Historical Film - Tumblr Posts
A sudden thought came recently to my mind: why haven’t I ever spoken about my favourite portrayal of one mischievous Austrian statesman on the big screen? I’ve actually seen several interpretations of Metternich in different types of media but only one won me over completely after some time of contemplation. 🎥
Thus, let us turn to a movie called “Der Kongreß tanzt” (“The Congress Dances”)! 💃
This intriguing product of German cinematography was originally filmed in 1931. The movie focuses on - who could have guessed! - on the events of the Congress of Vienna (mostly imaginary but still). It stared many leading German actors and comedians of the time and was promoted as a response to the success of the American cinema in Europe.
Here’s how Wikipedia’s article expands on the whole drama:
“Der Kongress tanzt” is a particularly well achieved move in Ufa's attempt to challenge US supremacy in the European film arena, taking advantage of the introduction of sound. As such, the studio released the movie in three different language versions (MLV): in German, in French as Le congrès s'amuse, and English as Congress Dances. Lilian Harvey played in all three versions, as she spoke all languages; Henri Garat replaced Willy Fritsch for the French and English versions.
Ufa spared no efforts: the cast reads like a who's who of German film, from the top billers of the day to heavy-weight comedians - even the supporting cast is made out of stars. The sets were lavish and top talent made up the entire technical cast.
Despite the ambition and the auspicious beginning, Ufa's challenge to US supremacy never materialized, both due to the strength of the Hollywood majors and to the constraints Germany's creative film and performers would suffer from 1933 onwards.
As you can see, the destiny of this movie is quite an upsetting one… But there is one review mentioned in the article which strikes me right to the heart. 💔
"This truffle of cinema unfolds its flavours like a heavenly feast for the anonymous millions it is dedicated to." Lichtbild-Bühne
That truly is the state of this film in the eyes of the public. It won’t be interesting for the major part of the audience, even if the audience enjoys cinema of the old times, simply because this movie is about history at it’s finest! Of course, the original creators did their best in an attempt to adapt the plot to the taste of general public, removed a lot of notable historical characters who would seem excess for the storytelling and oversimplified the relationships between certain political figures but it still requires some level of immersion in the historical context…
That’s why for those who are invested in the period of Napoleonic wars this movie may be a treasure. Or a complete disaster, perhaps! :)
I’m obliged to feature the “disaster” part here because of those oversimplifications I mentioned earlier, immense problems with costumes (especially uniforms and women’s clothes) and appearances (as usual) of certain historical characters (for example, the man in the posters above is… emperor Alexander I, even though his moustache makes him look much more like Prussian king Frederick Wilhelm III; the resemblance is almost shocking!). Also, the plot focuses mostly on an idle love affair between emperor Alexander with the charming lady next to him and many other possible plot lines were left behind for the sake of it…
Still one of the best parts of this movie remains the same, in my humble opinion: it is an incredibly talented and dashing German actor Conrad Veidt playing the one and only - chancellor Metternich! 🇦🇹
I guess, the only thing I can say about this cast in particular is that Veidt was… just… someone extraordinary. 👁👄👁
Hence, I’m simply going to recommend you this movie wholeheartedly (if you haven’t watched it already, of course), as you’ll be able to savour it’s lively comedy, lovely music and wonderful acting of the Pleiad of old German cinema stars!
To sum it all up, I’ll leave few more screenshots of Metternich and his entourage for you to enjoy. 🤲💗
P.S.
Also, like… those cuffs… Oh (boy) prince…
Das Ende~ 🎥
That’s definitely for you, @marcvt! 🤗🇦🇹
I finally watched The Sound of Music and like I get it now, I get it.
It’s a beautiful two hour love story of a strict man finally opening his heart again and then a fifty minute public service announcement to hate the nazis. Brilliant.
Can’t pass on such an amazing topic for discussion and leave it without any commentary from my part!
Even though I pretty much stopped posting about Austrian affairs in the Napoleonic era, I’m still fascinated by the subject and would love to see some piece of media focusing on Imperial strifes and struggles during the exact same time period. And since nobody wants to do anything, I’d love to do it myself! If I only had such an opportunity. 🇦🇹✨
Like… those events made such an impact on a scale of European and world history. Yet it seems, that despite vast historical research being carried out on the Habsburg’s monarchy general public tends to know literally nothing about fundamentals. The fall of the Holy Roman Empire was not something that occurs every now and then. And people who lived through this whole mess were not just some boring imperialists, reactionaries and conservatives. 🤡
(Frankly speaking, many of them were all of those things at once… Still I whole-heartedly believe that they can be unbelievably captivating and deserve to be explored too!)
Documentaries are always appreciated, however I’d kill for a fully-fledged series about Kaiser Franz, his mind-blowing family and his court because oh man, what a court it was. Also, we desperately need a proper series about the Congress of Vienna! At least 4 seasons of drama, political intrigues and scandalous love affairs. It could be a show of a century! 😩🤌
My bad: I’ve started talking about series - not films - from the beginning, since, in my opinion, themes that I’ve mentioned require series and only series. There are so many things to explore, no film would be able to depict even a hundredth of what is needed to be shown.
