Today, we visited a reenactment event in the Treptower Park. It was called
"Battle of Berlin 45´" and was a kind of a live exhibition for the 7.
Biennale in Berlin.
The Russian Red Army and the Polish liberation army defeated the Wehrmacht. I must say that the sound of the guns was very threatening. Honey took a picture of me and a very young actor.
I'm collecting German vintage movie star cigarette cards from the 30s and 40s. I especially like the embossed ones. The have a 3D look-and-feel and have really a high quality.
The biggest treasure in my collection is an exercise book from a little girl full of glued in collectors cards, found on the fleamarket years ago. Not a propper album, just hand made and labeled in Sütterlin (an outdated German writing-style used from 1915 till 1941).
Left: a backside of a cigarette card - Right: the exercise book cover
I cutted out all the little cards and framed the best ones. I created a pale pink background and a special passepartout for them. The big golden antique frame hangs in my floor and inspires me daily.
My icon Marlene Dietrich is in the center, of course!
Some unframed ones,
can you find out which crabby looking one Greta Garbo is?
When the first warm sunlight comes to Berlin I always change my workdays bag from black leather into a summerly strawbag. This year I bought one from etsy and I love it. It's a mexican souvenir bag from the 50s and the colours are still so bright.
I can combine it with some of my bangles, a colour matching mix out of vintage and new: bakelite, bamboo, lucite and celluloid...
Gaby's house is full of cute little nicknack and curios.
This 50s poodle fitted perfect to my poodle-updo this day.
And this is what I did to her hair: pin curls on the crown and one large roll in the neck. She had not setted her hair before so I worked with little padding and pinning only.
It will look perfect to her 40s dotted playsuit, don´t you think?
I promised here to post some scans from the great catalogue from the Diana Vreeland exhibition in Venize with her fantastic work as editor-in-chief for Haper´s Baazar and Vogue trough four decades. I choosed some celebrity-stuff she did.
So here we go, hope you enjoy:
what a strange ad
Katherine Hepburn
have to copy that make up for OPALICON
Sophia Loren
Liz Taylor
and the great Diana herself in the 40s with one of her famous horse models.
Sunday I visited my longtime friend shoomy. He is not only a great friend, he is also a very talented photographer. Two years ago we did the "Little Red Riding Hood" shooting together.
Yesterday he just did a few fast snapshots: no photoshop, no fancy background, no professional make up - just me doing stupid poses in my sunday-outfit.
Old Movies
are my world, that’s a fact. And over the years I dived deeper and deeper in
it. So I’m always searching the fleamarkets, antique stores and ebay off course
for special literature about it. One of the great findings is this:
Just the
cover was worth the money for me…
When you
think about the glamour in the golden years of the German movie production UFA
you should also include the reality of the Nazi-regime, which was a brown and
cruel era. It started in the early 30s and came to an end with the ending of
the WW II in 1945.
The most
important and inflentual gents in the movie business were surely Joseph
Goebbels, the secretary of propaganda and the “Führer” and Reichskanzler Adolf
Hitler himself. Both were crazy about the movies. Hitler had his private
cinema, a private film archive and watched up to three movies a day. He loved
the simple ones about the homecountry and mothership and – weired enough -
funny american stuff like Mickey Mouse.
UFA-Palace in Berlin decorated for the Führer's birthday
The
agitator Joseph Goebbels was a small and ugly man with a limping. But he had
the power to decide which actress could play in which movie. Needless to say what other inhuman things he could decide and what he did - especially to Jewish artists. Please remember: My idol of that time is Marlene Dietrich, who decided not to be part of that play.
Goebbels was after all
of starlets and stars, especially after the “not arian”-ones like the dark-haired Lida
Baarova. His clandestine nickname was “the buck of Babelsberg”. Babelsberg is
the place near Berlin where the UFA Studios were.
Lida Baarova - the favorite concubine of Goebbles
Lil Dragover - Hitlers favorite actress
The women
in most UFA-movies were smart characters who were at the same time devoted to
their husbands and children. Type-casting was a big thing. The gents where
mostly good and dolish. The women played always a leading role.
A big star
was the Russian-born actress Olga Tschechowa who was starring in a lot of movies
and was close to Hitler until the end.
One of my
favorite movies is “The Big Love” with the swedish redhead Zara Leander, THE “Third Reich”-superstar.
I think that she was more a singer than an
actress, I love her incredible deep voice. She had a lot of hits, these songs
are still legendary for many Germans. The movie played while the World War in
1942 and is full of simple contemporary propaganda, a dramatic lovestory with great
songs. Because Zara Leander was tall and corpulent, the chorus ladies next to
her were soldiers in women’s clothings, so she looked more feminin.
Those
movies were called „Durchhaltefilme“, which means “movies to stay the course”.
And after the war had ended, the Germans seemed to need this kind of escapistic
movies badly, so a lot of them had a comeback. “The Big Love” was first banned
by the allies, but after some time admitted again.
I want to
end with something more cheery. I love the movie “We make Music” with Ilse
Werner. It’s a spectacle picture and the best 40s UFA musical comedy for me.
The stagedesign and the costumes where state of the art in 1942. Enjoy:
