Young Torless (France/Germany, 1966)


Figure 1.-- This powerful allegorical German film is based the novel (Die Verwirrungen des Zoglings Torless written by Robert Musil in 1906. Young Torless is set at an Austrian military school and is based on the author's own experieces. Here we see a classroom scene showing the sleeve protectors. The boy in the foreground is Basini, the victim of the sadism. Botice the sleeve protectos.

This powerful allegorical German film is based the novel (Die Verwirrungen des Zoglings Torless written by Robert Musil in 1906. (Musil at age 12 entered an Austrian boarding school. He served in World War I and was decorated for valor. He mairred a Jewish woman and fled to SWitzerland after the Anschluss. His books critical of the military were banned by the NAZIs.) Young Torless is set at an Austrian military school and is based on the author's own experieces. This penetrating study of young cadets offers a preview of coming power of Facist movements. Mathieu Carriere plays Torless, a student in a prestigious boarding school during the waning, but still proud days of the Hapsburg empire. Torless witnesses the sadistic behavior of fellow students Alfred Dietz and Bernd. He at first watches with fascination, but does not intervene or to assisst the hapless victims. When Torless does finally report his former friends, it is he who has to leave the school. There may have been a remake in 1996. One reviewer writes, "Young Torless has gone down in film history as a seminal work that announced a new German cinema of international stature."

Filmology

One reviewer writes, "Young Torless has gone down in film history as a seminal work that announced a new German cinema of international stature." The film was directed by Volker Schlondorff.

Book

This powerful allegorical German film is based the novel (Die Verwirrungen des Zoglings Torless written by Robert Musil in 1906. (Musil at age 12 entered an Austrian boarding school. He served in World War I and was decorated for valor. He mairred a Jewish woman and fled to SWitzerland after the Anschluss. His books critical of the military was not thecsort of thing the NAZIs wanted Germans to read. His books were banned by the NAZIs.)

Setting

Young Torless is set at an Austrian military school and is based on the author's own experieces. This penetrating study of young cadets offers a preview of coming power of Facist movements.

Cast

Mathieu Carriere plays Torless, a student in a prestigious boarding school during the waning, but still proud days of the Hapsburg empire. Other cast members include: Basini (Marian Seidowsky); Reiting (Fred Dietz); Beineberg (Bernd Tischer). I am not familiar with the boys' acting careers. Perhaps our European readers will know more about them. They are very effective in their roles. The film because of their acting is very powerful.


Figure 2.--The military school was a boarding school. This is the boys' dormitory at night. The boys wore nighshirts.

Plot

The film presents an allegory of NAZI fascism as depicted in an elite military boarding school for teenage boys in pre-World War I Austria. Thomas Torless witnesses the sadistic behavior of fellow students Alfred Dietz and Bernd/ Reiting and Beineberg. They sadistically torture and humiliate one of his classmates, Anslem von Basinil. At the school Torless witnesses blackmail, animal abuse, and calculated adolescent cruelty. He at first watches with fascination, but does not intervene or to assisst the hapless victims. He doesn't intervene to stop the abuse but uses the experience simply to learn and philosophize about the nature of good and evil in the human condition. He finally does report his former friends and the horrors he witnessed to the school authorities, but it is he who has to leave the school. He is then sent home as unsuitable for such a school.

Costuming

The boys wear military tunics that button up to the neck and long trousers held up by wide suspenders worn underneat the tunics over tee-shirt-like undershirts. In more informal moments the boys also wear turtle-neck sweaters and long scarfs. The also wear peaked military caps. The sleep in nightshirts in their dormitory. In class they wear sleeve protectors over their arms to keep from staining their uniforms with ink, chalk, and simple wear and tear from rubbing on desks.

Remake

There may have been a remake in 1996.







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Created: 11:49 PM 3/2/2007
Last updated: 7:10 PM 3/3/2007