Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Der junge Törless" is a German, black-and-white film from 1966, so this one has its 50th anniversary this year. The writer (i.e. the one who adapted the base material) and director here is Volker Schlöndorff, still in his 20s at this point and it was the big breakthrough for him as this movie here won Best Picture at the German Film Awards. Schlöndorff managed to build a prolific and successful (Oscar winner "Tin Drum") career in the film industry on his success here. For lead actor Mathieu Carrière, it was also the big breakthrough, but while he also has been in films for the last 50 years he didn't make it big really, so that this film here is still his most known role I guess.The film is about life at a boys-only school. We see how one student steals something from another, but instead of reporting him the boys decide to make him their slave, threaten to report him if he doesn't do exactly what the tell him to and there is certainly considerable sexual tone in here too. Carrière, however, plays a student who is more like a quiet observer. he does not really take part in the bullying like the others do, but he also will not help the boy that so desperately needs somebody to stand up for him. He knew very well that this would make him the next target. Then again, his passiveness does so too to some extent, even if it is all not in the open.I had a couple problem with the action in this film. For example, near the end at the gym, it was hard for me to believe that everybody else would suddenly join in and they would act like a mob shouting to kill Basini and if we are honest, not a whole lot was missing. Or that the teachers of the school really turn Basini into the scapegoat for everything that happened. Yes he did steal some money, not much though, but that goes beyond all logical behavior. Then again, maybe Musil, the author of the novel is more to blame for this, unless it makes more sense in the book and Schlöndorff's adaptation was just flawed. The ending of the film makes clear that the title character is also the main character as the film basically ends when he decides to leave school. Who knows what equally gruesome events will happen there in the future. Maybe we are lucky not to find out. All in all, I personally felt the movie was just intended to be as controversial and shocking as possible without telling us a genuinely realistic and interesting story. That's why I believe it is not among the best Germany has to offer in terms of 1960s' movies. I do not recommend the watch and the Academy got it right in not nominating this one.

tparis-2 Basini, a pathetic, slow witted and rather homely weakling, is targeted as a thief and is subjected to a series of humiliating, degrading experiments in the attic of a military academy. Basini willingly enslaves himself to his classmate Reiting, brilliantly portrayed as a popular bully "with gusto" (as one reviewer noted)by Fred Dietz, and seems to relish the abuse he has to endure.Basini is objectified- his debasement is seen from the point of view of Torless, who is fascinated by Basini's willingness to take whatever punishment is meted out, and his two chums - Reiting and the brainy sadist Beineberg. Eventually the sadists,who are running out of novel ways to torment their victim, decide to turn Basini over to the entire school, where he is strung up by the heels in the gym and subjected to an enthusiastic battering by his gleeful classmates. Basini is expelled as a moral degenerate, the "sensitive" Torless voluntarily leaves the academy. and the two arch-torturers stay on to graduate - no doubt with high honors. Musil's 1901 novel is more sexually explicit. In the novel Basini is stripped naked and battered by his classmates in preparation for a whipping. Basini turns himself in to avoid being flogged to death. In the novel Basini is described as pretty and sexually alluring. Seidowsky, the actor who portrays the victim in this movie, is pudgy and dull-eyed. His tormentors are handsome - almost charming at times, and that is likely closer to reality than we'd care to imagine. A modern remake could explore the homo-erotic sadism more explicitly than Schloendorf dared in the 1960s.

csdietrich Faithfully adapted from author Robert Musil, this study of sadism and masochism among students at an Austro-Hungarian boys prep school is a parable of fascism and its origins. Barbara Steele is radiant and splendid as Bozena the prostitute who awakens the nascent sexual nature of the adolescent students. Lovingly photographed in black and white, YOUNG TORLESS evokes the mood and claustrophobic horror of the dehumanizing military system. Matthew Carriere gives an unblemished and heartfelt performance as an innocent caught behind the barbed wire walls of his very soul and the duty to which he has been placed. A must-see for everyone and an advocacy for pacificism. This was Volker Schloendorff's first film, and by admission one of Barbara Steele's favorite roles.

jan onderwater Considered a classic film as it was the first film to put the then New German Film firmly on the (international) map. Also a classic because it was Schlöndorf's first feature and it is still thought highly of. To be sure, this is a beautiful film to watch with its superb black-and-white cinematography; Schlondörf's direction makes it into a well paced and staged, stylish film. But I never liked the film; recent re-viewing confirmed my feelings.Schlöndorf wants to do more than simply bring the viewer the subject and with that the whole thing goes wrong. In trying to convey the deeper meaning of the story as clear as possible the script is written in such way that even the most simple minded can not miss it. The film is lecturing without any subtleties; Schlöndorf never provokes the viewer to think for himself: he has already done it for him. Nor is there any nuance in the psychology of the different characters.And what about the cast? In 1966 (and still) praised for their effort as inexperienced actors. Well, I think that most of the acting is downright poor, or never goes further than reciting lines. In the meantime we have come to know Mathieu Carriere better during his career; Carriere is in this his first film as boring as he still is. Of course the actors were not helped much by the literary dialogue, another feature that was (and is) praised so much; most of it I find simply laughable. Classic miscast is Barbara Steele, who seems to have walked in from the set of a typical sexploitation film, including acting style.