How did you become interested in Stroheim?
The first acquaintance was in Grand Illusion and then later the film Sunset Blvd and he found him fascinating and when he began teaching films he got interested in Foolish Wives and then he loved Greed at least the part we have available. Most Stroheim films go long.
What was it like for Stroheim being one of the first director/writers?
It was groundbreaking and uncommon and even unheard of. He was able to do what he wanted in films including showing off his foot fetish through his films. Each of his films usually featured some sort of homage to feet.
He created his own past. He had already created the myth that he was a grad of the military school when he first had gotten to America. He was very keen on style and outfits. He said that D.W. Griffith dressed very loudly. He was very meticulous about wardrobes they all had to be real and had a lot of attention to detail. He was very keen on military medals and wanted them to be set correctly.
He did a portrayal of himself in Sunset Blvd because he needed the money and was overall washed up. He never told his wife that he was paid twice for the job because he went back for a few reshoots so she found out about the second filming from the IRS.
Stroheim had a very good sense of humor based a lot in irony.
Lennig took the Universal studios version of "Foolish Wives" and a German or French version and cut them together to get it back to the closest version of the original film.
Everything had to be genuine in his films. He refused to use fake props or lie about locations.
Stroheim wrote a letter to his son during the second World War and it was a full direction on building and loading a cellar in case of an emergency. It was written like how he wrote a film.
Lennig much like Stroheim view Erich Von Stroheim as one of the greatest film makers of all time. Overall the information received today was just more in depth versions of what we have learned so far. Finding that all the stories aline from each source will make it easier to write the script knowing in good faith that the story is accurate and there won't be anybody who knows Stroheim that will get frustrated with the film.
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