Filming at Duke University: Volker Schlöndorff's Adaptation of 'The Handmaid's Tale' (1990)

Volker Schlöndorff focuses consistently on such themes as explored in The Handmaid's Tale. His Der junge Törless / Young Törless (1966) is concerned with how social psychology works as a psychic battleground between mass contagion and individual choice. His other movies, all exacting, include Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum / The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975),  Der Fangschuß / Coup de grâce (1976),  Die Blechtrommel / The Tin Drum (1979), Un amour de Swann / Swann in Love (1984) and Diplomatie / Diplomacy (2014). 

Schlöndorff takes a few liberties with The Handmaid's Tale (1990), but the gist remains. Fascism or plain old authoritarianism, patriarchy melded with pseudo-religious ideology, cults of macho personality -- gang's all here. In 2018, one can see variants of the same in Islamic State, Saudi Arabia, Boko Haram, Orthodox Conservative Christianity and Orthodox Conservative Judaism, Putin, Duterte, Trump, Erdoğan, and so on -- enemies all to cosmopolitan egalitarianism, equality and diversity, and thereby enemies all to my own sweet sensibilities! 

Today's Rune: Flow.

Volker Schlöndorff's Adaptation of 'The Handmaid's Tale' (1990)

Volker Schlöndorff's 1990 adaptation of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985) was filmed at Duke University (pictured above) and elsewhere around Durham (one scene looks like the rail line behind Brightleaf Mall, a cluster of converted tobacco warehouses), Raleigh and the mountains of North Carolina. It's colorful, harrowing in parts and yet also salted occasionally with wry, dark humor. 

Volker Schlöndorff focuses consistently on such themes as explored in The Handmaid's Tale. His Der junge Törless / Young Törless (1966) is concerned with how social psychology works as a psychic battleground between mass contagion and individual choice. His other movies, all exacting, include Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum / The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975),  Der Fangschuß / Coup de grâce (1976),  Die Blechtrommel / The Tin Drum (1979), Un amour de Swann / Swann in Love (1984) and Diplomatie / Diplomacy (2014). 

Schlöndorff takes a few liberties with The Handmaid's Tale (1990), but the gist remains. Fascism or plain old authoritarianism, patriarchy melded with pseudo-religious ideology, cults of macho personality -- gang's all here. In 2017, one can see variants of the same in Islamic State, Saudi Arabia, Boko Haram, Orthodox Conservative Christianity and Judaism, Putin, Duterte, Trump, Erdoğan, and so on -- enemies all to cosmopolitan egalitarianism, equality and diversity, and thereby enemies all to my own sensibilities. 

Today's Rune: Fertility. 

Volker Schlöndorff: 'Die Blechtrommel' / 'The Tin Drum' (1979)

It took many years, but I finally consented to re-watch Volker Schlöndorff's Die Blechtrommel / The Tin Drum (1979) -- Schlöndorff's movie adaptation of the 1959 Günter Graß novel. Given the vivid imagery, dark humor, horror and memorably dramatic events depicted in Danzig (Gdańsk) and elsewhere in Europa during the periods before, during and immediately after the Second World War, I found that my memory of the film was in close alignment with how it unfolds during a second look, albeit with the added bonus of a longer director's cut. I can also say more confidently now thanks to more life experience and additional comparison to many other works of art in the intervening years that this is a Schlöndorff masterwork.  

An excellent reason to see The Tin Drum is that it was banned in Oklahoma for many years. Pretty funny considering the film's obvious anti-Nazi illuminations. 

The Tin Drum makes me think of The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Der Rattenfänger von Hameln). You may recall that in the legend, survivors of the Pied Piper's work include a crippled rat and a crippled child, both of whom bear witness to what has happened to their peers. In The Tin Drum, Otto Matzerath, who has decided to stop growing at age three, plays a succession of tin drums until they break and who also likes to shatter glass with a hideous shrieking, is one such character. Another is Musiker Meyn, a trumpet player. Both are themselves part Pied Pipers and part survivors. There is also a madman, a holy fool sort of half-wit, known as Schugger-Leo. In addition, there are observant little people in a circus troupe, particularly Roswitha Raguna and Bebra, their ringleader. All of these fringe characters give much of the story an outsider's perspective that helps spotlight the tribal core's mass psychology -- and mass delusion. 

Finally, let me note the excellent effect on The Tin Drum made by the background music created by Maurice Jarre (1924-2009). Every time I hear wind chimes, I hear echoes of Jarre's work. Hardly an obscure musician, Jarre won three Oscars for original music scores during his career.

Today's Rune: Defense.    

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975)

Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta's Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum / The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975), spotlights the main character, Katharina Blum, in a way that underscores the exuberance of mid-70s feminism. 

Found chart courtesy of the internet. 

Combine global male resistance to independent women with fear and panic over security and terrorism, and voila, you've got a film ready-made for the 21st century. 

