Young Törless (1966)

Here’s Volker Schlöndorff’s assignment in this shot:

- Show the main character discover the violence he is capable of

- Show the main character’s fright and disgust at this discovery

- Show how this conflict between the id and the superego paralyzes the main character

- Get a teenage actor to convey all these emotions

- Do it all in a single shot

- Oh, and add a dolly move

Add to it that this is Volker Schlöndorff’s first feature film, and this moment from Young Törless is downright astounding.

It’s no wonder that this film helped to kick off the New German cinema movement, for it encapsulates nearly every concern of the postwar German youth: what the hell happened in the war, what our parents did or allowed to happen, whether or not Nazi-type atrocities are a one-time thing that can never be repeated, what exactly we as children of these people are supposed to do about it, and while we’re at it, we also have to figure out all that other adolescent stuff like girls, pubes, and stupid math stuff like imaginary and irrational numbers. Who wouldn’t go a little nuts with a burden like that? And we think Holden Caulfield has it rough! Sure, Holden, your folks might be phonies, but at least they weren’t Nazis.

What’s best about this film, which is also found in this shot, is the understated nature with which Schlöndorff handles these themes. He’s given himself a lot to take on, but he never calls attention to the “significance” or “depth” of what he’s saying; he’s confident enough in the strength of his work to let it stand on its own. For such confidence and understatement to come out of a twenty-seven year old making his first feature only further demonstrates how gifted a filmmaker Schlöndorff is.