CONRAD VEIDT: MY LIFE (2020) ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Mark Rappaport
As the first-person, beyond-the-grave narrator of this documentary points out, the two roles Conrad Veidt is most noted for are the bookends of his career: Cesare, the somnambulist in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1919) and Major Strasser, the Nazi who tangles with Humphrey Bogart in "Casablanca" (1942). The movie says almost nothing about Veidt's life before "Caligari", and the focus wanders sometimes to the point where you wonder whether maybe the filmmakers have forgotten that their picture is supposed to be about Conrad Veidt. As with his previous documentary on Jean Seberg, Rappaport's subjective approach can be more distracting than illuminating. Good clips, though, some from movies you've probably never heard of. Veidt worked in Germany into the sound era, and got away to Britain and then Hollywood after clashing with Josef Goebbels. (Veidt's wife was Jewish.) He died from a heart attack on a golf course in 1943 (the 11th hole, if the information in this movie is correct). He was 50.
