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Rating: We too often fall into the habit of investigating. Scanning minutely for a meaning to assign to what we cannot explain. Is it really necessary to ask ourselves so many questions daily? What would we do with our remaining time if we knew the most sacred of knowledge?
We know very well, among modesty, that it is about greed. The greed for power over our fellow man; this would arise from the secret in one's hands.
Why does Fridolin return to the great house? Out of concern and gratitude towards her? Maybe yes, but it is as clear as the rising dawn over Vienna that compared to his unaware acquaintances he has tasted the power, and it is late to return to the humanity he has lived up until now. He doesn’t understand how, because senses, although stimulated, have a limit; but he knows he has tasted power.
Traumnovelle (the dream novella, in German, adapted into Doppio Sogno for Italian) was finished in 1925 by the Austrian Arthur Schniztler. He esteems and is esteemed by Sigmund Freud for various merits, but has clashed several times with criticism not yet ready for his investigations. He is the writer who, with visceral prudence, presents the most pungent interior monologues. La signorina Else is another important example.
The bourgeoisie is his reference subject, and indeed the doctor Fridolin and the housewife Albertine are widely part of it.
The protagonist could not have any idea of what the long night would offer him. Of course, the openness between the two spouses and their confessions gave the push, but the process of the obsessive search for pleasure has a gradual growth. And then, the doctor feeds the hidden desires like a beast to be kept locked up; they have always been there waiting for the snap.
The dangerous congregation faced within the pages of Traumnovelle is not the core of the work. Although it is inevitable to focus attention on that ritual, one risks overlooking the object of investigation: the monogamous relationship.
The air of mystery concentrated in the novel frames the study of relational dynamics between the two spouses. Fridolin does not even notice the tender gestures his body spontaneously makes towards his wife, but at the same time he goes as far as fantasizing, planning on how to break her heart; after all, she was flirting emotionally distant from the crucified husband, in that dream. The double.
The film adaptations of Traumnovelle to date are four; one is essential and two are the result of Italian directors and screenwriters.
- Traumnovelle from 1969, for Austrian TV. The most faithful, so much so that one could watch and read at the same time.
- Il cavaliere, la morte e il diavolo released in 1983 by Beppe Cino.
- Ad un passo dall'aurora released in 1989 by Mario Bianchi.
- Eyes Wide Shut, the most famous and last film of maestro Stanley Kubrick, which is still written and speculated about today.
The Italian adaptations will be the next two reviews, forming a sort of three-part excursus.
With savoir faire, we are shown an exit to cross never to return. No congregation, just the stuff of the rich and bored. It's time to return to respective families and forget, hoping it's not too late to forget.
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