Scenes from the life of the German composer
ADRIAN LEVERKÜHN
A film by FRANZ SEITZ
based on the novel by THOMAS MANN
Episode 2
So hell will be synonymous with the here and now of our present.
And nations, the Devil, Faust, and Mephisto merge with one another.
And every man can be or become both.
I have experienced it.
Adrian Leverkühn was a friend of mine.
Adrian, born in 1885 on a farm in Thuringia,
highly gifted son of a melancholic father
who speculated the elements,
spent his school days in Kaisersaschern,
a town that had preserved a strong sense of the medieval.
Since the days of his youth,
his passionate interest was directed at music.
Motivated by pride and his longing for knowledge,
he nevertheless studied theology first.
Thus, evil itself is an inevitable extension
of the holy existence of God.
But these studies were only a detour for Adrian.
He gave up theology and pursued music for good.
The belief that art is no longer possible
without a hellish fire beneath the kettle
determined the young composer to make a pact with the Devil.
First, we are going to Paul's Cathedral,
extremely interesting.
In Leipzig, a peculiar porter guided him to a brothel instead of an inn.
One of the girls approached him: Hetaera Esmeralda.
In transparent nakedness,
like the exotic butterfly of the same name.
Adrian fled, but, virtually acting under compulsion,
returned to the place after a few months.
No, she's no longer with us.
It's already been half a year.
Adrian followed Esmeralda
and found her in the Turkish quarter of Sarajevo.
Though she warned him against her diseased body,
he insisted on the embrace.
The signing of the Devil's pact with his own blood
is substituted by the willful infection with syphilis.
Five years later, Adrian visits his parents' house
to attend his sister's wedding.
I think Johannes Schneidewein is an honest and tidy gentleman.
I agree. He was right to propose to your sister.
"Covet to make a Christian wife of her..." as we theologians say.
"We have smuggled the Devil out of this union of the flesh"
"by making a sacrament of it."
"Ursel in the white shroud of virginity."
"And they shall be one flesh."
I think it's a curious blessing.
For lust surely exists only if the flesh is twofold,
not one.
That they are to be "one flesh" is mollifying nonsense.
I'm sorry, Ursel, the train won't wait for me.
Thanks for everything.
Farewell.
How nice of you to make the journey, especially for our wedding.
And have a good time in Munich.
Thank you. Good-bye.
Let us know how things are going for you.
You don't have to worry about me.
I have found very pleasant accommodations.
At a widow's of a senator from Bremen.
Mrs. Rodde has obviously become a victim
of the anonymous payoff of the Bavarian capital, like I have.
Good-bye, Adrian.
Good-bye.
Father.
You're leaving us?
Have a good trip.
Farewell, my son.
Good-bye, Father.
Farewell, and may God be with you.
-Good evening, Mrs. Senator. -Mrs. Senator.
With the understanding of your approval,
I brought along our new lodger, Dr. Leverkühn.
-Good evening. -Bullinger.
-Good evening. -My pleasure.
I'm grateful you don't deprive us from meeting your own circle of friends.
-But of course. -They always spice things up.
I always find it most entertaining to be invited to Bullinger's.
It's so nice here.
We seem to be complete.
Mühlhans is still missing.
He's always late. I don't understand. He's always the last one here.
Don't you like your appearance, Mr. Schildknapp?
I'm partial to it, very partial to it.
"Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, deformed, unfinished--"
"Sent before my time into this breathing world."
I'm impressed, Miss Rodde.
Richard III was one of my acting teacher's favorite parts, that's why.
I see.
Excuse me, please.
-Dr. Mühlhans! -Dr. Schildknapp.
Did the practice let go of you?
How are you?
Not at all. Pathology only sounds terrible.
It's a most interesting field of expertise.
But dear child, who would get upset about a fellow?
It was just an affair.
-There will be many more. -But I only want him.
-Believe me. -But I love him.
There will always be another one. Nothing lasts forever, child.
That doesn't help me either.
But I completely disagree. It's all sentimental kitsch.
I'm not even talking about the execution.
How did Leiber put it?
"You better blow me down!"
Well, I just like these paintings, Mr. Zink.
