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.

eldino33 The Left Elbow Index considers seven elements in judging films--acting, production sets, plot, character, dialogue, artistry, and continuity--on a scale of a high of 10 to a low of 1. Concerning acting, one finds it steady and slightly above average. The seem to be no substantial dramatic high points, although there is opportunity for some. Then again, there are no troubling low points either. Probably "even" would best describe, resulting in a rating of 7. The production sets rate an 8, mostly due to the nature of the school building and the isolated town on the Austria-Hungarian border. The indoor sets, with the exception of the gym, appear mundane and just sort of there. Costumes are not really a factor since school uniforms are the order of the day. The plot is a typical coming of age one, with the positive added ingredient of morality, thereby resulting in a 6 rating. Character suffers (a rating of 5) seeming because the personalities of the principles are fixed when they arrive at the school, with the minor exception of Torless who challenges recognition, but retreats. The dialogue seems uninspiring, although appropriate and controlled. It rates a 5, but that may be too high. The artistry is good (an 8). Great camera angles, the elements of the New German Cinema, and the implied preface to Hitlerism, all in black and white, have merit. The continuity is also good (another 8). The film maintains a tone of terror, in which, as writer-director Schlondorff claims, evil becomes natural. There is a minor problem with films of this type in that it is not difficult to predict the rise of National Socialism after it has already come. The film time is 1910, the movie was made in 1966, and Hitler's time is sandwiched in between. Fortunatly, this is not a history movie, it is a philosophical one which implies that the roots of National Socialism were in place in Germany decades before the rise of Hitler, who, ironically, was Austrian. The film is in some ways prophetic in that cultural terror seems always an undercurrent. The film is well worth seeing, even if the Left Elbow Index rank is 6.71, overall.

Jonny_Numb By today's standards, a film like "Young Torless" may seem too coy and archly philosophical (and thus pretentious) a take on the corruption of youth, and the sources from which the corruption stems. Its strength, however, lies in the telling: when a student at a preparatory academy robs a peer to pay off a debt, he finds himself enslaved, both psychologically and sexually, by a gang of rogues looking to push him to the breaking point. In the midst of this is Torless (Matthieu Carriere), a student coming to terms with his identity in the midst of this moral dilemma, and whose mental landscape renders him a frustrated, conflicted character who runs the gamut from cold detachment to vague sympathy. While certain aspects of the film (the homosexual subplot, for instance) seem deliberately repressed due to the era, the implication is enough to give the events an additional potency. The black-and-white cinematography is excellent, capturing a specific atmosphere of dread and meditative solitude--German director Volker Schlondorff is not looking to titillate with sensationalist content, but instead spin a story of a young adult's struggle with the evils of an imperfect world. And on that level, "Young Torless" is one of the best films of its kind.

FilmCriticLalitRao It would be extremely difficult indeed impossible for the great master of New German Cinema Volker Schlondorff if he were to make Der Junge Toerless in current times as many would surely accuse him of spreading the message of anti Semitism.The truth is in reality this film does not harbor any such ideas.However that was not the case in 1950s when he directed this film based on a book by Robert Musil.Of course,it is not a layman's fun stuff film in the conventional sense of the word but one cannot remain indifferent to whatever that has been portrayed in the film. Many have praised the stand taken by Toerless in which he feels empathy for the victim but decides to ignore the events claiming to himself that as they are not affecting him why should he bother too much about them ? The real danger is that some of the viewers might perceive it as a thinking of the past and a very negative politically incorrect ideology. It is in the context of these thoughts that this torture drama behind the closed walls of a boarding school must be viewed.This is certainly not for the weak of the heart.