAVE FUN WITH ADHD (although living with it 24 hours a day isn’t all a barrel of laughs).

You will need 1) a tiny tractor, 2) an elegant chair. Proceed to cavort on and over said objects with gay abandon.

The original theory that Conrad Veidt may have had ADHD was proposed by snowgrouse, pre-eminent Connie expert. Since my diagnosis and becoming involved with CV fan-ship, I’m convinced she’s right, and so are a couple of other Connie fans who have relatives with ADHD. This is something I’ll be writing about in more detail.

I was 48 when this picture was taken and Connie was probably in his mid to late 30s. WHAT ARE WE LIKE?