The movie is based on Heinrich Böll's darkly satirical 1974 novel, Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum oder: Wie Gewalt entstehen und wohin sie führen kann /  The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, or: How Violence Develops and Where it can Lead. 

The almost absurdly intrusive surveillance and media system depicted in the film might seem beyond belief were it not for a series of similarly themed dystopian science fiction works -- and actual historical developments still being played out. 

Angela Winkler is key to the success of The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum. As she would later do playing "the eel-eating woman" in Volker Schlöndorff's Academy Award winning The Tin Drum (1979), she delivers here with total commitment.

Today's Rune: Breakthrough.  

  

Volker Schlöndorff: 'Der junge Törless' / 'Young Törless' (1966)

Volker Schlöndorff's first movie, in stark black and white -- Der junge Törless / Young Törless (1966) -- is set in and around the Prinz Eugen military school in the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the First World War (1914-1918). It's an excellent film in every detail. Perhaps most importantly, it serves as a kind of parable for the rise of fascism and, indeed, provides insight into contemporary phenomena like the increased popularity of the National Front in France and Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in the United States. In this way and more, Young Törless is concerned with how social psychology works as a psychic battleground between mass contagion and individual choice. 

Here we have Törless (seated), the rather twisted Beineberg (smoking) and Bozena, their amorous acquaintance. 

A good deal of the plot of Young Törless involves the scapegoating of Basini, another, weaker student, for sadistic fun. Here, three of the cadets plot further amusement in "the Attic," a secret night meeting place. Think Lord of the Flies.  

Young Törless is grounded in a 1906 novel, Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß / The Confusions of Young Törless, by Robert Musil (1880-1942), "the Austrian Proust." 

In the arc of the story, the title character sees how people can be drawn into increasingly depraved acts without any apparent brakes on their conduct. In his case, he is able to depart freely, after seeing more than enough. Here, Törless may be a stand-in for exiles and refugees; certainly he is someone who bears witness to human nastiness, coming away with some dirt on his own hands.

Such deep explorations of human psychology in action continue in Volker Schlöndorff's later work, in films such as Der Fangschuß / Coup de Grâce (1976), Die Blechtrommel / The Tin Drum (1979), Un amour de Swann / Swann in Love (1984), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), and others. 

Today's Rune: Partnership. 

Raoul Ruiz: 'Le temps retrouvé, d'après l'oeuvre de Marcel Proust' (1999) - Take II

In this second post inspired by Raoul Ruiz's beautiful film Le temps retrouvé, d'après l'oeuvre de Marcel Proust / Marcel Proust's Time Regained (1999), I want only to make three points.

First, Marcel's biggest epiphany comes in the library of the Guermantes (la bibliothèque du prince de Guermantes). Thus, the key in understanding Proust is The Library! 

(Indeed, any good library contains a multitude of magical powers, and its contents sure to startle you with intense memories from time to time. You may recall that in Andrei Tarkovsky's Солярис / Solaris (1972), the space station library plays a similarly important role in triggering both alien and human epiphanies -- and for even experiencing zero gravity.) 

Second, in addition to Raoul Ruiz's work, there are two other very good films based on Proust that I have seen: Percy Adlon's Céleste (1982) and Volker Schlöndorff's Un amour de Swann / Swann in Love (1984). These films, combined with Proust the actual person and the writings (texts) of Proust, all serve to illuminate each other from different angles. 

Third, while in the past, upon my early reading of it, I surely caught many of the poignant elements in Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu / Remembrance of Things Past / In Search of Lost Time, but over time, and more and more in time -- thanks in part to Raoul Ruiz's Time Regained -- I am really digging the many subtly comic elements in Proust. . . those even beyond the already observed satirical mockery of socio-economic class distinctions and the foibles of social interaction. 

In the Ruiz movie, Marcello Mazzarella plays Marcel in a way that reminds me a lot of Peter Sellers -- a masterful blend of the Peter Sellers we see in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), the Pink Panther movies, and, as Chance the Gardner (aka Chauncey Gardiner), in Being There (1979). 

Look for the comical and you will see it, for surely it's better to laugh than to cry -- more fun, at any rate.    

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Volker Schlöndorff's 'Der Fangschuß' / 'Coup de grâce' (1976): Take II

Volker Schlöndorff's Der Fangschuß / Coup de grâce (1976) works on several levels. Visually, it's strong yet low-key, shot in black and white. Dramatically, conflict drives plot, albeit in a somewhat eerie way because it seems so matter-of-fact. There is intense but shifting tension between German Freikorps officer Erich von Lhomond (Matthias Habich) and Sophie de Reval (Margarethe von Trotta); and there are matters of war and revolution. The latter combo is starkly brought out by showing the German-Latvian "nationalists" based in a fortified estate vs. their Latvian-Bolshevik-allied challengers, traditionally the poorer workers and crafts-people based in and around Kratovice, the nearby village. The estate or chateau compound seems much like a Mexican or Spanish villa, with an almost Medieval social system being rent apart at the time of the story, post the Great War of 1914-1918 and into the 1920s.

