Who’s in for some German films today?! I’m diving in for director Volker Schlöndorff. Influenced by the late 50’s/early 60’s French New Wave movement, Schlöndorff’s early films were tied to the New German Cinema movement. He started in Germany but would later make films in several countries, including the USA (where he would make the first film version of Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale). I’ll be focusing on five of his German pieces today, starting with his debut, Young Törless, in 1966.
Young Törless is about a boy, Thomas Törless, who is new to boarding school. He is quiet but very intelligent, observing everything going on around in a detached way. Two of the more powerful boys at school, Beineberg and Reiting, begin tormenting another boy, Basini, after it is discovered that Basini had stolen money from one of them. The two bullies threaten Basini with disclosing the theft to the teachers, which would most likely get him expelled, so Basini agrees to be their servant, doing anything they ask. Unfortunately this turns into cruel and demeaning torture. Though it is strongly hinted but never explicitly stated (maybe due to censors?), it seems the boys are making Basini engage in homosexual acts. Thomas is disgusted with the cruelty, but refuses to help Basini if Basini won’t help himself. It’s a very good story, lots of undertones of societal norms and acceptances, but I found the acting to be terrible. Maybe Schlöndorff went with non-professional actors (I didn’t research), but sometimes they are downright bad. Took away from what should have been a very moving film. ★★½
A television film released in 1970, Baal stars Rainer Werner Fassbinder (who had directed just a couple feature films to this point, and was yet to explode on the international scene), as well as several of Fassbinder’s usual troupe of actors. Baal (Fassbinder) is a gifted poet, and in the beginning of the movie, he is attending a snooty bourgeois dinner. Baal obviously holds a lot of disdain for the other guests, and he makes his feelings known. He gets booted out, but not before wooing the host’s wife, and later bedding her. Back amongst the common people, we see that Baal’s contempt isn’t relegated to just the rich: he treats everyone with derision. Honestly, he’s a huge asshole, even sleeping with his best (and only) friend’s girlfriends. The women know that Baal is a huge jerk, but they can’t seem to help themselves around his bad boy sexy attitude. Don’t worry, because by the end of the film, Baal gets what’s coming to him. Normally, this is not a movie I’d like very much. There’s little plot, and it can be a bit heavy handed at times, but damn, if I wasn’t enthralled throughout. I hung on every one of Baal’s moves, just like the ladies. I was all in from the opening song to Baal’s comeuppance. ★★★½
In The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, Schlöndorff attacks the runaway tabloid journalism that was rampant in West Germany at the time. In the film, a man escapes police surveillance, steals a car, and ends up at a night club. There, the man, Ludwig, meets Katharina, and she is instantly smitten. Normally quiet and reserved (her friends call her “the nun,”), Katharina takes Ludwig home at the end of the night. The next morning, police storm her apartment, but Ludwig is nowhere to be found. So starts the smear campaign. The cops are all over Katharina, looking for information as to Ludwig’s whereabouts, and if she was in league with him all along. Within a couple days, they build a solid case against her, but it’s all circumstantial evidence. To turn the screws, the police leak some details to the tabloids. One journalist in particular isn’t satisfied stopping there, and he goes after Katharina’s employers, mother, etc. Anything for a splashy front page story. By the end, the viewer has no illusions to the writer’s morality, but at the same time, the movie forgives Katharina an awful lot for her aiding and abetting, and I couldn’t look past that so easily. Engaging film though. ★★★
Coup de Grâce is the one film out of today’s series to hit it out of the park. Set in Latvia in 1919 at the tail end of the Bolshevik Revolution, German soldiers Konrad and Erich have returned home, trying to push back Bolshevik soldiers looking to expand Russian territory. Konrad and his unit are stationed out of his childhood mansion, and he is reunited with his sister Sophie. Erich was a childhood friend of the family, but now as adults, Sophie starts falling in love with him. He does not seem interested, insisting that she would not be satisfied with him. Whatever it is that is keeping him from getting with Sophie, Erich’s rebuff greatly upsets her, and Sophie begins sleeping with random soldiers in their company as a way to make Erich jealous. She also has a secret of her own: whenever she goes into town on errands, she meets up with friends that are supportive of the socialist/communist movement. Despite her political ideologies, she can’t help herself but continue to love Erich. The reason for Erich’s hesitation is a big surprise to the viewer, so I don’t want to give it away, but let’s just say that the film was way ahead of it’s time. When Sophie learns the “why,” she gives up her charade and joins the militant guerrillas against the German soldiers. It will not end will for her. Explosive movie full of intrigue and emotion. ★★★★
Ending today with The Tin Drum, which won all kinds of awards upon its release in 1979 (Palme d’Or, Oscar for Best Foreign Language film, among others). The main character is Oskar, a boy who is born fully intelligent and cognizant (watching his birth from his point of view is a sight to see!). Oskar’s mother, Agnes, is in a rough marriage with pro-Nazi Alfred, but she’s had a longtime affair with anti-Nazi Polish citizen Jan, and Jan may even be Oskar’s father. Two things happen when Oskar is 3 years old: he is gifted a toy drum, which becomes his favorite toy, never putting it down; and he witnesses his parents engaged in drunken tomfoolery. Disgusted with their behavior, Oskar decides he will never grown up. He doesn’t, staying the same size and not aging a day afterwards. A medical oddity, his parents accept it and life goes on. Throughout the next few years, Oskar witnesses a lot of things that a normal 3 year should not see (sex between Agnes and Jan is one example), and he also witnesses the death of all of those close to him. First Agnes, who, after getting in a huge argument with her husband about eating eels, goes on to eat fish at a breakneck speed until she dies. Jan is killed by the Nazi’s when they raid the Polish post office where he works. Now raising a 16-year-old Oskar in a 3-year-old body, Alfred starts paying the teenager from the apartment upstairs to help watch him. Oskar has his first love with this girl, but walks into a room one day to see her having sex with Alfred too. This finally motivates Oskar to move on, and he goes out into the world to have adventures of his own. The film has moments of dark comedy, later-Fellini-esque magical realism, and while some moments can get a little silly, the emotional punch of Oskar’s often turbulent ride has more highs than lows. ★★★½
- TV series currently watching: Lost in Space (season 3)
- Book currently reading: Relentless by RA Salvatore
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