Nevertheless, if we get back to the “film” topic, I’ll definitely ask for a decent biopic about Metternich without caricature exaggeration of his evilness and narrow-mindedness. 👏 Metternich 👏 has 👏 rights 👏 too 👏! That eccentric man was broken beyond repair by life-circumstances and it’s unbelievably tragic to witness, what a person could become because of their predisposition and bias.
At last, just to make this whole rant even worse…
Schwarzenberg.
Like, anything focusing him to let people know about someone who confronted Napoleon (much more complexly and excitingly, from my point of view, sorry not sorry) aside tsar Alexander and Wellington.
Das Ende der Geschichte. 😑
Your Ideal Napoleonic Era Movie
If someone gave you like Insane James Cameron Avatar money to make a Napoleonic film and every perfect actor, choreographer, screenwriter, and other logistics you needed was available to you, what you would do?
I'm just curious. I was discussing with a friend about how it was physically impossible to do the entirety of Naps' career in one movie in a satisfactory manner due to the absolute length of his military career.
But I had nothing cognizant to suggest for a movie about Napoleon.
The only thing I want is having the Napster sitting on his secretary's lap for no reason ever provided.
The guy was like a cat with ADHD from what I figure.
Maybe I just want guys chilling in an explicitly not 20th-21st century "we gotta No Homo everything" way.
And obviously, if I had more money on my hands than I knew what to do with for a Napoleonic film, I would hire the prettiest man for a Louis-Francois Lejeune biopic. xD
Well, well, well. Is it some sort of a happy coincidence that all those old German films about Napoleonic wars are coming out of oblivion right now?
Because I feel obliged as well to make a proper post on another gem of old German cinema featuring Gustaf Gründgens who plays there another prominent Napoleonic historical figure. And believe me, he is even more perfect there than in the “Hundert Tage”. 😉
Would anyone be interested in that small film review, I wonder…
The actor (Gustaf Gründgens) who plays Fouché is hugely compelling. His voice is so insinuating and sly. “Hundert Tage” movie, 1935, on youtube. It’s in German and the English subtitles are useless. I’m watching it anyway.
P.S. The book/movie “Mephisto” was based on Gustaf Grundgens.
Good time of day to you, ladies and gentlemen!
So, I made a promise in April that I never kept because of how insecure I felt about it for a long period of time. However, now I’m more than knowledgeable in terms of the subject and ready to full fill with immense pleasure that old pledge of mine. ✨
This post is dedicated to @microcosme11 and @usergreenpixel, since you’ve shown great interest in my proposition in the first place. :)
It all started with the discovery of a film “Hundert Tage” released in the year 1935. Its name speaks for itself as the movie covers Napoleon’s famous return from Elba in 1815 up to the battle of Waterloo. What’s fairly surprising is that Joseph Fouché, notorious ex-minister of police with many other regalia earned through the years of serving many masters, played a significant role in the plot (as he did in real life), despite usually having a somewhat ghostly presence in other pieces of Napoleonic media. In the “Hundert Tage” he is more than an active political player portrayed by Gustaf Gründgens, prominent German theater and film actor with his background being too controversial to ever make a non-biased sense of…
Anyhow, the thing is: the impersonation of Fouché wasn’t the first “Napoleonic” role Gründgens ever tried on during his artistic career. Exactly a year before that another film of Austrian (!) production was made where he starred in a role which suits his appearance and play style so well that I’m still blown away by such an impeccable choice.
The original title of the film is “So Endete eine Liebe” (1934) and it deals with the tragic story of erzherzogin Marie Louise, future wife of emperor Napoleon, being separated from her true love for the sake of an advantageous marriage and political alliance. The film cast is mainly Austro-German with two leading performers being Willi Forst, one of the most prominent Austrian actors in the 20th century, playing archduke Franz von Modena, and fore mentioned Gustaf Gründgens, an actor who was also born in the Westphalian region of Germany, playing… Klemens von Metternich in all his mischievous glory. 💅✨
The film itself is not friendly to people who aren’t ready to face the complexity of Habsburg’s incest-flavoured dramas at their finest (I myself wasn’t aware of the infatuation that Marie-Louise had for her uncle, if it ever took place at all [and I’m too lazy to check any decent biography about her to find out what did happen exactly]). BUT, but Gründgens’ Metternich is something else.
With due awareness and respect. 🧎♂️
This role was made for him, no doubt: even the film and its actors show appreciation for his grace at the first opportunity given. 😁
You’re always welcome! Wish you a pleasant watch. 🤗
I’ve already watched this film more than 5 times - still don’t understand a lot of things, since I’m not fluent in German as well. But I’m definitely going to make more posts about this movie focusing on most brilliant and witty parts from it. :)
Good time of day to you, ladies and gentlemen!