Coup de grâce is based on a 1939 novel by Franco-Belgian writer Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987), but the movie is considerably more detailed in its depiction of warfare and daily life. 

What we see is a strange and disconcerting mix of protocol, decorum, regimentation, and gallows humor punctuated by bursts of emotion and violence -- the latter, however, is often carried out with what seems like no emotion at all, such as the routine killing of prisoners on both sides.

Valeska Gert as Tante Praskovia -- a bizarre character, as you may imagine by this image. Gert actually performed in the 1920s, so the time period covered by the film is something she'd personally experienced. Her role is as a sort of Cassandra, or slightly barmy yet keen observer.

The fate of Sophie's dog "Texas." 

Schlöndorff has made a series of intense, heavy-hitting films, ranging from Die Blechtrommel / The Tin Drum (1979) to Un amour de Swann / Swann in Love (1984), The Handmaid's Tale (1990) to Diplomatie / Diplomacy (2014). 

Today's Rune: Breakthrough.   

Volker Schlöndorff's 'Der Fangschuß' / 'Coup de grâce' (1976): Take I

Volker Schlöndorff's 1976 film Der Fangschuß / Coup de grâce (1976) is outstanding, a solid A bit of work. I just saw a crisp Criterion Collection DVD version of this great movie. Yes, there are subtitles -- the language spoken is mostly German, with some French tossed in. Learn something new -- not a big deal (especially if you're already German).

Take five other similarly-themed films, mix them together in a black & white cocktail and boom, there you have an idea of Schlöndorff's vision. The other films?

Jean-Luc Godard's Les carabiniers (1963).

David Lean's Doctor Zhivago (1965).  

Aleksandr Askoldov's Комиссар / Komissar / Commissar / The Commissar (1967/1988). 

Luchino Victoni's La caduta deglis dei / The Damned (1969).

Olivier Hisschbregel's Der Untergand / Downfall (2004).

Come on, now: how many films are you going to get to see that deal with the Latvian Wars of Independence, or any of the wars that convulsed the Baltic States after the Great War of 1914-1918? Bolsheviks! Germans! Latvians! 

(It could just as easily stand in for the Syrian Civil War today, or the nasty bit of business going in in Ukraine as of this post, or Somalia and Yemen). 

And there are strong women characters! 

But what could be more (almost comically) serious and stern as these two German officers? 

What a film! More details to follow.

Today's Rune: Initiation. 

Marcel Proust: Du côté de chez Swann (1913)

All right! Du côté de chez Swann / Swann's Way  (1913) hits one hundred today. This calls for remembrance of things past, the search for lost time, and time regained. I raise high my glass in salute. 

One of my most memorable reading pleasures remains finishing Proust's complete cycle, À la recherche du temps perdu. And I'm certainly not alone in this the world over. 

For the record, traces of Proust are revealed in films ranging from Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep (1945)* to Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' Little Miss Sunshine (2006) -- and the beat goes on. 

Du côté de chez Swann / Swann's Way is a good place to start Proust, come to think of it. Swann and Odette de Crécy and l'amour fou ~ a most memorable start, indeed.

Proust's intricate, finely wrought sentences are a wonder even in English translation. For example, from Du côté de chez Swann / Swann's Way:

"When from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection" (Wikiquote translation).

An easy way to sample Du côté de chez Swann / Swann's Way is to check out Volker Schlöndorff's Un amour de Swann / Swann in Love (1984). But beware: sensuality is depicted! 

Today's Rune: Joy.   *William Faulkner, a Proust admirer, was one of the screenwriter-adapters of the 1939 Raymond Chandler novel.

The Handmaid's Tale Revisited

It's Margaret Atwood's birthday (b. 11/18/1939), which reminds me of a location sequence that I stumbled on during the filming of Volker Schlöndorff's 1990 movie version of Atwood's 1985 novel, The Handmaid's Tale.

I was working in Perkins Library at Duke University, and came out the front entrance for a break just as a column of black armored cars filed up the circle drive toward the large Gothic style Duke Chapel. What the hell, what the heck? I asked around, and learned that a ceremonial hanging sequence was about to be filmed on the far side of the spire.

After circling around the various campus quads on foot, I joined some others to witness the hanging of Jezebels and heretics. Ah, so this is how we'd live under the Christian Taliban. Cheap entertainment -- public hangings and black-clad vehicles.

Schlöndorff and Harold Pinter converted Atwood's novel to the screen with mixed results. The visuals are stunning -- that part is scary. They missed some of the deeper and darker feminist aspects of her vision. But never fear, we can see some of those in the works in 2006.

Happy Birthday, Margaret Atwood!

Just say no to religious fanatics of all stripes.