Conrad Veidt, androgyny, glamour and gender in cinema

[snowgrouse]

I'm still trying to pinpoint what it is that makes Conrad Veidt so attractive. I keep thinking of the various individual parts of what make up his charisma--those magnetic eyes, those elegant hands, his imposing tall and slim stature, the smoothness of his voice once he'd become fluent in English--and yet, even saying "it's all of these things in

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[snowgrouse]

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! (Also hnnng at your icon.) What you say about Torsten is exactly right. Because when he comes in and demands Anna to murder for him, he does not expect to be denied. And he shouldn't be. Because he's Torsten Barring. And they couldn't have chosen an actor more perfect for the part, because that's at the core of Connie's sexual charm. It's fucking unstoppable, and that's why he is actually frightening at times. He seems to have been like that in real life, such a larger-than-life personality. Some of that comes through in Powell's reminiscences, here. What really comes across from Connie, to me, is the sheer amount of *power* and energy that man had. At the risk of repeating myself, I find it really interesting how in the silents, he was tortured by it and shaking with it; and in the sounds, he had finally started to channel that power and used it to ensnare others. And that seems, to me, to explain why he was such an amazing presence on screen, so exuberant, so strong in real life, and it would also go a long way to explain his desire for wild partying and his voracious sexual appetite that didn't limit itself to one gender. I am really not surprised he thought he was possessed by spirits on and off screen and always talked about how something greater than himself took over when he was acting. It's like he had the power and energy of an entire sun inside him, constantly bursting out of him, and maybe that, too, was a part of the reason why he burnt out so young. His body simply couldn't handle it any longer.

Also yes to all the Bowie/Jareth comparisons, because he's the guy I scrabble for when I try to find anything that comes near (yep, traumatised Eighties kid speaking). Although Bowie is different and... lighter, possibly slightly more frail, whereas Connie is just this juggernaut (in the original sense of the word, too, this mighty manifestation of Vishnu that's unstoppable and will crush you in his path if you are not careful. Many actors can approximate the pretty and loving young Krishna, but Connie's like Vishnu in all his glory, as frightening as he was when he revealed his true self to Arjuna). If I were to compare Bowie as Jareth and Connie as Torsten or Jaffar, I would be compelled to refer to them as different perfumes: Jareth spicy and flowery and light, deceptively light, luring you into Faery. And Connie would be the rich dark scent of the autumn earth after rain, at night, with the scent of death shot through it, of dying leaves and animals, with the sweetness of ripe, fallen fruit as it yields itself to the hungry earth. Jareth would be beckoning to you with a flick of his hand, an alluring melody; Connie would be Hades himself bursting through the earth and claiming you, pulling you underground whether you want it or not because you have always been his.

I still think Connie has more confidence than Bowie, even though Bowie's (bi)sexual confidence is out of this world to begin with. It's like Bowie's allure and seduction allows negotiation, whereas Connie's doesn't accept no for an answer. I don't know if that makes sense? Although I absolutely agree that he comes from the same place as Jareth--he hits me in the same kinks. And I've had about three or four people tell me that my Jaffar/Princess fics have given them the same sort of catharsis Sarah/Jareth fics have because they felt a similar sort of frustration when they saw those movies as children and wanted the heroine to end up with the bad guy because he was the fucking hot one. So we're definitely not alone in finding the beautiful, androgynous, deliciously evil character alluring. Although, again, what astounds me about Connie is that I've never, ever seen *anyone* with that sort of sexual confidence and power on screen. I thought I'd seen it all and then I look at Torsten and I actually physically shiver. He doesn't need to say anything or even move, but he can just do THAT



And you have been ravished.

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Yeah, it's kind of sad that Allen really didn't seem to realise how offensive he was being, too. What if Connie had come up to him, towering over him in a sparkly evening dress and puffing on a fag, saying "yes, I had sex with men and women, so what?" And really, seriously, if you know anything about Berlin in those days, it would've been way more shocking if he had refrained from the indulgences. You can't take it out of context, even all the awful stuff about the child prostitution that was rife at the time and everything. Just like you can't take the Satyricon or Abu Nuwas's poems out of context even if both involve similar stuff (where gender and age and even consent are non-issues).

And yeah, same goes with projecting modern sexual identities on past periods. I'm not a fan of gender/sexuality-based identities at all and I'm really saddened how it's getting worse all the time, to the point where transsexuals harass butch lesbians into identifying as male because butch automatically means male identity to them. Queer culture has become way more binary and sexist than it ever was before. To the point where you probably couldn't even call it queer because it's getting so damn conformist and now you have to have a niche instead of... mixing shit up, like Bowie would have done.

I don't know about the pansexuality, because Connie seems to have been on the feminine and the feminine-fancying side of that equation, which is highly interesting. He says he didn't get along with macho men at all and much preferred the company of women, and then there's the transvestism. And the mother complex which he would never stop going on about. He really seems to have had a fixation on everything feminine. Or maybe I'm projecting, I don't know, because I just find that lack of machismo incredibly attractive in a man and it's so precious and rare.

And that look in The Spy In Black... *sigh* yes. Pretty sure that's Powell's direction, too (the fucking butter, come *on*), but doesn't mean Connie doesn't do it perfectly. I've never seen a cruising gaze like that in classic cinema. Never have I seen a man use his eyes like that in a film of that era, or maybe ever. There was just something uninhibited about that sexual gaze, and yet he managed to do it in such a controlled way. It's a crazy juxtaposition--how can you do an undressing gaze like that and make it sizzle with sex and lewdness, yet do it with such style and grace? It's like he just gives you this tiny flash, this tiny glimpse of the enormous amount of sexual energy that's there on offer and it's way more erotic than him standing there with his dick out and saying "spread your legs" or something.

What I really love about him is that he seems to personify that thing about good erotica: the anticipation, the hint of everything that's on offer, the *temptation*. I may have mentioned that before, but it bears repeating. His whole fucking existence is that little touch of a man's hand on the small of your back, or your arm. That little look across a crowded room saying exactly how hard he's going to fuck you that night. Gah!

And yeah, mmm, Bowie. I think there is a negotiation going there, yes. A very delicious one that's hard to resist anyway, but with Connie, it's sometimes like... well, Bowie is still saying "come hither" when with Connie, your knickers are already on the floor and he's between your legs and you're going "wait, how did that happen?" And yet I don't mean to imply there's no play with Connie, because the play is what makes him so damn irresistible, like I said above about the suggestion and everything. It's like when you're dancing with Jareth, you are dancing *with* him. When it's Connie, he is dancing *you*.

[snowgrouse]

And continuing here because I ran out of comment room (Connie tends to do that):

I need to find this bit in Jew Suss, because unf. He's so full of sass in that movie. And Rococo suited him so well--it was like he had been born to carry it. I love how he said that he felt body language, especially a character's walk, the way they carried themselves was the key to understanding tem. But still, even thinking "this guy's elegant and sensual" doesn't mean you can actually pull off that sort of elegance and sensuous grace he did. It's breathtaking--he could seduce an entire room with lowered lashes or conquer an empire with a flick of his lace-cuffed wrist. To put it simply, he just had so much *power* within him, and it shows.