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Post by deadlyfandoms on Aug 9, 2019 13:28:31 GMT
This is just a thought because I have far too much time on my hands, and I've been thinking about this thread and the riding crop (but who doesn't think about the riding crop?). It's an interesting scene for him to hold the riding crop. A riding crop more or less would symbolize control in some sense. He holds it while he's walking with Elsa around the gardens. Elsa and the relationship he has with her is safe to him. He's able to go to her in Vienna and escape his life and the memories back home. In the eyes of society, they are a great match, and he brings her to his home allegedly with the intention of proposing marriage. In a sense, I gather that his relationship with Elsa is something that he feels in control of. It all seems rather straight forward - he's been courting her, he wants to give the children a mother, and so he thinks about taking the next step. Now, he puts the riding crop down when he begins to visibly look around around for the children, who we all know are not there. From there, it's a rather downwards spiral. He comes across Rolf who, being the little Nazi he is, reminds Georg of the unsteady political times they live in, and the fear that his country will cease to exist if the Anschluss happens, which he is unable to control, though he desperately wants to. Shortly after, his children capsize a boat and fall into a lake wearing drapes before he gets a dressing down from his children's governess. Whereas he had seemed to have control before, he seems to be reminded that he is rapidly losing his country, as well as he is losing, or perhaps has completely lost, control of his household. I'm not saying that production necessarily planned this, but I just thought that the placement of the riding crop was interesting in terms of the context of the scene he was holding it versus everything that happened after he put it down. Fantastic observation!
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Post by indigoblue on Aug 11, 2019 10:40:14 GMT
Wunderbar! (as they say in Salzburg)
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Post by emilia78 on Apr 23, 2020 17:41:07 GMT
This is just a thought because I have far too much time on my hands, and I've been thinking about this thread and the riding crop (but who doesn't think about the riding crop?). It's an interesting scene for him to hold the riding crop. A riding crop more or less would symbolize control in some sense. He holds it while he's walking with Elsa around the gardens. Elsa and the relationship he has with her is safe to him. He's able to go to her in Vienna and escape his life and the memories back home. In the eyes of society, they are a great match, and he brings her to his home allegedly with the intention of proposing marriage. In a sense, I gather that his relationship with Elsa is something that he feels in control of. It all seems rather straight forward - he's been courting her, he wants to give the children a mother, and so he thinks about taking the next step. Now, he puts the riding crop down when he begins to visibly look around around for the children, who we all know are not there. From there, it's a rather downwards spiral. He comes across Rolf who, being the little Nazi he is, reminds Georg of the unsteady political times they live in, and the fear that his country will cease to exist if the Anschluss happens, which he is unable to control, though he desperately wants to. Shortly after, his children capsize a boat and fall into a lake wearing drapes before he gets a dressing down from his children's governess. Whereas he had seemed to have control before, he seems to be reminded that he is rapidly losing his country, as well as he is losing, or perhaps has completely lost, control of his household. I'm not saying that production necessarily planned this, but I just thought that the placement of the riding crop was interesting in terms of the context of the scene he was holding it versus everything that happened after he put it down. Excellent point of view!! Yes he definitely convinces us that he is in control of everything, he has the style, the air and the statute of the villa-owner aristocrat. I had never thought about it in this perspective... I always thought he held it in order to hide his stress, bewilderment, agony on what is going to happen, how the children will face Elsa. He has his hands occupied, if there was no crop then he would have his hands in his pockets or crossed.
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Post by utility_singer on Apr 24, 2020 11:11:58 GMT
Agree, brilliant. And I have no doubt that between Wise, Lehmann, and Plummer that it was indeed planned.
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Post by indigoblue on May 11, 2021 23:33:21 GMT
Going back to what was written in the telegram: maybe it said:
STOP MAKING EYES AT THAT FLIBBERTIGIBIT AT THE END OF THE TABLE STOP
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Post by reverendcaptain on Aug 2, 2023 18:05:37 GMT
Do you think Maria's personality had anything to do with Georg's quick departure to Vienna? He was free to go because he has someone to watch his kids, but it is a little odd to me that he left just hours after she arrived. Maybe he wanted to escape this person that had him thrown off balance in his own home?
As for the telegram, I can see how people want it to be from Berlin, and that is why Georg decides in the moment to visit Elsa, but would "I'm visiting my girlfriend in Vienna. Sorry, I can't respond to you." really be an acceptable excuse? If that were the case, I would think they would send him another one in Vienna. Maybe they did and that is why Georg is extra upset to see Rolf, assuming that Rolf had yet another telegram from Berlin for him that he had to figure out how to gracefully ignore.
I think it was Elsa telling him to come as soon as he had his staffing business in order, and Georg was ready to stop being outmaneuvered by the governess, so he jumped at the opportunity.
Thoughts?
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Post by indigoblue on Aug 3, 2023 22:33:59 GMT
Yes, and maybe if it was love at first sight for G&M, then he felt it would be better to have a period of separation in Vienna being distracted by Elsa's social life for a month to right the ship, in the hope that things would have cooled down by the time he returned?
