Volker Schlöndorff (1939)
Biography
Volker Schlöndorff (born in Wiesbaden, Germany on March 31, 1939) is a Berlin-based German filmmaker. He won an Oscar as well as the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival for The Tin Drum (1979), the film version of the novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass.
Schlöndorff has adapted many literary works for his movies, including some critically well-received US productions, but he is also engaged in post-war German politics. He served as the chief executive for the UFA studio in Babelsberg. Volker Schlöndorff also teaches film and literature at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, where he conducts an Intensive Summer Seminar. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volker_Schl%C3%B6ndorff [Oct 2005]
Der Junge Törless/Young Toerless (1966) - Volker Schlöndorff
Der Junge Törless/Young Toerless (1966) - Volker Schlöndorff [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Description
Academy Award(tm)-winning director Volker Schlöndorff (The Tin Drum) won the International Critics Award at Cannes for his first feature, a chilling allegory of war-time oppression. Set at a military boarding school at the turn of the century, the shy and intelligent Toerless wants to report the humiliation and torture of a fellow classmate, but remains silent when the others threaten to name him as an accomplice. This mind blowing psychological thriller contains striking performances - including one by Barbara Steele, the sultry queen of Italian cult Horror.
Der junge Törless (Young Törless) is a 1966 German movie directed by Volker Schlöndorff adapted from the autobiographical novel Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törless by Robert Musil dealing with the sadistic and homoerotic tendencies of a group of boys at an Austrian military academy at the beginning of the 20th century.
When Thomas Törless (Mathieu Carrière) arrives at the academy, his interest is soon piqued by the apparently homosexual Anselm von Basini (Marian Seidowsky), who, after having been caught stealing by fellow student Reiting (Fred Dietz), becomes Reiting's "slave", bowing to Reiting's sadistic rituals. Törless follows their relationship with intellectual interest but without emotional involvement.
Also partaking in these sessions is Beineberg (Bernd Tischer), with whom Törless visits Bozena (Barbara Steele), the local prostitute. Again, Törless is aloof and more intrigued than excited by the woman.
When Basini and Törless are left alone in the academy, Törless sleeps with Basini, though he later decides it was just an experiment.
After Basini is nearly lynched by a mob because of one of Reiting's intrigues, Törless, having completed the transition from youth to adult, takes his life in his own hands for the first time and leaves the academy. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_junge_T%F6rless [Feb 2005]
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