Dear god, I mean, Mein Gott!
Still devouring anything of Veidt's I can get my hands on. And stories of him just make me gape in awe at his awesomeness. Take a look at this page of what he did for war children in London during the Blitz and how he stood up to the Nazis when they put him under house arrest and tortured him with sleep deprivation and endless interrogations because they wanted to stop him from making a film that dealt with antisemitism and portrayed Jews in a positive light. But he stood his ground. Holy shit.
And in more shallow news, well... this particular anecdote is not helping my raging lust at all. When I first saw Different From The Others (that must've been about 5-7 years ago now?), and put that together with a) pretty, androgynous guy b) Weimar Berlin cabaret scene c) passionate love affairs with women d) Christopher Isherwood talking about him hanging out at gay balls e) his own sort of veiled references to having sunk pretty deep into all kinds of depravities in the teens and twenties=hello, likely bisexuality. I mean, it was all the rage to be as genderfucky and as pansexual as possible in that scene at the time, but it's nice to have his bisexuality confirmed from someone who knew him. Oh god now I'm going to dream of him and Matt Smith having sex
Oh, and I greatly enjoyed The Congress Dances (full movie here on youtube), even though I'm not usually one for musical comedies/operettas. This was really good fun, though. The pacing and the comic timing was brilliant, and you rarely see that kind of stuff even now--I laughed out loud several times. It's the sort of thing they could make today with a contemporary cast and it'd probably be just as hilarious. The main couple actually made me think "oh, man, they should remake this with Tate and Tennant" because it reminded me of some of the bounciness of their Much Ado. Connie's not in it much but basically he just leers and pornfaces his way through it, which is hilarious and hot. And Lilian Harvey was just a fantastic comedienne and totally sparkled, stealing the show from everyone. It's not like it's a mindblowing, unforgettable movie, but passes the time and makes you laugh, and sometimes that's just what the doctor ordered. It's utter fluff and works well for what it is.
And did I mention the pornfaces? And that's just his character talking to his male secretary over breakfast.
That's a filthy look. I feel like going out, finding his urn and slapping it so hard he'll feel it back in 1931.
Although re: other Connie stuff I've been watching, Contraband was bloody excellent and also had a huge load of lols for an espionage movie. But then again, Powell & Pressburger. It's hard to fail with those two guys. There's a good copy of it on Youtube, here. I really loved the Veidt/Hobson chemistry in this and The Spy In Black--they made a great team, and it shows in Contraband even better because they get to have more witty banter and comedy scenes together. Hay Petrie is also a joy to behold as the comic relief in his double roles as Axel and Erik Skold. There's quite a bit of innocent-seeming double entendre in the film that made me go o_O but it's played totally straight most of the time--my only niggle was that they didn't have more romantic oomph in the film because of the aforementioned great chemistry between the leads. Would've loved to have seen a bit more snogging there--I mean, there are frequent bondage references in the film, for god's sakes! You basically got the idea that those two would totally have wild, giggly, intense and passionate and fun sex with handcuffs and rope all the time. If you don't believe me, check out some of the lines in this clip from about three minutes in. Closing your eyes helps. 3:32 to 3:45 in particular. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. And then from 4:20 onwards. D'awwww. <3 Oh, and in light of the above anecdote, the first 20 seconds of this scene suddenly become a lot more interesting. *g*
Not that, um, the Spy in Black isn't fucking awesome. I must stop spamming because I need sleep, but I'll leave you with this. Just look at this badass U-boatin' motherfucker. As I said on Tumblr: Captain Hardt has come here to sink ships and fuck bitches. And he's all out of ships.
And in more shallow news, well... this particular anecdote is not helping my raging lust at all. When I first saw Different From The Others (that must've been about 5-7 years ago now?), and put that together with a) pretty, androgynous guy b) Weimar Berlin cabaret scene c) passionate love affairs with women d) Christopher Isherwood talking about him hanging out at gay balls e) his own sort of veiled references to having sunk pretty deep into all kinds of depravities in the teens and twenties=hello, likely bisexuality. I mean, it was all the rage to be as genderfucky and as pansexual as possible in that scene at the time, but it's nice to have his bisexuality confirmed from someone who knew him. Oh god now I'm going to dream of him and Matt Smith having sex
Oh, and I greatly enjoyed The Congress Dances (full movie here on youtube), even though I'm not usually one for musical comedies/operettas. This was really good fun, though. The pacing and the comic timing was brilliant, and you rarely see that kind of stuff even now--I laughed out loud several times. It's the sort of thing they could make today with a contemporary cast and it'd probably be just as hilarious. The main couple actually made me think "oh, man, they should remake this with Tate and Tennant" because it reminded me of some of the bounciness of their Much Ado. Connie's not in it much but basically he just leers and pornfaces his way through it, which is hilarious and hot. And Lilian Harvey was just a fantastic comedienne and totally sparkled, stealing the show from everyone. It's not like it's a mindblowing, unforgettable movie, but passes the time and makes you laugh, and sometimes that's just what the doctor ordered. It's utter fluff and works well for what it is.
And did I mention the pornfaces? And that's just his character talking to his male secretary over breakfast.
That's a filthy look. I feel like going out, finding his urn and slapping it so hard he'll feel it back in 1931.
Although re: other Connie stuff I've been watching, Contraband was bloody excellent and also had a huge load of lols for an espionage movie. But then again, Powell & Pressburger. It's hard to fail with those two guys. There's a good copy of it on Youtube, here. I really loved the Veidt/Hobson chemistry in this and The Spy In Black--they made a great team, and it shows in Contraband even better because they get to have more witty banter and comedy scenes together. Hay Petrie is also a joy to behold as the comic relief in his double roles as Axel and Erik Skold. There's quite a bit of innocent-seeming double entendre in the film that made me go o_O but it's played totally straight most of the time--my only niggle was that they didn't have more romantic oomph in the film because of the aforementioned great chemistry between the leads. Would've loved to have seen a bit more snogging there--I mean, there are frequent bondage references in the film, for god's sakes! You basically got the idea that those two would totally have wild, giggly, intense and passionate and fun sex with handcuffs and rope all the time. If you don't believe me, check out some of the lines in this clip from about three minutes in. Closing your eyes helps. 3:32 to 3:45 in particular. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. And then from 4:20 onwards. D'awwww. <3 Oh, and in light of the above anecdote, the first 20 seconds of this scene suddenly become a lot more interesting. *g*
Not that, um, the Spy in Black isn't fucking awesome. I must stop spamming because I need sleep, but I'll leave you with this. Just look at this badass U-boatin' motherfucker. As I said on Tumblr: Captain Hardt has come here to sink ships and fuck bitches. And he's all out of ships.