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Post by reverendcaptain on Aug 15, 2023 20:45:30 GMT
I don't know if it was love at first sight. That is why the pinecone/whistle conversation in the gazebo always seems ridiculous to me. I think they actively disliked each other at this point, and those feelings of disapproval just kept escalating through The Argument. Maybe they could look back later and say there were times that they found each other amusing before The Argument, but those would just be instances viewed through the lens of changed people.
I think he is looking for a period of separation and distraction, but only because he isn't sure how to deal with someone that doesn't follow his instructions and play by his rules.
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Post by indigoblue on Aug 18, 2023 14:24:37 GMT
I always had the impression that Georg had made arrangements to go to Vienna a while before Maria arrived - an organised military man would have done this, I'm sure. I think the telegram just confirms to him that Elsa is expecting him at a certain time (and is also a useful screenwriting device to get Rolf to the house ready for the scene with Liesl).
So this makes me wonder whether another governess had arrived and departed immediately before Maria - was this Fraulein Josephine? So Georg was getting desperate for SOMEONE to look after the kids (maybe even had to delay his departure for Vienna) - hence in desperation he phones the Rev Mother at the Abbey. I just don't think most parents would disappear the moment a new governess arrives to look after their children!
Then perhaps the telegram is from Elsa, confirming it is still ok for Georg to arrive after he had delayed his journey. That explains to me why his trip to Vienna all seems to be organised, but he doesn't tell the kids until then.
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Post by reverendcaptain on Aug 18, 2023 21:01:53 GMT
I always had the impression that Georg had made arrangements to go to Vienna a while before Maria arrived - an organised military man would have done this, I'm sure. I think the telegram just confirms to him that Elsa is expecting him at a certain time (and is also a useful screenwriting device to get Rolf to the house ready for the scene with Liesl). So this makes me wonder whether another governess had arrived and departed immediately before Maria - was this Fraulein Josephine? So Georg was getting desperate for SOMEONE to look after the kids (maybe even had to delay his departure for Vienna) - hence in desperation he phones the Rev Mother at the Abbey. I just don't think most parents would disappear the moment a new governess arrives to look after their children! Then perhaps the telegram is from Elsa, confirming it is still ok for Georg to arrive after he had delayed his journey. That explains to me why his trip to Vienna all seems to be organised, but he doesn't tell the kids until then. Good theory. This all makes perfect sense. I wonder how that phone call with RM went. Can you find me someone to watch my kids? Please tell her God doesn't want her to leave until September so she doesn't quit, like the last 11 did, when my poorly behaved children drive her crazy. Can she be here tomorrow? I'm trying to leave to go visit my girlfriend in Vienna. This might not earn him the "fine man" praise that he got from RM. I do wonder how he actually would have gone about asking.
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Post by indigoblue on Aug 24, 2023 22:21:47 GMT
I think he would have fallen back on that age-old method used by many influential men (and a few women), whereby they state their need with the utmost confidence and authority. This tends to discourage others from asking any awkward questions, which then gets them what they want quickly.
I suppose it is often from a combination of privileged schooling, a prestigious job and maybe a military background, so Georg probably had all those. Not sure whether this is a universal attribute, or perhaps a European one, but there are plenty of them around!
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Post by augiesannie on Aug 29, 2023 22:41:12 GMT
I recently wrote (in a draft chapter that hasn't been published yet,) "The truth was, Maria thought, that he’d been in such a hurry to escape to Vienna that he would have failed to notice if she’d begun to bark like a dog." I mean, I don't think it was THAT bad, I'm exaggerating in the context of the current story, but I don't think he did a ton of due diligence. Definitely agree with indigoblue that the eleventh governess was probably a recent and short timer. I always pictured RM and Georg's interchanges being by letter rather than telephone (she picks up his letter when introducing the topic and then takes a pen in hand to reply to him) and she seems to know that he has a most difficult time keeping a governess but that only the Lord knows why and He's not talking yet. Totally agree with reverendcaptain that it was not really love at first sight, I love the explanation of the whistle and pine cone.
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Post by reverendcaptain on Nov 24, 2023 23:58:52 GMT
What do you think the telegram that Rolf delivered to Max said? Something about the festival?
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Post by indigoblue on Nov 25, 2023 0:14:38 GMT
How strange that no-one has ever asked that before! Great question!
How about that the Kloppmann Choir from the monastery were in need of a new director?
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Post by augiesannie on Nov 27, 2023 18:32:25 GMT
Or “Herr Detweiler, you’d better make good on your promise to find something fresh and entertaining for the Festival, or else!”
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Post by reverendcaptain on Nov 29, 2023 22:14:24 GMT
Maybe this is where he got promoted from just a person responsible to find an act to the event emcee? Telegrams aren’t that frequent, and are expensive as Rolf pointed out, so it probably had to be something at least kind of important to warrant a telegram.
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Post by indigoblue on Dec 9, 2023 0:22:33 GMT
Yes, I always wondered why he suddenly appeared up in front of the microphone!
Or maybe it was a telegram to warn Max that Franz was in with the Nazis, so he had better watch his step?
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