Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series? Part II

[Kalafrana]

Minor nitpicking as usual.

I think Wilhelm would have problems picking up the two elder girls at any rate. He would have to do it one-handed (apparently he could grip with his left hand but not lift), and Olga and Tatiana would be getting a bit heavy by then. How about a kiss on the cheek instead?

Not 'general of the Engineers' but 'General of Engineers'. Wilhelm really did attend a dinner of the Berlin Motor Club garbed as a General of Engineers, so you could use that.

Might be useful to bring in the point at some stage that Wilhelm was Alexei's godfather.

Now I'd better write another scene.

Ann

[edubs31]

Nitpicking time again.  The U.S. getting the Philippines had nothing to do with the Russo-Japanese War.  Rather they got them after the Spanish-American War of 1898.

Hey Tim, right you are. I knew this was settled territory for the US prior to the Russo-Japanese war which I why I had one of the officials stating to the other that "I think that portion of the deal was already settled."

But thanks for calling me out on this because I phrased that poorly. What I'm looking to show is how the Far East was more and more becoming a disputed area and target for world powers. Since the Spanish-American War would have concluded seven years prior however I'll need to rephrase this part of the discussion to show how the US had a chip in the game.

Easy enough fix...I'll simply have the one official say to the other something along the lines of, "America has already expressed their desires to gain a greater foothold in the Far East. They took control of the Philippines a few years back after their victory over Spain. That was Roosevelt again who waged war and now he's their President. No wonder they're offering up their services to us now...they have a stake in the outcome of these negotiations same as Russia and Japan."

I think Wilhelm would have problems picking up the two elder girls at any rate. He would have to do it one-handed (apparently he could grip with his left hand but not lift), and Olga and Tatiana would be getting a bit heavy by then. How about a kiss on the cheek instead?

I was thinking this too. By around mid-1902, or whenever the Kaiser visited, Tatiana would have been five and Olga around 6 1/2. Marie was a big girl but probably easy enough to lift being just three years of age at this point and Anastasia of course was a baby. O&T were probably average to slightly above average sized girls for their ages judging from their height once fully grown.

Maybe something similar to the scene I have with Uncle Ernie in 1903 would work better. Give the three or four of them a big bear hug and shower them with kisses. Except unlike with GD Ernst they'll appear uncomfortable...strained smiles and hard looks replacing big smiles and giggles.

Not a huge deal either way of course...

Might be useful to bring in the point at some stage that Wilhelm was Alexei's godfather.

Now I'd better write another scene.

Please do :-)

I need to go back and dig up the previous scene/s you posted about Alexei's birth and the revelation of his hemophilia. It won't be too difficult as I've been editing and saving most of these as we have been going along.

I'm wondering if we need to focus more on Alexei than three quick scenes (birth, cannon firing, hemophilia conversation). This is one area of the film that I think was done very well in "Nicholas & Alexandra". I particularly liked the scene where Botkin and the team of doctors reveal to the Tsar of his son's disease, then they cut quickly to the Tsar describing it to his stunned wife while the doctor is in the room. Of course in the movie they move instantly from the Tsarevich's birth and end of the Russo-Japanese War to Bloody Sunday, and then jump to 1911. We never really get a chance to see Alexei develop from a baby into a child.

[Kalafrana]

'Maybe something similar to the scene I have with Uncle Ernie in 1903 would work better. Give the three or four of them a big bear hug and shower them with kisses. Except unlike with GD Ernst they'll appear uncomfortable...strained smiles and hard looks replacing big smiles and giggles.'

Just the thing. There is a later picture of a gathering on board the Standard where Wilhelm has Alexei (aged about five) on his knee and neither of them looks very happy.

I will try doing something with Alexei as a small boy. Maybe as he's learning to walk and everyone is fretting about him bumping into things.

Ann

[TimM]

Easy enough fix...I'll simply have the one official say to the other something along the lines of, "America has already expressed their desires to gain a greater foothold in the Far East. They took control of the Philippines a few years back after their victory over Spain. That was Roosevelt again who waged war and now he's their President. No wonder they're offering up their services to us now...they have a stake in the outcome of these negotiations same as Russia and Japan."

Sounds good.

