War of the Sixth Coalition: Napoleon was forced to retreat from Germany after the Battle of Leipzig on October 19, 1813.

Völkerschlachtdenkmal, Bruno Schmitz - 1923

Elle Brasil September 2023 Cover

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Credits

Model/Talent Precious Lee, Creative Director Luciano Schmitz, Photographer Zee Nunes, Fashion Director Lucas Boccalão, Fashion Editor/Stylist Juliana Gimenez, Beauty/Makeup Artist Rai, Nail Designer Dawn Sterling, Photo Assistant Fernando Freire & Christopher Randall, Fashion production- Maju, Stylist assistant Julia Brando & Glauro Simões, Beauty assistant Eunice, Executive Production Izabela Ribeiro & Daniela Paula S., Executive Production Assistant Amanda Bomfim, Retouch Studio Bruno Rezende.

Wearing Bad Binch TongTong, Balmain.

Eine weinende Frau an der Grabstätte von Amalie und Karl Hoffmann im alten St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof in Berlin.

Der Architekt des Grabmals ist Bruno Schmitz, der bereits für sein wirken am Völkerschlachtdenkmal, Kyffhäuserdenkmal und vielen weiteren Denkmälern Bekanntheit erlangte.

The Reader (Stephen Daldry, 2008) Cast: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Bruno Ganz, Lena Olin, Matthias Habich, Hannah Herzsprung, Susanne Lothar. Screenplay: David Hare, based on a novel by Bernhard Schlink. Cinematography: Roger Deakins, Chris Menges. Production design: Brigitte Broch. Film editing: Claire Simpson. Music: Nico Muhly. I haven't read the novel by Bernhard Schlink, but it seems to have presented the filmmakers with two problems they never quite solved. One is technical: How do you deal with the structuring of the story as the reminiscences of a middle-aged man about his youthful affair with an older woman? Do you cast one actor and make him younger or older with makeup? (Digital aging or de-aging hasn't quite reached the level needed for a film like The Reader, in which Michael Berg ranges from his mid-teens to his 50s.) Or do you cast two actors, even though the audience knows that 18-year-old David Kross could never grow up to look like Ralph Fiennes? The solution reached by the producers of The Reader was to trust in an audience's suspension of disbelief and the skill of the actors. Thanks to the latter, it almost works. But a more serious obstacle is how to deal with the moral complexities presented by any story that involves the Holocaust. In The Reader, the problem faced by Michael Berg is how to react to the revelation that the woman who provided his sexual initiation was a war criminal. On the page, such an ethical dilemma can be explored in many ways because the reader has time to reflect on its implications. But movies demand a more immediate and visceral reaction, and the film version of The Reader runs the risk of trivializing the moral issues it raises. Are we to excuse Hanna Schmitz's heinous actions because she was struggling with her own insecurities? Are we to think that literacy is a cure for moral blindness? David Hare's screenplay is too intelligent and Stephen Daldry's direction too sure-footed to keep us from veering off into such reductions to absurdity, but nevertheless the filmmakers seem to me to have bitten off more than they can chew in taking on a story that can't be summed up glibly. Fortunately, the acting is uniformly fine, and the film earned Kate Winslet the Oscar that had eluded her on five previous nominations. Kross is exceptionally good as well, convincingly moving from love-smitten adolescent to conscience-stricken young adult. Fiennes does what he can with the thankless role of vehicle for an extended flashback.

Detall de l’exterior del Völkerschlachtdenkmal “Monument a la Batalla de les Nacions”, a Leipzig. Obra de Bruno Schmitz, en estil guillerminista, erigida entre 1898 i 1913.

Party Hall in Mannheim, Germany 1903. Arch. Bruno Schmitz.

Bruno Schmitz, Rheingold Haus, Berlin, 1904                      

Der Onixsaal

Der Blaue Kuppelsaal

Reliefs by Franz Metzner which adorned Kaiser’s Hall in Weinhaus Rheingold. Located in Berlin the building was designed by Bruno Schmitz and erected in 1907.

PARIS, JE T’AIME

(2006  France, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Germany) An Anthology Written and Directed by: Olivier Assayas, Frédéric Auburtin, Gérard Depardieu, Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Isabel Coixet, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Christopher Doyle, Richard LaGravenese, Vincenzo Natali, Alexander Payne, Bruno Podalydès, Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas, Oliver Schmitz, Nobuhiro Suwa, Tom Tykwer, Gus Van Sant,  Doyle, Rain Kathy Li, and Gabrielle Keng Peralta and  Emmanuel Benbihy

Tea, Espresso, American Coffee, Mime Coffee

Brazilian GP 2019 off-track recap time!

