neuroqueerings

DIRK BOGARDE

Hi :)

Well, this is the very first time I've tried this technique, using the 'oil paint' brushes in Clip Studio Paint -and I've chosen to do it with a portrait I'm quite familiar with: this photo of Oscar Wilde, in the 1890s (though Ive forgitten the exact date :/ ). As for the colors, I wasn't quite sure which direction to go, so I took inspiration from costumes in some of the movies about O.W. Voilà ! I hope it still looks a bit like him haha

Who allowed him to still be so cute at 75? How is that fair on our poor hearts? The quokka magic is truly too strong. I love him so, so much!

There were also significant changes to Boris Lermontov’s character between the novelization and the film.  In the scene in which Boris discovers that Julian and Vicki are an item, he is described in the novelization as merely being furious.  Anton’s face registers crushing disappointment and heartbreak in the scene in the film.  There is no fury there.  That comes later.  It is this reaction that always led me to believe that Boris was in love with Vicki, perhaps unconsciously and that he had just begun to recognize his feelings when he finds out he is too late.  This adds an extra dimension to Boris’ character.  Far from being the heartless monster that the world thinks he is, Boris, is for one brief moment, all heart and a soft one at that. 

Pressburger had originally painted Boris as cold and manipulative but Anton managed to find layers within the character.  Take for example the scene in which Boris has Vicki pinned into the chair and he is talking about her future.  Anton works his hand nervously on the chair in a similar manner to his fetishistic stroking of the foot statue in his office in an earlier scene.  It is a crushing hand motion, that of an ardent lover, or an artist working with clay.  Apart from admiration of Walbrook’s technical brilliance in these scenes, I’m left wondering what sublimated passions lay behind these gestures.

The biggest difference between Boris of the final film and Boris of the novelization, is that in the latter, Boris actually relents on the issue of whether or not Julian can stay in the company.  The first meeting on the train has Boris defeated by Vicki.  He plays his hand to the hilt and loses, so he says Julian can stay out of desperation to keep Vicki in the company.  She decides not to tell Julian about this change in his status and leaves with him for London.  Perhaps the idea just complicated matters too much, but I think it’s really too bad it was not left in the film.  First it would have shown a needier Boris, one willing to compromise, if only with one person, and second it would have made Vicki much more interesting.  It would have made her to decision to leave about rebelling against Boris, rather than being solely about Julian.