-Knock it off. -And you won't change that either.
Nonsense. Kandinsky, Marc, Klee, that's the future of painting.
-Yes. Complete anarchy. -Cut it out.
By the way, how come you don't paint like these fellows?
Because I'm not able to, unfortunately.
I'm glad I have the chance
to exchange a few words with you, Madame.
I've merely confided to your daughter how much I adore her. That's all.
I'm delighted, Professor.
Do you think Inez could love me?
Or would I have to fear rejection if I'd ask her to be my wife?
Absolutely not. You may be completely assured.
Violence as a victorious mirror image of truth.
Or how I would put it:
Soldiers! I entrust to you the plundering...
...of the world.
Well put, Mr. Poet!
But, gentlemen,
after all, our country is still run by Prince Regent Luitpold,
and not by one of Shakespeare's kings.
Richard Strauss is indeed an amazing man.
The revolutionary as Sunday's child, if you will.
At first, he mauls his audience with affronts and dissonances,
just to reconcile it again with a simple melody.
Avant-garde and success, hand in hand.
It's absolutely remarkable.
Let's take Salome, for example.
Well, Salome was a great hit.
Without question, a great hit.
I casually came across the score of your suite,
"Phosphorescence of the Sea."
Oh, really?
It's nothing but a finger exercise.
It seems to me as if almost all...
No, all means of art nowadays are only good for parody.
If one could only break through into a world of new feeling.
Out of intellectual coldness into a world of new feeling.
I think your suite is very beautiful and very challenging.
As a practicing musician, I know that--
Don't get involved with our friend Schwerdtfeger.
He'll just ask you to write him a cello concerto
that will let him be heard in the provinces.
You disapprove of me, Inez.
What did I do to deserve it?
Miss Rodde doesn't hold me in high esteem.
Hopefully she'll have more mercy on you,
considering you live next door.
Sell the stock as long as it is in good standing.
Schildknapp!
Have you decided on furnishing the libretto of Love's Labour's Lost?
"Mirth cannot move a soul in agony," et cetera.
Such a thing would be of great interest.
If only I had the time and could work instead of having to drudge.
One translation after another.
Finally, I'm obliged to decline.
You plan to compose an opera?
Yes, somewhere along the way.
But as you've heard, I'm left in the lurch with the text.
What are you working on right now?
I've finished a symphony.
A symphony with one movement,
which will, to my amazement, have its world premiere in Salzburg.
I know someone Who we do not love
I name someone Who breaks all swords apart
Death is his name
And the spirits waver
Before him, the terrible braver
You should have been there.
The matinee was a huge success.
But, Mr. Kretzschmar,
it's all been done before, in any form possible.
I'm an epigone.
An epigone? This is pure coquetry.
You're oversensitive, Adrian.
An epigone...
Of course, you model yourself on standards.
But it's all about surpassing them.
No, continue on your own path.
Art is moving forward.
Go your own way.
And if it has to be a matter of life and death!
Dr. Leverkühn?
I apologize for coming to see you and intruding on you.
I've attended your concert.
Wonderful! Wonderful! Congratulations!
Just like Gustav Mahler.
O Muse,
o alto ingegno,
or m'aiutate.
Speak only German.
I understand it.
At times, I understand only German.
Squarely said, my favorite language.
Who speaks to me?
The one you take me to be.
Samiel?
The Angel of Poison, if you will.
Standing pretty, as the alphabetical symbols of your notes reveal.
Extraordinarily gifted!
Yes, it's me.
Hetaera Esmeralda.
You, dear boy, knew well enough what you lacked
when you made your journey to find her
and caught the French measles.
Keep silent!
Silence?
But we have kept silent for five years.
It's not proper between people who struck a pact with each other.
The hourglass has been turned.
The red sand has begun to run.
We give time, sell time, great time, mad time, devilish time.
One might become a genius just to be ours in the end.
This demands agreement, from man to man and expressly!
Consider, we purvey the extreme, we furnish illuminations,
experiences of release, creative liberty,
and states of power and triumph.
I assure you, it's not that easy to get to hell.
We would long be in need of space if all the small folk
would be able to get in.