It’s the penultimate chapter, guys, so let’s throw back a glance at that whirlwind weekend and thank Sao Paolo for providing us with:

Bruno Senna being present and driving the old McLaren round Interlagos.

Both HAAS making it into Q3.

Romain being P7 in qualy and going “Shut up!” on the team radio.

Carlos Sainz’ first ever podium in Formula 1 and doing it in style.

Renault and McLaren bantering over Lando and Daniel’s friendship.

Lewis immediately apologising to Alex and the media for taking him out on the last lap. 

Kimi being Kimi.

Nico and Daniil chatting on their way to the waggon.

Daniel trying to snatch George’s cap during the driver’s parade.

George throwing Daniel’s cap off the waggon moments later, his genuinely panicked reaction and the applause from Romain.

Max and Nico bantering in Dutch again.

Gio and Charles talking Italian.

Pierre smacking away the microphone while talking to Seb.

Lando’s muppet-ID-card for the paddock and the story behind it (he lost his card, got called a muppet for being so stupid and as a penalty of sort he has to run around with a muppet as his track-ID photo).

Pierre screaming and crying on the radio after finishing second.

Valtteri’s reaction to the Ferraris crashing, that genuine “shit’s gonna go down now!”.

Kevin sitting on the railings of the waggon and bobbing his knee as always.

Daniel juggling in the garage and losing it, when he grinned too widely.

Alfa being an incredible fourth and fifth.

This was officially the youngest podium ever.

Carlos sharing champagne, hugs and the spotlight with Lando during his celebrations with the team.

Daniel releasing his inner dog pt. II and shaking his head in the car like mad.

Pierre face-calling Caterina, presenting her his trophy shirtless and her absolute delight about (both of) it.  

Nico passive-aggressively ignoring Kevin before the driver’s parade again (while standing there straddle-legged af).

Carlos singing smooth operator with Tom on the radio after the race.

McLaren securing fourth in the team championships and receiving congratulations from everyone.

Hannah Schmitz showing this world and Ferrari how it’s done and what a smart and successful strategy looks like. 

Alex being so mature and calm about the incident in the press pen afterwards.

Pierre and Max meeting and hugging in parc ferme.

Lando’s 20th birthday, 20th race and 20th salmon in one week. Nuts! 

Max and Daniel interviewing each other again (can that be a regular thing, please?).

Pierre making it to the front page of French newspapers and being SO happy about it.

The party the Brazilian fans celebrated here over the course of the whole weekend, the dancing, the flags, the chanting and generally being so positively nuts! That was just awesome!

Muito obrigado, Sao Paolo, thanks for having us and providing us with great moments, some drama and the most excruciating last laps we’ve seen in years. Let’s take a tiny breather and head to the final race of this season, the final round, to Abu-Dhabi. Bring it on, Abu-Dhabi, palm trees, floodlights, fireworks and all!

The construction of the Monument to the Battle of the Nations started on October 18, 1898. On the 18th of October 1913 the Völkerschlachtdenkmal was inaugurated in the presence of about 100 000 people including the emperor Wilhelm II, and all the reigning sovereign rulers of the German states.

Paris je t’aime - love letter

One of those 'short story' collections with a bunch of directors each taking a stab at a common theme. Usually these types of movies have only a few stories with three or four big name directors at the helm, but this one features 22. Some are better than others, and some of them are absolute gems. Well worth a look. My favorite segments were Joel & Ethan Coen's story featuring Steve Buscemi, and the Elijah Wood segment directed by Vincenzo Natali was quite nice, and the closing segment by Alexander Payne was quite funny and touching.

Caught part of this one on cable, and then found it 'on demand' a little later so I could watch the whole thing.

4 stars out of 5

Released 2006, First viewing December 2008

Weeping Woman, gravesite of Carl Hofmann at the Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof Berlin, architect: Bruno Schmitz

German National Monuments (XI): Monument to the Battle of the Nations, Leipzig, Saxony

The 91 m high monument was designed by architect Bruno Schmitz and opened on October 18, 1913, 100 years after the Battle of the Nations. The cornerstone, however, was already laid in 1863, but there were no serious ambitions to actually built a monument. One reason was that Saxony was fighting on the side of Napoleon and had lost significant amounts of its territory in the liberation wars.

The monument is special in building history because it is the first monument whose load-bearing structure was made from concrete. The lake was named “Lake of Tears for the Fallen Soldiers”.

During the Third Reich, the monument was a frequent venue for Nazi rallies and Hitler speeches.

The communist East German post-war government had lengthy discussions whether the monument was allowed to remain due to its nationalist past. In the end, it was decided to keep the monument as a memorial for Russians and Germans fighting against a common enemy.

In 2003, extensive renovation works started, which are expected to end in 2019.