[JamesAPrattIII]

R-J war:
Nicholas after a service to pray for victory at the chapel of the winter palace goes to a window and salutes the cheering crowd of thousands outside.
Nicholas writes in his diary: his "sharpe grief for the fleet and for the opion people will have of Russians."
At a salon a few weeks later:
Naval Officer 1: Admiral marakov is off to take command of the pacific Squadron if anyone can sweep those monkeys from the seas he can.
Naval officer 2: repairing those damaged ships is going to be a real problem. We don't have a drydock big enough to hold them at Arthur. (correction to my earlier posting there was at Port Arthur a drydock that could take small ships but was too small for battleships and cruisers.)
Army officer 1: Don't worry the Russian army will soon drive those monkeys back into the sea!
Lady 1: I have heard that some conscripts are getting drunk and rioting! Shouldn't they be proud to be called upon to defend their country?
Army officer 2: Madam, the peasants reguard conscription and war as just other miseries like famine and pestilance they have to endure. It is also hard to inspire people who have no sense of national identity to go and fight and die in a war on the other side of the world in some place most of them have never heard of.
Army officer 1: I wonder how my old commanding General Fock is doing at Port Arthur? No doubt he is out inspiring his troops!
From "Tide at Sunrise" at Port Arthur:
"... General Fock commanding the 4th Siberian Rifle division assured everyone that the japanese were fools. Sitting astride his horse before his regiments, he explained carefully that they were fools because in their field regulations it was laid down that in an attack the firing lineshould extend at wide intervals. Then, "front rank, tell me why the japanese are fools." He ordered. The soldier would all shout together " Because, when attacking their firing line extends widely." Drill sargents kicked their men for making mistakes on the parade ground where they behaved like automatons. "Long live the Tsar Hooray! Long live the Tsar Hooray!" they cried. but there was no heart in either their parade drill or in their forced cheering for Nicholas. The Tsar who had sent them to this godforsaken place."

Thanks for the errata on my Kaiser Wilhelm post. With his overdeveloped good arm he probably pick up in 1902 Olga or Tatania with few problems. I believe Lily Dehn in her book points out that OTMA really didn't like their "Uncle Willy" very much. lets face it this guy could be a real pain on occation.

[JamesAPrattIII]

scene Port Arthur 13 April 1904 approx 0943 Two Russian officers are on a hill looking out over the sea
Officer 1: whats going on?
Officer 2: The pacific Squadron is coming back into port after a night action with the japanese
Then a battleship is racked by an explosion soon followed by another larger explosion and right after that a third explosion. the ships stern goes high in the air screws still turming and sinks in about a minute.
Officer 1: looking through binoculars yells "my god it's the Petropalovsk!" the two officers remove their caps and kneel in prayer along with others. Meanwhile one naval officer bursts in tears and faints
St Petersburg some days later at a funneral service for the admiral and the others killed Nicholas Alexandra and Maria Fed (correction to my earlier posting it looks like she was in Russia at this time later on in the war she was elsewhere) and many VIPs are there, many are in tears including N, AF and MF.
Later Nicholas is writing in his diary:This morning came news of an expressible sadness all say long I could think of nothing but this terrible blow...may the will of god be done in all things, but we poor mortals must beg mercy of the lord.
A Salon a few days later:
Naval officer 1: what a disater! Marakov was the only real Admiral in our navy and he is dead! Also besides the petropalovsk being sunk anthor battleship the pobieda has also been damaged by a mine. What shall we do!
Naval officer 2: It looks like the british did a good job of training the japanese navy.
Army officer 1: Don't worry sailors the russian army will drive those monkeys back into the sea!
Lady 1: Besides Admiral marakov Russia lost one of it's best war artists Vesli Verestchagin who the Tsar commissioned to paint the war.
Lady 2: Yes, I will never forget his picture from the Turkish war which show dead and dying men in the distance and in the forground has the russian headquarters covered with empty champagne bottles and rags of harlots.
Lady3: does anyone know how cyril Vladimerich is doing?
Lady 1: he was badly wounded but survived the sinking of the Petropavlovsk.
Lady 3: and how is his brother Boris?
Lady 1: He started crying and then fainted when he saw his brothers ship sink. After he was revived he got drunk and was found walking around in a nurses uniform singing loudly>
Lady 2: God help us with people like this running the war!
authors note: believe it or not this is mostly form "Tide at Sunrise"

[edubs31]

Impressive James. We are fortunate to have your expert level contributions. I've been dragging my feet here a little bit in terms of the writing but I'm still reading and taking notes and will have more shortly. Nice to know I can pretty much ignore the war here and have someone else picking up the slack!