But your theological type, your haughty and sophisticated mind,
it would have to be a matter of wizardry
if he wouldn't be in league with the Devil.
So we were diligent that you should run into our arms,
which is to say, the arms of my little one, of Esmeralda,
and that you should come by that sweet disease,
after which you so desperately longed with body and soul and spirit.
Go right ahead and follow your trace, Adrian Leverkühn.
From now on, we belong together, you and I.
From now on, this is our secret world, Kaisersaschern.
Good old German air from the year 15OO or so,
shortly before the arrival of Dr. Martinus,
who stood upon such stout and cordial terms with me
and threw a hard roll, no, an inkpot, at me.
Do but recall the children's crusades,
bleeding hosts, famine, war and plague, comets,
stigmatical nuns, burning witches.
Good times, devilish German times!
We are in business.
With your blood, you have certified the pact and promised yourself to us.
You are baptized in our name,
and this meeting is intended for confirmation.
What are you talking about?
It's exactly according to agreement.
And how much time do I have left?
A full 24 years, ab dato recessi.
Meanwhile, we will be subject and obedient to you on one condition.
You may not love.
Not love?
Poor devil!
You propose to prohibit lust?
This disease, this malady I have come by,
the very reason you allege that I am promised to you.
What is its source?
Love! Love is its source!
Though a love poisoned by you!
My proviso is clear and upright, ordained by hell's legitimate zeal.
Love is forbidden to you insofar as it warms.
Your life shall be cold.
We want you cold.
Into the flames of production,
you shall flee from the coldness of your life.
And out of the flames back into the ice.
So be it.
Your very humble servant.
Well...?
A requiem.
I'm proud of you, Adrian.
I'm not afraid I will ever have to regret bringing you to music.
But you'll have a hard go in life.
In matters both external and internal.
And that's perfectly in order.
For only art can lend real weight to a life, only art can.
This summer will be remembered for a long time.
Yes, beautiful.
Glowing as never before.
-No, not because of that. -But?
The shooting in Sarajevo.
Do you think there will be war?
People will cheerfully trade in personal problems for common doom.
What are your plans?
I will change my emplacement, to use military jargon,
and take over the ninth grade of the high school in Freising
after the holidays, as a professor in ordinary.
Forget about it, Zeitblom.
The emperor won't pass on a lieutenant of the reserve.
In the same way your students won't pass on their emergency graduation
just to be shot to death instead in the name of the fatherland.
Kaschperl, hush!
Yes, you're a good dog, aren't you?
Respect! You're a brave man! Most people are afraid of the beast.
Just recently we'd asked the chaplain around for coffee, and he said:
"That dog of yours scares me."
Well, I take it from you.
Do you offer refreshments, Miss?
Sure, go right ahead. Madame is inside.
Nice and cool in here.
Here you are, gentlemen.
Thank you.
May I join you for a minute?
But of course. Please do.
Do you also accommodate overnight visitors?
Yes, of course.
We have plenty of room here.
There's a very nice room across from here. It's still available.
It's called the abbot's study.
The farm used to belong to an Augustine monastery.
But it's been the property of my blessed husband's family
for almost 1OO years.
Who is taking care of the farming?
Gereon, the son, my daughter, and a few helpers.
What a shame Gereon is out in the fields.
He's trying out a new manure-spreader.
The gentlemen will have to make do with me.
Would you like to see the house?
This is the abbot's study.
One ought to live here, indeed.
What do you think, Zeitblom?
Is it not too secluded for you?
But seclusion is exactly what I'm looking for.
To the regret of your circle in Munich, I'm afraid.
What keeps me from driving into town on occasion?
My name is Adrian Leverkühn.
And I am Mrs. Schweigestill.
I occupy myself with music, Mrs. Schweigestill.
So you know whom you're dealing with.
I'd like to ask if you'd let me rent this room
and another to sleep in, perhaps on the second floor.
As a longer, no, as a long-term commitment.
If you'd agree, we should also discuss the price.
Berlin, July 31, 1914.
The emperor declared the Reich's territory in the state of war.
