#279: SCHLÖNDORFF, Volker: Young Törless (1966)

SCHLÖNDORFF, Volker (Germany)

Young Törless [1966]

Spine #279
DVD

At an Austrian boys' boarding school, in the early 1900s, shy, intelligent Törless observes the sadistic behavior of his fellow students, doing nothing to help a victimized classmate — until the torture goes too far. Adapted from Robert Musil's acclaimed novel, Young Törless helped launch the New German cinema movement and garnered the 1966 Cannes Film Festival International Critics' Prize for first-time director Volker Schlöndorff.

87 minutes
Black & White

Monaural

in German

1:75:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2005

Director/Writers

Based on the novel by Robert Musil.

Script adaptation treatment by Herbert Asmodi.

Volker Schlöndorff was 27 when he wrote and directed Young Törless.

Other Schlöndorff films in the Collection:

#914: Baal (1970)
#192: Coup De Grâce (1976)
#234: The Tin Drum (1979)

The Film

In Germany, after the war, there were the “rubble” films — best example, the Italian Rossellini’s Germany Year Zero (1948) {Spine #499} — then came films in the 50’s which featured lame and overwrought attempts to compensate for the Nazi era.

The earliest masterpiece of post-war Germany was probably Bernhard Wicki’s The Bridge (1959) {Spine #763}.

A few years after the French Nouvelle Vague was underway, the Germans caught up:

As the cinema audience declined — as elsewhere, because of television — a group of young filmmakers issued the Oberhausen Manifesto on February 28, 1962:

“Der alte Film ist tot. Wir glauben an den neun”

“The old cinema is dead. We believe in the new cinema.”

Suddenly they were everywhere. And they had something to say: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, and of course Schlöndorff, all brought fresh ideas and stories, told with a new boldness, with an eye less towards commercial success than artistic and critical acclaim.

**

Musil’s novel sets Törless at the beginning of the 20th century, but Schlöndorff — while cleverly retaining the rural flavor of the boys’ boarding school — clearly sets this in a contemporary setting.

Like his mentor, Louis Malle, Schlöndorff was successful at finding and casting young kids who fully inhabit their roles. Mathieu Carrière (one previous film, 206 subsequent IMDb credits!) is wonderful as Törless, conveying all the ambiguity of the character’s feelings, and flawlessly pulling off a completely believable performance.

So too for Bernd Tischer (only IMDb credit) as Beineberg; Fred Dietz as Reiting — and especially Marian Seidowsky as the tortured Basini. Schlöndorff was very conflicted about using Seidowsky, a Polish Jew, from a family of survivors, but the kid was a huge film buff and talked himself into the role, regardless of the implications of a young Jewish kid getting beat up by all these young German ruffians — who, after all, really stand in for the brutality of the Nazis.

The analogy is there to see, but yet subtle enough to not cause much wincing in the viewer, perhaps because Törless is so convincing in his ambivalence. Schlöndorff seems to be suggesting the kid as a stand-in for the many German people who watched Hitler’s rise to power with a sense of horror — but yet felt powerless to do anything about it in order to not risk their own necks. Not an apology, just a vision of plain humanity in action …

An obviously dubbed Barbara Steele is an unlikely gorgeous prostitute, raising a baby without a father.

**

Franz Rath’s black & white cinematography is crisp and vivid, and the scene in the gymnasium is filmed with a dolly and a crane to produce an incredible, dizzying effect.

The modern score by the great composer Hans Werner Henze is complimentary, never overbearing.

Film Rating (0-60):

55

The Extras

The Booklet

Eight-page wraparound featuring an essay by film scholar Timothy Corrigan.

“Visually, Young Törless describes a gray twilight zone where ethics and subjectivity struggle, and Törless wanders tensely between the open and empty landscapes that surround the school and the tightly framed interiors that demand definitions and answers. In the end, despite his strenuous and heartfelt reflections on why ‘normal people can do terrible things,’ he remains paralyzed as a kind of intellectual bystander, whose only assessment of the lesson learned from the violence and humiliation he has witnessed is that people must be ‘continually on guard.’”

Commentary

None.

A German Movie

Video interview with Schlöndorff in which he reflects upon the making of Young Törless and its subsequent impact.

Speaking perfect English, literate as hell, Schlöndorff is justifiably proud of his debut effort. There would be so many more great films in his future …

Presentation

Of the original score by Henze, with a video introduction by Schlöndorff.

Great to hear the whole thing as a kind of suite.

Stills gallery

Of behind-the-scenes production images and promotional art.

Theatrical trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

34

55 + 34 =

89

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