Although Robert Fuswil's novel antedates Fritz Lang's film, "M" by a good three decades. Does anyone see any similarities in the films? The actor playing Basini looks like a young Peter Lorre, the pseudo "trial," the transposition of the viewers sympathies.
sharejust watched this film and thought it was outstanding...
interestingly enough, there's an interview with volker schlondorff on the criterion dvd and he addresses these two points specifically...and yes, he does cite fritz lang as an influenece and said the actor playing basini was told to watch lorre's performance in 'M' as a reference...he also stated that the 'trial' was indeed an homage to lang's film...
I'm afraid she's upped stumps and retired to the pavillion.
Thanks, samlowrysloveslave. Good to hear that I didn't miss something. By the way, there's a Citerion DVD? When I bought Young Toerless the only thing that was available was a VHS version.
shareyes, there is indeed a criterion release of this wonderful film and i think it's quite good...the dvd contains the very interesting above-referenced interview with the director as well as a stills gallery, original score, film trailer, and an essay by a noted film scholar (besides watching the interview and the trailer, i didn't really explore the other features)...
the transfer is great so the film looks amazing...
below is a link to the dvd beaver review of the criterion dvd...
i think this is one that i may have to pick up in the future...
cheers...
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews10/young_torless_.htm
I'm afraid she's upped stumps and retired to the pavillion.
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