The state of imminent risk of war
concerns all military actions at the border
and the protection of the railway system,
the ban on news publications about military actions,
and equals the state of siege.
Hail to thee in victor's crown
Ruler of the fatherland
Hail to thee, Emperor
It's exasperating.
Gaston is shooting at Hans,
Hans at Gaston,
and both of them are my nephews.
-A Happy New Year, gentlemen! -A Happy New Year from me, too!
A Happy New Year!
The same to you, Mrs. Schweigestill.
And that there'll be peace soon.
My Gerri and all the others
were supposed to be back home by Christmas.
Let's drink to all of them coming back safe and sound.
To our good fortune.
After all, heroism has spared us until now.
It remains a privilege of high-school professors.
Like my friend Zeitblom.
He went in place of us.
Let's drink.
To culture, in spite of it all.
"As I went to bed, it was pouring lead on New Year's Eve."
"I prayed to God that he would make the knight appear in my dream."
1.
9.
4.
3.
1943.
Do you want total war?
Yes!
If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical
than anything that we can even yet imagine?
Germany, Germany, above all
Above everything in the world
We are lost.
Embraced by demons, we fall into the abyss.
Lost our cause and soul. Our faith, our history, lost, lost.
Wait, let me take a small souvenir, so I won't forget you.
No shepherd will lead me to suspicious regions at my age.
-I'm at your command. -It was just a joke, dear friend.
Cheers!
Beer is just the right drink at this hour.
Good God, Rudolf,
if only you wouldn't put on that beaming face of the rescuer
the moment you arrive!
I can assure you I have danced enough already.
It's not even about you, Clarissa.
Professor, will you grant me a dance with your wife?
But of course. I'm glad that Inez...
Go, take her!
Oh, well, dear Doctor.
Morals become more and more casual.
You might barely notice in your rural seclusion.
That people are simply afraid, I mean.
Afraid of living and afraid of dying.
And all the while, they don't know what to believe in.
To believe in God is reactionary these days.
But it's allowed, to believe in the Devil,
don't you agree, Mr. Leverkühn?
Despise and condemn me, Rudolf. I love you.
It's... For God's sake.
What impression you must have of a married woman
who would say such a thing?
I, too, have adored you for a long time.
More than that, I...
I'm sure it would make you unhappy if we...
If it's meant to be that the both of us...
There are many unhappy people already.
I apologize for this comfort of darkness.
It must be an inconvenience for you.
Not at all. It does you good. You suffer from headaches.
I'm the one who has to apologize.
I bother you with matters that should only concern me.
But I'm asking you, as a friend.
What do you do if a woman clings to you as if she were drowning
and is determined to make you her lover?
And if she's pretty to boot.
If in a somewhat fatal and anguished way.
Inez is passionately in love with me.
I say that so casually because it's based on her false imaginings.
That is to say, I'm not in love with her.
I have never loved her, I frankly admit it.
I'm merely doing my duty as a cavalier
and letting this stupid relationship drag on.
She deals with my body
the way a man should deal with a woman's body.
What's the matter with you?
I want to kill you with kisses.
"Is it for fear to wed a widow's eye,
that thou consum'st thyself in single life?
Ah , if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
the world will wail thee like a makeless wife.
The world...
The world will be thy widow and still weep,
that thou no form of thee hast left behind.''
And the tenth sonnet continues:
For shame deny that thou bear'st love to any
Who for thyself are so unprovident
Grant, if thou wilt thou art beloved of many
But that thou none lovest is most evident
For Rudolf Schwerdtfeger
Symphony for Cello and Orchestra
This is the happiest day of my life.
Thank you.
You don't even know what it means to me.
This...
This is ours now.
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell
Die to themselves, sweet roses
Sweetest odors
Look, children!
The two front towers stand three stories tall.
The vividly modeled crown is especially inventive.
It can often be found on churches of the so-called Italian baroque.
-Good day, gentlemen. -Good day.
This church was built according to plans by the architect Zuccali.
He also built the castle in Schleissheim, his masterpiece.
Now we should indulge in a little refreshment.
Voilà! Here is Lysander!
I swear to you...
...by Cupid's best arrow--
What would you like to swear?
