Arthur Eagle Kaliningrad - Expat in Kaliningrad, Russia

In the club on Christmas Eve

Published: 25 December 2022 ~ Kaliningrad Retro Car Club in a Festive Mood

A big thank you to Inara and Arthur for inviting me to the Kaliningrad Retro Car Club end-of-year party last night and to the members of the club for making me feel so welcome and for creating a night to remember. It was especially fortuitous for me that the party coincided with the 24^thDecember, Christmas Eve in the UK.

Apprehension at the outset that the venue for the party, the old Luftwaffe spare-parts building, would be brass-monkey cold was largely unfounded. Improvised heating using one of those gas-fired space appliances worked far better than I anticipated, and as for the cold it could not compete with, this encouraged those who like and want to dance to do just that; their jumping and jiving around proving to be an excellent way of generating the auxiliary heat that we needed.

Kaliningrad Retro Car Club party

The car club’s chef had prepared various nourishing dishes, the warm ones claiming a decisive victory for mission Keep the Cold at Bay, and generous proportions of vodka, cognac and cognac liqueurs, toasts galore and the warmth of the company present ~ particularly the latter ~ all did their sterling bit to stave off the winter temperatures.

It was heartening and appropriate that Father Frost (Father Christmas) should drop by to assist in the festivities and to doll out seasonal presents, and I was especially pleased with the car quiz that proved to me once and for all that when it comes to taking part in quizzes I could do much worse than not take part.

It did occur to me, too late, of course, that to show my appreciation for an excellent evening, I could have volunteered to help clean up the venue the following day, a sort of Christmas Day treat for my conscience, but as the idea refused to catch up with me until the time for action had passed, I will have to think of something else.

One positive thing that I could do is to reiterate my offer to the president of the club, which is to donate a rather fine door to the Luftwaffe building that we have secreted in our garage. I think that it would look very nice and would attest to its functionality hanging on two or three hinges where the hole in the wall to the toilet is. I am nothing if not inventive.

Kaliningrad Retro Car Club members at party 2022

Above: Kaliningrad Retro Car Club members

Above: First Aid for anyone who complains about the cold ~ Vaccine Vodka. And the Retro Car Club’s resident nurse. She has a heart of gold and a lovely bedside manner

Above: Father Frost drops by

Above: Mick Hart with a pint in his hand and Lenin looking over his shoulder

Olga Hart & Inara Kaliningrad Retro Car Club

Above: Olga Hart with a kind and friendly fairy behind her

Mick Hart Kaliningrad with work of metal art

Above: What is it … don’t be rude?! I’m talking about the object I am holding! It is, in fact, a napkin holder made out of vilkee and lorshkee ~ that’s forks and spoons to you!

Above: Us with a Christmas tree made by children out of coloured cloth and sponge

Kaliningrad Retro Car Club Christams Eve entertainment

Above: The entertainment. A class act, an unusual feature of which was the levelling of the guitar on JImi Hendrix’s head

Above: A highly detailed model display of the Road of Life, the Siege of Leningrad, WWII

Retro Car Club Kaliningrad Members Xmas Eve 2022

Above: Would you believe a group photo?

Click on the links below for other posts

Fort XI holds Retro Car Club day
Kaliningrad Vintage Car Rally
Auto Retro Club Calendar 2021
Kaliningrad Retro Car Club at Angel Park Hotel

The Wisdom of Filming at Nizovie Museum

Published: 29 May 2022 ~ How to make a film based in Königsberg

THE LAST DAY OF FILMING as far as we were concerned for Yury Grozmani’s Last Tango in Königsberg (a film made with the support of the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives) took place today on 26 May at Ivan Zverev’s atmospheric museum in Nizovie.

I was fighting a private battle with a decaying wisdom tooth. “You’re such a hero,” my good lady wife never said, “for ignoring your pain and going ahead with the film.”

How to make a film based in Königsberg

Arthur Eagle, the film’s production enforcer, promised that the filming wouldn’t take long. If I remember rightly, I believe he said ten minutes. Of course, he was rather economical with the truth, and we were there all day, sometimes in the sun, sometimes in the rain but mostly in the wind and cold. It was one of those days that managed to fit all four seasons into one afternoon.

Mick Hart in a Russian Film — **Mick Hart playing a role in Yury Grozmani’s film at Nizovie Museum, Kaliningrad, Russia**

My scene came first. It was done in a couple of takes; that’s professional for you! But thereafter came lots of hanging about. My wife, Olga, had agreed to take a part in the production, and unbeknown to us the scene in which she had been cast would not take place until a good while later.

Olga Hart & Inara Eagle in Russian Film 2022 — **Aleksandr Kostenko, commandant**, **with Olga Hart and Inara Eagle in Yury Grozmani’s** ***Last Tango in Königsberg***

As stated in my previous post, famous and even not so famous actors performing for the large or not so large screen are no strangers to hanging around. After a short induction it quickly becomes something of a skill, kicking your heels whilst each scene is repeated umpteen times; first filmed this way, then filmed that way, a camera angle from here, a camera angle from there, a close up followed by a closer close up; and all this without including numerous takes and retakes and the repetition of parts of scenes for homing in on and improving sound quality.

I was not too perturbed about playing the waiting game as Nizovie museum is my kind of place: an old building, imaginatively restored and with the additional bonus of being extremely full of antique and obsolete items ~ including my wisdom tooth (“And the rest!” ~ who said that?).

Mick Hart with Hanomag & actor Michail Gvozdenko — **Mick Hart with actor & Hanomag owner Michail Gvozdenko**

Olga Hart with Hanomag vintage German car — Olga Hart with Hanomag on the film set of Yury Grozmanl’s *Last Tango in Königsberg*

Another plus of waiting was that later in the day the last scene to be shot outside would feature the 1927 Cadillac, a Soviet Gaz-67 and also the Hanomag, the car that had a starring role in the film noir, Agnes, recently shown at Waldau Castle.

Soviet & German vehicles Nizovie — **Gaz-67 and Hanomag**

As the weather travelled through its yearly cycle in under six hours, Olga and I took refuge in the Hanomag, where we were able to furnish ourselves with some rather nice photographs of a vintage car so thoroughly German that I could almost feel the Gestapo breathing down my neck. In fact, it was Yury Grozmani, the writer and producer of the film, urging me to take part in a scene for which I had not been scheduled. And so it came to pass.

Coaching for this scene took place behind Mr Zverev’s car. It occurred to me that there was every possibility that this was the first time that I had stood behind a 1927 Cadillac wearing a 1940s’ trilby with a Russian gent waiting to cue me for a film sequence. Before going on he said to me, “Try to look tragic.” What else, I thought.

Mick Hart with 1927 Cadillac Kaliningrad — **Mick Hart with Ivan Zverev’s 1927 Cadillac**

The last scene of the day was filmed outside on the forecourt and upon the steps leading to the museum. A gale force wind had blown in from somewhere with a rather nasty edge to it, but it was worth getting your wisdom tooth cold for just to see the combination of all three vehicles in close proximity and in the conjoining presence of uniformed Soviet actors.

There are still quite a few scenes left to be shot before the film is in the can, but my bit is complete. My next act, which will take considerably more skill to master, is trying to look brave at the dentists!

*The film is made with the support of the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives