So, then,
no one's seen Petr Wiegl's Winterreise that saw the previous post, or at least felt like commenting. You should see it if you have a chance, and like your Romanticism straight up, no chaser.
Weigl's done a lot of filmed opera and other films using classical music, as his IMDB page attests. This film uses Schubert's Winterreise as its soundtrack, but doesn't follow it as the source of the plot. I gathered as much going in, as I had seen bits and pieces on Classic Arts Showcase, but it seems only fair to emphasize this discrepancy. If you are enough of a literalist (and some people are) this may prevent you from enjoying any part of this movie, but I think it's worth it to let go and see what Weigl does. Here's a bit ("Der Lindenbaum") on Youtube.
It's a beautiful film, and well worth hunting up. I got it through Netflix as a DVD; since I'm not set up for streaming, I'm not sure if it's available that way or not. Netflix is pretty cagey about showing you things outside what you're subscribed for.
The action of the movie itself alternates between shots of Brigitte Fassbaender singing the lieder (wearing what could be a nun's habit) and her trio of allegorical backup mimes, and the actors performing what we should consider the main action. They do so silently. The action is fairly clear throughout most of the time (the allegorical mimes provide commentary by their actions from time to time) but, because of the lack of spoken word (other than Fassbaender's singing) or even old-style title cards, some ambiguity remains. (Of course there are spoilers behind the cut. This plot is pretty predictable as soon as you see the characters involved anyway--it's how the story is told that matters. Weigl throws in so many bits and pieces, with so many beautiful shots, each adding some new layer of sense or emotion of symbolism that you can't dismiss any as throw-aways. Feel free not to click if you'd like to see it unawares.)
The setting appears to me, based on the clothing and other details, to be somewhere in the 1830s or very early 1840s. I'm inclined to the former, myself.
Gute Nacht (Good Night)
We start of with a quick shot of Fassbaender, along with her mimes, and then quickly cut to a road in the countryside; a stagecoach is travelling along a snowy road; while the snow is continuing to fall, the ground isn't covered yet. Perhaps this is the first snowfall of the year...
An open cart appears; in it are a young boy (perhaps 6 or 7 or so?), a middle-aged woman, and a girl who is probably no more than 20, if that. The girl is sick, and is lying in the older woman's arms; there's a bunch of red flowers (poppies, perhaps) behind her, and another spray in her lap, which the older woman moves impatiently out of the way. I feel safe declaring that these symbolize a galloping consumption; if you, once you have seen this thing, feel moved to disagree, have at it.
We have here a very brief shot of one of the mimes, a dashing dark-haired romantic man wearing armor over red clothes. He could be Death, or the Devil, or just your garden variety Demon Lover. Or all of the above, if you like.
Now, back to the stagecoach! There are two passengers in it, a well-dressed gentleman and and elegant lady. They sit facing each other, and don't speak, although they exchange glances. He seems distressed; she seems cool and distant. Outside, we see a man on horseback riding furiously; he's in a blue uniform with a lot of gold braid, and while 19th-century Central Europe was the Age of Uniforms for everyone, I will assume he's a dashing young army officer of some description. He appears to be upset.
We now have a flashback (the first of many), to a country estate, in rather better weather. The dark-haired man sits outside in his shirtsleeves and a natty red vest, but things progress to the bedroom fairly quickly, where the dark-haired woman is not so cool and distant.
Back to the snowy weather! The sick girl gets her flashback now; she appears as a ballet dancer, taking a curtain call. A man (the armored mime, now dressed as a Romantic poet, or at least a man who'd like to be considered one) hands her a bouquet of red flowers.
We now get a character who seems rather peripheral to the other two story strands; the Bad Girl; we see her showing a man out the door of a house at night, rather furtively; she's not dressed for the weather. She goes back inside, seems to come to some decision, and we now see the armored man laying a trail of gold coins on the ground in front of her. If your guess is that she is a lady of extremely negotiable affections, you are probably not wrong.
Die Wetterfahne (The Weather-vane)
Gefror'ne Tränen (Frozen Tears)
There's an old man walking down the road; he's shabby and weary looking, and carries a hurdy-gurdy. All of our characters are converging on the stagecoach stop, although the Bad Girl is a bit better dressed for the weather now that it's daylight and she's not entertaining surreptitious male callers. (Her fancy white frilled bonnet/cap has to be seem to be believed.)
Erstarrung (Numbness)
At the stagecoach stop, passengers and their baggage are unloaded. The Bad Girl and the rapscallion who drives the coach begin a flirtation. The sick girl is unloaded from her cart; there's a fire burning on the ground where passengers are warming themselves. The officer comes to a decision. The elegant couple already in the coach are still not happy with each other. (Their body language fascinates me, and is one of the reasons I am confused by the triangle; he's acutely uncomfortable--has he discovered that he's been betrayed--or caught in something he can't justify to her? She is cool--is she defiant--or deeply angry about something?)
Der Lindenbaum (The Linden Tree)
Back to the dancer's flashback; her mother and younger brother? (she doesn't seem old enough to have a child of her own that age, and her presentation throughout suggests the virginal, accurately or not) watch proudly from the audience; she collapses onstage. There's a lot more than that happening, but you should see what Weigl does here for yourself.
Wasserflut (Torrent)
Auf dem Flusse (On the River)
The new passengers get in; first the Bad Girl, who plumps herself right down next to the elegant gentleman, to her amusement and his discomfiture. Next the shabby old man, who sits next to the elegant lady, in a meek and apologetic sort of way. The middle-aged woman gets in and sits next to him; her daughter is handed to her, and the coachman's assistant (I can't call him a guard, as he doesn't seem to be armed*) hands in the young boy, who seems to end up sitting at the gentleman's feet. We're about to leave, and--the officer gets in. Even the Bad Girl can tell this is a problem, and she was about to be very pleased by the prospect of sitting between two good-looking men who probably have money to spare. The elegant lady is cool and distant. Plus, we have more flashbacks to the country estate with the nicer weather, and the elegant couple seemed much happier with each other there.
Rückblick (Retrospect)
Irrlicht (Will o' the wisp)
Rast (Rest)
Frühlingstraum (Dream of Springtime)
Einsamkeit (Loneliness/Solitude)
Die Post (The Post)
Der greise Kopf (The Grey Head)
Flashbacks continue. We see the officer at the country estate as well, also on the porch, in his drawers and nothing more. He seems quite at ease. The lady scampers off into the woods and fields with her sketching equipment; she finds a good-looking man out with his shotgun--we don't see his face, but we are led to suspect it's the officer, although in civvies. This is the point where I become somewhat confused.
It's suggested that the lady and the officer encounter each other in the woods and things progress from there. But it gets--complex--and of course we have no words to help untangle all the fraught glances amongst these three.
Die Krähe (The Crow)
Letzte Hoffnung (Last Hope)
Im Dorfe (In the Village)
The stagecoach makes its next stop. The elegant gentleman kindly keeps an eye on the sick girl while her mother goes in search of a hot drink for her. The other passengers disembark; the Bad Girl and the driver head off for a quick one in the stables. When the anxious mother returns, the gentleman gets out of the coach; he and the officer very carefully do not speak to each other, almost like cats not acknowledging each other.
In the coach, the girl seems more feverish; outside the coach, the triangle seethes at each other, without actually speaking to each other. The passengers all get back in.
Der stürmische Morgen (The Stormy Morning)
As the coach heads off again, the girl passes into unconsciousness. The passengers respond as their natures dictate. The lady is concerned, the Bad Girl appalled, the gentleman also shows concern; the officer seems distant but observant; the old man looks on with sad compassion. The lady opens her portfolio of watercolors to distract the young boy, who appears to be sitting on the gentleman's lap at this point.
Täuschung (Deception)
Der Wegweiser (The Signpost)
The driver stops the coach; the girl has died. He and his assistant take the young boy up on the box with them; the lady hands her veil to the mother to cover the dead girl's face, and then she and the gentleman and the officer walk a bit down the empty road as everyone sorts themselves out. Still not speaking to each other.
And then we flashback to the villa again. With the officer, in his drawers, and nothing else, lounging on the porch. Was this a betrayal? If so, who's been betrayed? It's really easy to take the tack that duh, our elegant gentleman was the one let down, but...
Das Wirtshaus (The Inn)
We find the gentleman, in trousers, with his shirt unbuttoned, and the officer, in his drawers, who puts his shirt on but doesn't button it on before lounging on the porch for a sunbath. At evening, the lady comes back from her sketching to see the gentleman's shirt and necktie (a highly distinctive red plaid job) draped on the handle of the casement. We see a confrontation between them; his eyes drop first. So which way is this triangle running? Or does it run in two directions? Just who is the injured party here?
Mut (Courage)
Die Nebensonnen (The Phantom Suns)
Der Leiermann (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man)
The travelers arrive at their destination. The dead girl's body is unloaded and carried away; the assistant driver distracts the young boy by pointing out the sights to him. The officer walks off alone; the lady also walks off. The hurdy-gurdy man goes into the church, where he empties out his purse into the poorbox and prays.
Outside, the small boy goes to the middle-aged woman, and the driver hands the lady her veil. The gentleman, with the officer behind him, look at her, waiting for her to say something. The lady turns and walks away. Alone.
I don't think I'm queering this where there's no queerness to be found, but I could be wrong. It could be a one-way triangle. But.
Even without that mystery, which may just be me, you should see this. It's lovely, and sad, and strange.
*I am very taken with the driver's assistant, played by Michal Dlouhý, who has a lovely set of blue eyes.
Other actors I can identify in this are Radoslav Brzobohatý, who plays the driver and was, when younger, possessed of the sort of high-cheekboned good looks Americans might associate with Viggo Mortensen, and Stanislav Zindulka as the hurdygurdy man. Lukás Vaculík played the officer (that chin cannot be mistaken) and I believe Jitka Sedlácková plays our Bad Girl. I'm not sure about any of the other actresses. Lucie Gibodová may play the lady and Viktorie Simoncíková the dancer, but I'm guessing.
Weigl's done a lot of filmed opera and other films using classical music, as his IMDB page attests. This film uses Schubert's Winterreise as its soundtrack, but doesn't follow it as the source of the plot. I gathered as much going in, as I had seen bits and pieces on Classic Arts Showcase, but it seems only fair to emphasize this discrepancy. If you are enough of a literalist (and some people are) this may prevent you from enjoying any part of this movie, but I think it's worth it to let go and see what Weigl does. Here's a bit ("Der Lindenbaum") on Youtube.
It's a beautiful film, and well worth hunting up. I got it through Netflix as a DVD; since I'm not set up for streaming, I'm not sure if it's available that way or not. Netflix is pretty cagey about showing you things outside what you're subscribed for.
The action of the movie itself alternates between shots of Brigitte Fassbaender singing the lieder (wearing what could be a nun's habit) and her trio of allegorical backup mimes, and the actors performing what we should consider the main action. They do so silently. The action is fairly clear throughout most of the time (the allegorical mimes provide commentary by their actions from time to time) but, because of the lack of spoken word (other than Fassbaender's singing) or even old-style title cards, some ambiguity remains. (Of course there are spoilers behind the cut. This plot is pretty predictable as soon as you see the characters involved anyway--it's how the story is told that matters. Weigl throws in so many bits and pieces, with so many beautiful shots, each adding some new layer of sense or emotion of symbolism that you can't dismiss any as throw-aways. Feel free not to click if you'd like to see it unawares.)
The setting appears to me, based on the clothing and other details, to be somewhere in the 1830s or very early 1840s. I'm inclined to the former, myself.
Gute Nacht (Good Night)
We start of with a quick shot of Fassbaender, along with her mimes, and then quickly cut to a road in the countryside; a stagecoach is travelling along a snowy road; while the snow is continuing to fall, the ground isn't covered yet. Perhaps this is the first snowfall of the year...
An open cart appears; in it are a young boy (perhaps 6 or 7 or so?), a middle-aged woman, and a girl who is probably no more than 20, if that. The girl is sick, and is lying in the older woman's arms; there's a bunch of red flowers (poppies, perhaps) behind her, and another spray in her lap, which the older woman moves impatiently out of the way. I feel safe declaring that these symbolize a galloping consumption; if you, once you have seen this thing, feel moved to disagree, have at it.
We have here a very brief shot of one of the mimes, a dashing dark-haired romantic man wearing armor over red clothes. He could be Death, or the Devil, or just your garden variety Demon Lover. Or all of the above, if you like.
Now, back to the stagecoach! There are two passengers in it, a well-dressed gentleman and and elegant lady. They sit facing each other, and don't speak, although they exchange glances. He seems distressed; she seems cool and distant. Outside, we see a man on horseback riding furiously; he's in a blue uniform with a lot of gold braid, and while 19th-century Central Europe was the Age of Uniforms for everyone, I will assume he's a dashing young army officer of some description. He appears to be upset.
We now have a flashback (the first of many), to a country estate, in rather better weather. The dark-haired man sits outside in his shirtsleeves and a natty red vest, but things progress to the bedroom fairly quickly, where the dark-haired woman is not so cool and distant.
Back to the snowy weather! The sick girl gets her flashback now; she appears as a ballet dancer, taking a curtain call. A man (the armored mime, now dressed as a Romantic poet, or at least a man who'd like to be considered one) hands her a bouquet of red flowers.
We now get a character who seems rather peripheral to the other two story strands; the Bad Girl; we see her showing a man out the door of a house at night, rather furtively; she's not dressed for the weather. She goes back inside, seems to come to some decision, and we now see the armored man laying a trail of gold coins on the ground in front of her. If your guess is that she is a lady of extremely negotiable affections, you are probably not wrong.
Die Wetterfahne (The Weather-vane)
Gefror'ne Tränen (Frozen Tears)
There's an old man walking down the road; he's shabby and weary looking, and carries a hurdy-gurdy. All of our characters are converging on the stagecoach stop, although the Bad Girl is a bit better dressed for the weather now that it's daylight and she's not entertaining surreptitious male callers. (Her fancy white frilled bonnet/cap has to be seem to be believed.)
Erstarrung (Numbness)
At the stagecoach stop, passengers and their baggage are unloaded. The Bad Girl and the rapscallion who drives the coach begin a flirtation. The sick girl is unloaded from her cart; there's a fire burning on the ground where passengers are warming themselves. The officer comes to a decision. The elegant couple already in the coach are still not happy with each other. (Their body language fascinates me, and is one of the reasons I am confused by the triangle; he's acutely uncomfortable--has he discovered that he's been betrayed--or caught in something he can't justify to her? She is cool--is she defiant--or deeply angry about something?)
Der Lindenbaum (The Linden Tree)
Back to the dancer's flashback; her mother and younger brother? (she doesn't seem old enough to have a child of her own that age, and her presentation throughout suggests the virginal, accurately or not) watch proudly from the audience; she collapses onstage. There's a lot more than that happening, but you should see what Weigl does here for yourself.
Wasserflut (Torrent)
Auf dem Flusse (On the River)
The new passengers get in; first the Bad Girl, who plumps herself right down next to the elegant gentleman, to her amusement and his discomfiture. Next the shabby old man, who sits next to the elegant lady, in a meek and apologetic sort of way. The middle-aged woman gets in and sits next to him; her daughter is handed to her, and the coachman's assistant (I can't call him a guard, as he doesn't seem to be armed*) hands in the young boy, who seems to end up sitting at the gentleman's feet. We're about to leave, and--the officer gets in. Even the Bad Girl can tell this is a problem, and she was about to be very pleased by the prospect of sitting between two good-looking men who probably have money to spare. The elegant lady is cool and distant. Plus, we have more flashbacks to the country estate with the nicer weather, and the elegant couple seemed much happier with each other there.