So, I made a promise in April that I never kept because of how insecure I felt about it for a long period of time. However, now I’m more than knowledgeable in terms of the subject and ready to full fill with immense pleasure that old pledge of mine. ✨
This post is dedicated to @microcosme11 and @usergreenpixel, since you’ve shown great interest in my proposition in the first place. :)
It all started with the discovery of a film “Hundert Tage” released in the year 1935. Its name speaks for itself as the movie covers Napoleon’s famous return from Elba in 1815 up to the battle of Waterloo. What’s fairly surprising is that Joseph Fouché, notorious ex-minister of police with many other regalia earned through the years of serving many masters, played a significant role in the plot (as he did in real life), despite usually having a somewhat ghostly presence in other pieces of Napoleonic media. In the “Hundert Tage” he is more than an active political player portrayed by Gustaf Gründgens, prominent German theater and film actor with his background being too controversial to ever make a non-biased sense of…
Anyhow, the thing is: the impersonation of Fouché wasn’t the first “Napoleonic” role Gründgens ever tried on during his artistic career. Exactly a year before that another film of Austrian (!) production was made where he starred in a role which suits his appearance and play style so well that I’m still blown away by such an impeccable choice.
The original title of the film is “So Endete eine Liebe” (1934) and it deals with the tragic story of erzherzogin Marie Louise, future wife of emperor Napoleon, being separated from her true love for the sake of an advantageous marriage and political alliance. The film cast is mainly Austro-German with two leading performers being Willi Forst, one of the most prominent Austrian actors in the 20th century, playing archduke Franz von Modena, and fore mentioned Gustaf Gründgens, an actor who was also born in the Westphalian region of Germany, playing… Klemens von Metternich in all his mischievous glory. 💅✨
The film itself is not friendly to people who aren’t ready to face the complexity of Habsburg’s incest-flavoured dramas at their finest (I myself wasn’t aware of the infatuation that Marie-Louise had for her uncle, if it ever took place at all [and I’m too lazy to check any decent biography about her to find out what did happen exactly]). BUT, but Gründgens’ Metternich is something else.
With due awareness and respect. 🧎♂️
This role was made for him, no doubt: even the film and its actors show appreciation for his grace at the first opportunity given. 😁
Thank you so much for your commentary, @josefavomjaaga! 🙏
I see… The waring parties at Austrian court strike again!
Klemens used the trump card he thought out at the moment but his actions couldn’t have passed unnoticed by others, as they tried to prevent his “cruel deeds” from coming to life. X)
Good time of day to you, ladies and gentlemen!
So, I made a promise in April that I never kept because of how insecure I felt about it for a long period of time. However, now I’m more than knowledgeable in terms of the subject and ready to full fill with immense pleasure that old pledge of mine. ✨
This post is dedicated to @microcosme11 and @usergreenpixel, since you’ve shown great interest in my proposition in the first place. :)
It all started with the discovery of a film “Hundert Tage” released in the year 1935. Its name speaks for itself as the movie covers Napoleon’s famous return from Elba in 1815 up to the battle of Waterloo. What’s fairly surprising is that Joseph Fouché, notorious ex-minister of police with many other regalia earned through the years of serving many masters, played a significant role in the plot (as he did in real life), despite usually having a somewhat ghostly presence in other pieces of Napoleonic media. In the “Hundert Tage” he is more than an active political player portrayed by Gustaf Gründgens, prominent German theater and film actor with his background being too controversial to ever make a non-biased sense of…
Anyhow, the thing is: the impersonation of Fouché wasn’t the first “Napoleonic” role Gründgens ever tried on during his artistic career. Exactly a year before that another film of Austrian (!) production was made where he starred in a role which suits his appearance and play style so well that I’m still blown away by such an impeccable choice.
The original title of the film is “So Endete eine Liebe” (1934) and it deals with the tragic story of erzherzogin Marie Louise, future wife of emperor Napoleon, being separated from her true love for the sake of an advantageous marriage and political alliance. The film cast is mainly Austro-German with two leading performers being Willi Forst, one of the most prominent Austrian actors in the 20th century, playing archduke Franz von Modena, and fore mentioned Gustaf Gründgens, an actor who was also born in the Westphalian region of Germany, playing… Klemens von Metternich in all his mischievous glory. 💅✨
The film itself is not friendly to people who aren’t ready to face the complexity of Habsburg’s incest-flavoured dramas at their finest (I myself wasn’t aware of the infatuation that Marie-Louise had for her uncle, if it ever took place at all [and I’m too lazy to check any decent biography about her to find out what did happen exactly]). BUT, but Gründgens’ Metternich is something else.
With due awareness and respect. 🧎♂️
This role was made for him, no doubt: even the film and its actors show appreciation for his grace at the first opportunity given. 😁