[Kalafrana]

Hello James

Can't resist a few points in my usual fashion!

When the officers are fainting and kneeling in prayer, we need one who keeps his head and rushes off to get boats launched to pick up survivors. We can then see a boat rowing fruitlessly about because there are so few survivors.

Love the bit about Boris. Can we show him drunk and in a nurse's uniform? And what should he be singing? There is a recording of Boris Christoff singing a mildly saucy song in which a lusty fellow addresses an initially hesitant maiden called Nastassia.

Ann

[Kalafrana]

James

How did the Japanese manage to lay a mine so close to the Russian harbour? did they have submarine minelayers by then, or was it a surface ship?

Ann

[TimM]

There is a recording of Boris Christoff singing a mildly saucy song in which a lusty fellow addresses an initially hesitant maiden called Nastassia.

Boris and Natasha!?  LOL!

[Kalafrana]

I tape recorded the Nastassia song from a Radio 4 programme about Christoff, in which the announcer remarks that the song 'is couched in such suggestive terms that it's prehaps a good thing that it's in a foreign language'.

Just the thing for Boris V! And where did he get the nurse's uniform?

Ann

[edubs31]

April 17, 1903 - Kishinev, Bessarabia

A group of Jews are gathered around their dinner table in the city of Kishinev. A wife, an older teenaged son and daughter and two adolescents are busying themselves cooking and setting the table and awaiting the arrival of their father returning home from work. Moments later we hear a few approaching footsteps up the stairs and a door opens. The father of the household practically stumbles in with a look of bewilderment on his face and clutching at a local newspaper...

Wife: Oh hello dear, how was your day?
Husband (mumbling): We are in trouble...
Wife (startled): What did you say?
Husband: I said...there is going to be trouble.
Wife: I don't understand, what do you mean?
Husband (handing over the newspaper to his wife): Look at this!
Wife (reading briefly as her children look on in hushed silence): A Ukrainian boy was found murdered...another girl was said to be poisoned...?
Oldest Daughter: By whom mama?
Husband: Who knows. But they'll blame us. They always blame us.
Wife: Well dear we have survived through these types of stories before...things usually calm down after a while once the truth comes out.
Husband: None of them want the truth! They wants scapegoats. They want to rid the Russian Empire of the Jews. From the Tsar, to the Ministers, on down. Some of our neighbors even. People who we sell goods to or help with their finances...friends you might call them!
Wife: They'll make a big fuss for a couple of days and then leave us alone.
Husband: Not this time.
Wife (motioning to her two younger children): Allie & Isaac take your bowls of stew into your father's study and eat there, will you please? The adults in the room need to speak alone for a moment.

The children get up quickly and quietly and head into the other room...

Wife: You know Herman, I wish you would keep your thoughts to yourself while the children are in the room. You scare them!
Husband (sitting down at the table): I don't mean to...but I'm not sure how to protect them. I was speaking earlier with Efrem and Jeremiah from the bank. They said that they heard this boy...Rybachenko...was probably killed by his own father in a fit of rage. And this girl committed suicide at the hospital and was not poisoned.
Wife (reading on in disgust): The paper claims the Jews killed them to use their blood in preparation of matzo for the coming Passover...filthy blood libel!
Older Son: It is ridiculous. Won't people see through these claims father? They cannot possibly believe all that they read in this and age...
Husband: My greatest fear is that it won't matter to them. Many, if not most, already don't believe these lies. But they'll act as though they do.
Older Daughter: I don't understand.
Husband: They'll pretend to believe our guilt so they can use it as an excuse to show their hatred once again and get rid of us once and for all.
Wife: Your father is right. They don't like us.
Older Son: Where will we go?
Husband: I don't know. I fear what could happen to us if we travel any further east.
Wife: These fools are not going to drive us from our home!
Husband: If we stay it might be too late. It's Easter for the Christians on Sunday. What are we to do if an angry mob organizes after they come from their morning mass?
Older Daughter: Won't the police do something then?
Husband: I would not count on it. They've turned their heads and betrayed us before...maybe it won't be so bad this time. But we'll only know for sure if things are to get out of hand in he first place.
Wife: Your father and I will discuss what to do after dinner. Lets eat now...Eidel, please call your brother and sister back in to the table.
Eidel (Older Daughter): Yes mother.