Rückblick (Retrospect)
Irrlicht (Will o' the wisp)
Rast (Rest)
Frühlingstraum (Dream of Springtime)
Einsamkeit (Loneliness/Solitude)
Die Post (The Post)
Der greise Kopf (The Grey Head)
Flashbacks continue. We see the officer at the country estate as well, also on the porch, in his drawers and nothing more. He seems quite at ease. The lady scampers off into the woods and fields with her sketching equipment; she finds a good-looking man out with his shotgun--we don't see his face, but we are led to suspect it's the officer, although in civvies. This is the point where I become somewhat confused.
It's suggested that the lady and the officer encounter each other in the woods and things progress from there. But it gets--complex--and of course we have no words to help untangle all the fraught glances amongst these three.
Die Krähe (The Crow)
Letzte Hoffnung (Last Hope)
Im Dorfe (In the Village)
The stagecoach makes its next stop. The elegant gentleman kindly keeps an eye on the sick girl while her mother goes in search of a hot drink for her. The other passengers disembark; the Bad Girl and the driver head off for a quick one in the stables. When the anxious mother returns, the gentleman gets out of the coach; he and the officer very carefully do not speak to each other, almost like cats not acknowledging each other.
In the coach, the girl seems more feverish; outside the coach, the triangle seethes at each other, without actually speaking to each other. The passengers all get back in.
Der stürmische Morgen (The Stormy Morning)
As the coach heads off again, the girl passes into unconsciousness. The passengers respond as their natures dictate. The lady is concerned, the Bad Girl appalled, the gentleman also shows concern; the officer seems distant but observant; the old man looks on with sad compassion. The lady opens her portfolio of watercolors to distract the young boy, who appears to be sitting on the gentleman's lap at this point.
Täuschung (Deception)
Der Wegweiser (The Signpost)
The driver stops the coach; the girl has died. He and his assistant take the young boy up on the box with them; the lady hands her veil to the mother to cover the dead girl's face, and then she and the gentleman and the officer walk a bit down the empty road as everyone sorts themselves out. Still not speaking to each other.
And then we flashback to the villa again. With the officer, in his drawers, and nothing else, lounging on the porch. Was this a betrayal? If so, who's been betrayed? It's really easy to take the tack that duh, our elegant gentleman was the one let down, but...
Das Wirtshaus (The Inn)
We find the gentleman, in trousers, with his shirt unbuttoned, and the officer, in his drawers, who puts his shirt on but doesn't button it on before lounging on the porch for a sunbath. At evening, the lady comes back from her sketching to see the gentleman's shirt and necktie (a highly distinctive red plaid job) draped on the handle of the casement. We see a confrontation between them; his eyes drop first. So which way is this triangle running? Or does it run in two directions? Just who is the injured party here?
Mut (Courage)
Die Nebensonnen (The Phantom Suns)
Der Leiermann (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man)
The travelers arrive at their destination. The dead girl's body is unloaded and carried away; the assistant driver distracts the young boy by pointing out the sights to him. The officer walks off alone; the lady also walks off. The hurdy-gurdy man goes into the church, where he empties out his purse into the poorbox and prays.
Outside, the small boy goes to the middle-aged woman, and the driver hands the lady her veil. The gentleman, with the officer behind him, look at her, waiting for her to say something. The lady turns and walks away. Alone.
I don't think I'm queering this where there's no queerness to be found, but I could be wrong. It could be a one-way triangle. But.
Even without that mystery, which may just be me, you should see this. It's lovely, and sad, and strange.
*I am very taken with the driver's assistant, played by Michal Dlouhý, who has a lovely set of blue eyes.
Other actors I can identify in this are Radoslav Brzobohatý, who plays the driver and was, when younger, possessed of the sort of high-cheekboned good looks Americans might associate with Viggo Mortensen, and Stanislav Zindulka as the hurdygurdy man. Lukás Vaculík played the officer (that chin cannot be mistaken) and I believe Jitka Sedlácková plays our Bad Girl. I'm not sure about any of the other actresses. Lucie Gibodová may play the lady and Viktorie Simoncíková the dancer, but I'm guessing.