Review on 📀 Young Törless DVD by David Grajales

Robert Musil's The Confusion of Young Törless was published in 1906, on the decline of 19th century authenticity (Freud published Studies on Hysteria 1895, Interpretation of Dreams 1900; Franz Wedekind's "Spring Awakening" was published in 1890, first published in 1906 and banned in 1908; Einstein's "General Theory" was less than ten years away) in Austria-Hungary, a semi-fictional empire that had fallen apart for too long. . The greatness of Musil's work lies in the fact that he transformed the zeitgeist into a relatively simple narrative about an abuse case at a boys' academy. Once on paper, the novel (sometimes a meditation) transcends time and place and makes a statement about adults and children grappling with passion, knowledge, order and justice, and trying to understand within themselves what they themselves do not control fully understand (hence the metaphorical use of discussions of imaginary numbers), eventually resorting to rationalization, dogma, and discipline. Törless, his comrades, his teachers and the school chaplain fight in the dark and pretend to be somehow enlightened by experience, while everyone is just trying in their own way to calm the inner conflict and restore an understandable order. Be that as it may, the work is extremely ironic, no more than the title, because "Confusion" refers not only to young Törless, but to the whole world around him. Musil was 26 years old when it was published. Schlöndorff's film captures all of this. With one important caveat, this is an extremely accurate rendering of the novel and its spirit. Strict black and white photography, a rather sparse setting, sparse dialogues reduce the film to the essentials: Nothing distracts from its essence. Well played. Attention - sex. In Musil's novel, sex is an all-pervasive and destructive force. At one point, Törless becomes sexually aroused after witnessing the abuse. Beineberg, Reiting, and Törless each use Basini for sexual purposes, albeit in different ways. Basini uses his sexuality to plead his case at Törless; Törless justifies his tacit approval. All four use the town whore. Part of Törless' "confusion" is his intellectualization of his own sexual turmoil: does he act one way or another based on what he thinks, or do his feelings shape his thoughts, which then rationalize his actions? It is not about the sexual identity that one can face at the beginning of the 21st century, but about the awareness of the destructive power of passion in it. Schlöndorff does not reveal Musil, but with the exception of the whore, the sexuality is revealed through flowing dialogue and conclusions, less central and comprehensive than in the novel. The film was made in 1966; perhaps it would be done differently today, and the task would remain to do it at least as well. Another irony, albeit unintentional, at a work published sixty years before the masterfully directed film was made. The completely anachronistic music by Hans Werner Henze reinforces the universal and timeless predicament that the film portrays. Neither I nor, I think, Schlöndorff see a premonition of National Socialism in Musil's novel; Such a conclusion obscures meaning, distorts relevance and distracts from work. What was true and appropriate in the 1906 text is true and appropriate today. "Confusion" may still be an apt description of humanity: perhaps the illusions, contradictions, and complacency in America today are a good example. Because in the irony with which the young Törless closes, there is a touch of self-satisfaction in both Musil and Schlöndorff, a detachment that can be translated as an anxious harbinger of our growing awareness of ourselves, of what we can and can do of the absurdly infinite. Ability and incomprehensible ways we find to give ourselves absolution. "Yes we can." is a really scary thought. The Criterion CD, like all their editions, is once again flawless; really high quality product.