Scene cuts away. Next we see an angry mob of several dozen on Easter Sunday. They are marching through the streets on Kishinev shouting anti-semitic slurs. In the foreground a woman and her child are grabbed by two young men and thrown to the ground. The camera focuses in on another couple of Yiddish men being beaten senselessly by four others in an alley way. Suddenly windows are heard breaking on either sides of the main streets. Panes of glass with Hebrew lettering are shattered by men and even young boys throwing rocks. Torches are tossed into several buildings and fires spread rapidly. All the while other Jewish men, women and children are showed scampering across roads and alley ways in panic and terror trying to escape harm.

Moments later we see several police approach the main avenue on horse back. A couple of them are charged up and even blow their whistles having seen the rampant disorder. But the sergeant/captain turns to face his men, puts up his right arm and shouts out the following...

Sergeant: We are here only to monitor the situation and have been given direct orders not to intervene. The Minister of the Interior speaking on behalf of the Tsar himself has encouraged this pogrom based on the murder and atrocities brought to our community by the Jews...do not assist with the looting or break up the fighting. We must allow the rightfully angry the opportunity for some small measure of revenge so long as things do not get too far out of hand.

The camera angle is lifted upward and pans down on several blocks of the city now engulfed in a full scale pogrom. Smoke pours out from burning buildings while innocent civilians are be chased by roving gangs equipped with clubs, knives, torches, etc, and are often beaten mercilessly. The chaos ensues as the scene fades out.

[Kalafrana]

Nitpicking yet again!

I like your scene generally, but perhaps it would be an idea to run it by an observant Jew to check that it fits with Jewish domestic usage. I'm not sure whether things like laying the table would be done by both sexes.

Ann

[edubs31]

Nitpicking yet again!

I like your scene generally, but perhaps it would be an idea to run it by an observant Jew to check that it fits with Jewish domestic usage. I'm not sure whether things like laying the table would be done by both sexes.

Ann

I think that would be appropriate too. A little bit of polish for the dialogue is surely needed.

Being as how I have this family conversation taking place on a Friday I'd also need to incorporate Shabbat into the setting. Either that or I could simply have this take place on the Thursday before Easter instead, but I rather like the idea of showing a Jewish ritual post-conversation but before the pogroms that take place on Easter Sunday. Some type of scene similar to Schindler's List just prior to the liquidation of the ghettos.

Ann I'm not certain about gender roles in setting the table or serving the food. I do know that women light the ceremonial candles approximately eighteen minutes before sundown. I'd like to show the lightning of the candles perhaps just prior to the husband/father's arrival home. After their conversation I might show the family unified in prayer and preparing to eat their challah loaves, drink their wine and feast on their soups and stews. The table setting would likely be a nice white tablecloth, the best dishes and silverware the family owned would also be used, and a lovely floral arrangement.

Quick side note: Chisinau (formerly known as Kishinev) had a Jewish population that composed around 46% of it's 110-115,000 inhabitants around the turn of the 20th century. It's now a much larger city but with sadly a barely traceable Jewish population. 723,500 residents according to 2012 census estimates and less than half of one percent of that total are Jews. They managed to stand up to the horrific pogroms between 1903-05 and even the Russian Revolution that encourage mass diaspora from many other regions. By 1940 their population had grown to over 60,000 in the city. On July 17th (familiar date anyone?), 1941 some ten thousand Jews were rounded up by German and Romanian troops during World War II and murdered. Many more would go "missing" over the next several months. That marked the true beginning of the end of Jewish occupied Kishinev.

[TimM]

Quick side note: Chisinau (formerly known as Kishinev) had a Jewish population that composed around 46% of it's 110-115,000 inhabitants around the turn of the 20th century. It's now a much larger city but with sadly a barely traceable Jewish population. 723,500 residents according to 2012 census estimates and less than half of one percent of that total are Jews. They managed to stand up to the horrific pogroms between 1903-05 and even the Russian Revolution that encourage mass diaspora from many other regions. By 1940 their population had grown to over 60,000 in the city. On July 17th (familiar date anyone?), 1941 some ten thousand Jews were rounded up by German and Romanian troops during World War II and murdered. Many more would go "missing" over the next several months. That marked the true beginning of the end of Jewish occupied Kishinev.

Add to that, towards the end of his life, Stalin grew more and more hostile to the Jews as well.