Der Kongre Tanzt - 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~ 🎥