I swear that it was a magnificent idea
to get Mademoiselle Godeau from Paris
to do the stage design of your opera.
Will you be present this coming week, Mr. Leverkühn?
At the ateliers for the rehearsals, I mean.
Would that be agreeable to you?
You must know that my friend Adrian almost lives the life of a recluse.
Yes, I admit it.
I prefer to leave my country refuge only occasionally,
like today.
I confidently put my Summer Night's Dream,
my Love's Labour's Lost, so to speak, in the hands of the executives,
and thus also into yours, Madame.
And now, Hermia!
I swear to you by Cupid's best arrow
I swear to you by Cupid's golden bow
I swear to you by Aphrodite's magic craft
I swear to you swear it by her guarding our path
I swear to you by that fire which burned the Carthage queen
I swear to you by when the false Trojan under sail was seen
-I swear, I swear -I swear to you, swear to you
I swear to you by all the vows that ever men have broke
In number more than ever women spoke
I swear to you
I swear
I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows
Where ox-lips and the nodding nodding violet grows
Where over-canopied with luscious woodbine
Sweet musk-roses and eglantine mate with rosehip and jasmine
There sleeps Titania some time of the night
Your hand, Marie?
Thank you.
-Madame. -Please.
Thank you very much.
It's so sweet of you.
-You'll like it. -It's a real vision.
I'm very excited.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at the bed of King Ludwig II.
Please consider that King Ludwig II was over 6 feet tall,
and the measurements of the bed are a mere 8 feet by 7 feet and a half.
In addition to that, King Ludwig II preferred the night over the day
and only slept from 8:OO in the morning
until 4:OO in the afternoon most of the time.
This is the bed where King Ludwig II slept.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you would have a look at this
fantastic sculptural creation,
"The Abduction of Persephone."
This is Persephone in person, and Hades, God of the Underworld.
Here...
And here, the distinctively worked out detail of the spread finger.
This finger repeatedly fell victim to souvenir hunters,
but it has been restored and reglued time and again,
so the sculpture is complete again.
Right now we are standing inside the grotto.
If you would catch up, please!
All right.
Is that it?
If you'd like to have a look at this boat, this rowing boat.
This boat was built by August Dieriegel.
The accomplishments of nature are truly unbelievable!
Yes. Unfortunately I'll have to disappoint you.
Basically nothing here is natural.
Everything was designed, so to speak, and per se artificially created.
But the purpose of my presence
is certainly not to rob you of your illusions.
If the King had succeeded in swimming across the lake...
...as had evidently been his intention,
his farmers on the far shore would have defended him
with pitchforks and flails against doctors and politicians.
But why actually call him unhappy?
He was mad. Booming mad.
And mad people generally aren't unhappy.
In the end, Ludwig was only dreaming of his kingship,
but refused to exercise it according to rational norms.
A state cannot live with that.
Nonsense, Schwerdtfeger!
A sensible prime minister can certainly govern a state,
even if the king should be too sensitive
to put up with the faces in his cabinet.
"I all alone beweep my outcast state."
Not "outcast"!
But secluded, on his own free will.
Is the retreat from one's fellow men indeed a symptom of madness?
What are you doing with my violin?
This violin's made in Mittenwald and costs 15O marks!
Give it back! Right away! Avanti!
Give it back before I get angry!
Come on, dear colleague. I just want to borrow it for a few minutes.
You might call me "dear colleague" and break my violin.
-Give it back, I said! -I'll pay a lending fee.
-What? -For 5 minutes.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention?
A Bavarian score!
One,
two...
-Bravo! -Bravo!
I'm impressed.
They know how to build violins in Mittenwald.
For sure.
Thank you.
Please wait.
Good night, Madame.
It was a wonderful day.
Thank you very much.
I'll always remember you, Monsieur. It was lovely.
I'm pleased to hear that. It was...
A wonderful day.
Thank you for allowing me to escort you.
But of course.
It's an enchanting castle, isn't it?
Indeed.
Marie, when...?
When do you think you'll be...?
Very well, then.
We will talk on the telephone.
Good night, Monsieur.
Good night.