Schachnovelle

It's a shame that some foreign movies have achieved fame and critical acclaim, and others never make it past their own country of origin. Schachnovelle, or Brainwashed in America, is a fantastic German movie that no one's ever heard of.

Once again, Curd Jurgens couldn't be any better. American audiences really only remember him as the villain in The Spy Who Loved Me, but he was an excellent actor whenever given the chance. In Brainwashed, he starts as a cultured art collector who gets targeted by the Nazis in occupied Austria because he helps smuggle art pieces out of the country. In a very civilized interrogation, he reveals that he doesn't believe violence ever solves anything and that manners and civility are at the heart of most men. In response, Hansjorg Felmy realizes that he'll never get the information he wants out of Curd by torturing him in the regular way. Instead, he has to torture his mind...

This is one of those "what does it take to get nominated" performances. In fact, if it came out during another year, it would be a "what does it take to win" performance. However, it came out in 1961 in the United States, and he was up against Sidney Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun at the Hot Toasty Rag awards. Obviously, Curd didn't take home the newspaper trophy. It's still an incredible tour-de-force, so if you don't mind watching subtitled movies, you need to rent it. If you're a chess player, it might become your favorite movie ever. I could tell you more about the story, but it really shakes you up if you don't know what's coming. Curd has such a fantastic energy, building and breaking down his character's walls and making the audience feel they're right inside his tiny cell and experiencing his mental breakdown alongside him. If you want to see more of him, grab a Kleenex box and rent the remake of The Blue Angel next.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. There are some strobing lightening flashes that coincide with canted angles in his cell, and also the big scene when he loses it over the checkered floor at the ball has some canted angels, and that will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

Solid black and white film adaptation of the literary classic by Stefan ZWEIG!

The production by Luggi WALDLEITNER and his ROXY FILM imitates the films of the Italian-French cinema of those years in form and image design without reaching their class. But the film is still worth seeing because of the actors: BAFTA AWARD nominee Curd JÜRGENS (nominated in 1959 for THE ENEMY BELOW) in the leading role, EUROPEAN FILM AWARD nominee Mario ADORF (nominated in 1997 for ROSSINI) as the chess world champion, Hans SÖHNKER as a bishop, Dietmar SCHÖNHERR as a rabbi and, particularly well, the Hitchcock star Hansjörg FELMY (in TORN CURTAIN) as the jovial Nazi henchman. The female lead is played by British star Claire BLOOM, who starred alongside Charlie CHAPLIN in LIMELIGHT and alongside Maria SCHELL in THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOW. In later years, BLOOM was for a time the partner of the American writer Philip ROTH.

Not the weakest film from the West German film industry era!

This was the first adaptation of Stefan Zweig's famous (and last story) of an intellectual brainwash procedure conducted by the Gestapo to make a rescuer of Austrian art treasures talk, which procedure fails, since the victim is fortunate enough to get hold of a small booklet of chess games, which prompts him to intellectual training even in solitary confinement without any other intellectual stimulus. Fortunately this film (in black and white) was remade in 2021 (in colour) in a much more elaborate and cinematic outfit, greatly enlarging and developing the material into a consummate masterpiece. This is not bad, but Curd Jurgens overdoes it with violent outbursts which are quite unnecessary and brings the story to a lower level. The action is swift and a little too fast in hurrying up to the crisis, which impedes the credibility. Philipp Stölz' modern version sustains the credibility better. Curiously enough, Hansjörg Felmy as the SS officer is almost exactly reproduced in the same style and character in the modern film, with the same suavity and elegance. What saves the film is Claire Bloom as the ballerina, who tips Jurgens to save what he can in time and later brings him back to life, who always made a fine appearance, but she is not in the book. She saves this film though.

This movie is the first (and the last?) adaptation of Stefan Zweig's short story "Die schachnovelle". I read it and I studied it for my exams when I was in high school. But above all, I loved it so I was quite impatient to discover this movie. I watched it and I must say that I was disappointed. Not only is the short story a toned down and softened adaptation of Zweig's masterpiece but it's also a betrayal. For example, when Mr B... is prisoner of the Gestapo, he's succeeding in finding a book that deals with chess. In the movie, the Gestapo's leader's taking it from him and not on the short story. Moreover, Mr B... is appearing at the beginning of the movie whereas in the book, he's entering the plot in the middle. I also noticed that the subjects broached in the short story like Mr B...'s madness against chess or Nazis' goal to dehumanize their prisoners were more sketched out than showed and analyzed. On another hand, unlike Zweig, Gert Oswald doesn't succeed in recreating a choking and unhealthy atmosphere in the part where Mr B... is prisoner of the Nazis. Nevertheless, I thought that the actor who played Czentovic's role was quite convincing thanks to his physical appearance (Zweig is writing about his head "a farmer's fat head") and he's recreating perfectly his feelings: he's conceited, unpleasant even ridiculous and he's despising his adversaries during the chess game. But this positive side isn't sufficient enough to save the movie and I hope that there'll be another (better) adaptation of the short story.

This is a wonderful film, even better and darker than Stefan Zweig's short story upon which it is based.

It moves along at a leisurely pace by contemporary standards, which makes it all the better by providing a good sense of context for recently Nazi-occupied Austria. It Imparts an atmosphere of anxious apprehension and quiet desperation as poor Curd Jurgens struggles to hold onto his sanity while in solitary confinement, deprived of all stimuli.

Recommended for film buffs and chess players alike.