''Young Törless'' () is a 1966 German
drama
Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
film directed by
Volker Schlöndorff
Volker Schlöndorff (; born 31 March 1939) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer who has worked in Germany, France and the United States. He was a prominent member of the New German Cinema of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
He ha ...
, adapted from the 1906 novel ''
The Confusions of Young Törless
''The Confusions of Young Törless'' (), or ''Young Törless'', is the literary debut of the Austrian philosophical novelist and essayist Robert Musil, first published in 1906. Musil's novel is ostensibly a ''Bildungsroman'', a story of a young di ...
'' by
Robert Musil
Robert Musil (; 6 November 1880 – 15 April 1942) was an Austrian philosophical writer. His unfinished novel, ''The Man Without Qualities'' (), is generally considered to be one of the most important and influential modernist novels.
Family
M ...
. It deals with the violent and
sadistic tendencies of a group of boys at an
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n
military academy at the beginning of the 20th century.
Plot
At the beginning of the 20th century, Thomas Törless (
Mathieu Carrière) arrives at the academy and learns how Anselm von Basini (
Marian Seidowsky) has been caught stealing by fellow student Reiting (
Fred Dietz). Basini is obliged to become 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
Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-pe ...
. Again, Törless is aloof and more intrigued than excited by the woman.
He is however very eager to understand imaginary numbers, which are mentioned in his maths lesson. The maths teacher is unwilling or unable to explain what these are, stating that in life, emotion is what rules everything – even mathematics.
After Basini is humiliated and suspended upside down in the school gym because of one of Reiting's intrigues, Törless realises intellectually that the other boys are simply cruel. He seems no more or less emotionally moved by this than by the revelation that he cannot understand imaginary numbers. He decides that he does not want to partake in cruelty, so decides to leave the academy. His teachers think that he is too "highly strung" for his own good, and do not want him to stay anyway – they are part of the system which can allow such terrible things to be done to the weak and vulnerable.
At the end of the film, Törless is dismissed from the school and leaves with his mother, smiling.
Cast
*
Mathieu Carrière – Thomas Törless
*
Marian Seidowsky – Anselm von Basini
*
Bernd Tischer – Beineberg
*
Fred Dietz – Reiting
*
Lotte Ledl – Gastwirtin / Innkeeper
*
Jean Launay – Mathematiklehrer / Maths Teacher
*
Barbara Steele – Bozena
Music
The film's significance as a cultural artifact of German post-World War II introspection is enhanced by the fact that its haunting medieval-sounding score was written by
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...
, the German modernist composer. Henze, who came of age during the war, was prominent enough in this introspection by virtue of his left-political activism in the arts to feel driven to expatriation from Germany. Hans Werner Henze later arranged a suite from the original score, which was entitled ''
Fantasia for Strings''.
Release and awards
''Young Törless'' was screened on 9 May 1966 at the
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world.
Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
.
The film won the
FIPRESCI Prize at the
1966 Cannes Film Festival.
It was also selected as the German entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film at the
39th Academy Awards
The 39th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1966, were held on April 10, 1967, hosted by Bob Hope at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California.
The Academy Awards broadcast faced the threat of cancellation due ...
, but was not accepted as a nominee.
In popular culture
Footage from the film was used in the 2023 music video for the song "The Lost Room" by the
Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and were listed as the most successful duo in UK music h ...
.
See also
*
*
List of German submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
References
External links
*
''Young Törless''an essay by Timothy Corrigan at the
Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young Torless
1966 films
1966 drama films
1966 LGBTQ-related films
German drama films
German LGBTQ-related films
West German films
1960s German-language films
German black-and-white films
Films directed by Volker Schlöndorff
Films based on Austrian novels
Films set in Austria
Films set in the 1900s
Films set in boarding schools
1966 directorial debut films
1960s German films
Films scored by Hans Werner Henze
German-language drama films