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Veidt, Conrad (propriet. Hans Walter Conrad, called Conny)

German actor, producer and director, naturalized British, born in Berlin on January 22, 1893 and died in Los Angeles on April 3, 1943. A great protagonist of German silent cinema with superb facial and body mimicry, he impersonated demonic and nervous figures on the screen. His somnambulist Cesare is famous in Robert Wiene's Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920; Dr. Calligari, or The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari): thanks to this film V. was identified with the expressionist-style film acting. In 1913 he was hired by the Deutsches Theater in Berlin directed by Max Reinhardt, where he completed his training as an actor. Active in the cinema since 1916, V. was one of the first to develop an acting aimed at the screen and soon opted for cinema only, collaborating, among other things, with the Aufklärungsfilme, Richard Oswald's 1920s sex education films. With his exotic, fascinating and ambiguous aspect, he was one of the protagonists of the Weimar cinema, with a short parenthesis, which saw him busy directing Wahnsinn (1919) and Die Nacht auf Goldenhall (1920).

V. was distinguished by Luciferian or double characters: the Devil in Satanas (1920; Lucifer) by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau; Scapinelli and his reflection in Henrik Galeen's Der Student von Prag (1926; The Prague Student); the twins in Die Brüder Schellenberg (1926; The torture of Tantalus) by Karl Grune and Nazi Agent (1942) by Jules Dassin. He played ambiguous seducer parts, as in Der Reigen. Ein Werdegang (1919) by Oswald, from the comedy by A. Schnitzler, or Nju (1924; Nju - The wild flower) by Paul Czinner. An actor of refined technique, he prepared a peculiar, fragmented and visually striking acting, relying on a particular physiognomy, the eyes and a body in constant tension. He often changed his masked face, as in Paul Leni's The man who laughs (1928; whose protagonist is disfigured by a scar that makes his expression fixed. The ability to physically express the intensity and ambiguity of his roles, so much so that the various parts of the body almost live their own lives, is particularly evident in Wiene's Orlacs Hände (1925); while precisely the control and body tension allowed him to integrate well into the complex visual structures of the shots, e.g. in the sets by Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, or in the fantastic scenarios by Leni for Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (1924; Three fantastic loves). it is particularly evident in Wiene's Orlacs Hände (1925); while precisely the control and body tension allowed him to integrate well into the complex visual structures of the shots, e.g. in the sets by Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, or in the fantastic scenarios by Leni for Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (1924; Three fantastic loves). it is particularly evident in Wiene's Orlacs Hände (1925); while precisely the control and body tension allowed him to integrate well into the complex visual structures of the shots, e.g. in the sets of Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, or in the fantastic scenarios of Leni for Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (1924; Three fantastic loves).

His versatility allowed him to fit into multiple production contexts: in Great Britain, where he emigrated in the early thirties, interpreting, among other things, the part of the vizier in Ludwig Berger's The thief of Bagdad (1940; The thief of Bagdad) , Michael Powell, Tim Whelan and the uncredited Alexander and Zoltan Korda, and in Hollywood, where he worked in the late 1920s and 1940s, gradually relegated to character roles. Michael Curtiz's major character Strasser in Casablanca (1942) remains famous.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

H. Holba, D. Robinson, Conrad Veidt. From Caligari to Hollywood , in "Focus on film", 1975, 21, pp. 27-46; R. Blume, W. Fritsch, Conrad Veidt. Die Nachtgestalt , in Grenzgänger zwischen Theater und Film , hrsg. K. Hickethier, Berlin 1986, pp. 111-26; JC Allen, Conrad Veidt. From Caligari to Casablanca , Pacific Grove (CA) 1997.

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