Chess Novella: Novel adaptation starring Oliver Masucci as a World War II lawyer who reenacts chess games in solitary confinement to keep from going insane.
Film plot and background
Vienna, 1938: The Wehrmacht marches into Austria, while lawyer Josef Bartok (Oliver Masucci) and his wife Anna (Birgit Minichmayr) plan their escape to the USA. Before the time comes, Josef is arrested by the men of the Gestapo and taken to their headquarters, the Hotel Metropol. There, Gestapo head Franz-Josef Böhm (Albrecht Schuch) wants to gain access to the accounts of the nobility and the clergy.
When estate administrator Josef refuses to hand over the requested information, he is taken into solitary confinement. After two weeks without any contact with the outside world, he is interrogated for the first time; Bartok’s mental state has visibly deteriorated. With a bit of luck, the detainee is able to pull a book out of a coat during an interrogation. He now has something to do. Instead of stimulating literature, Bartok has picked up a non-fiction book with famous chess games.
During his months of solitary confinement, he slowly learns all the games by heart and tries to escape the onset of insanity. Perhaps this will enable him to cheat his tormentors in this way. But the more he learns the art of chess blindly without pieces or a chessboard, the more his nature splits as he replays the games with himself. “I White” and “I Black” demand revenge for a lost game, which creates a never-ending vicious circle.
How Masucci does as the unwanted chess master is shown in the trailer:
“Schachnovelle” – background, cast, cinema release
With the film adaptation of the celebrated novella “Schachnovelle” by Austrian author Stefan Zweig, a bestseller is once again brought to the cinemas. Long accepted as school reading, the short novel tells of an exiled Austrian who threatens to go mad when he plays chess. His skill stems from months of solitary confinement in 1930s Austria.
The novella was first published by Zweig during his Brazilian exile in 1942, and the work appeared in Germany in 1947. The first film version with Curt Jürgens and Mario Adorf was released in 1960. In the cinema year 2021, the next film adaptation was made by director Philipp Stölzl (“Der Medicus”) from a screenplay by Edgar Grigorian. The theatrical release of “Schachnovelle” is 23 September 2021. The drama is released for audiences aged 12 and over.
In it, Oliver Masucci (“Dark”) embodies the imprisoned, unwanted chess master who tends towards madness. His tormentor is embodied by Albrecht Schuch (“Berlin Alexanderplatz”). The other top-class cast includes names such as Birgit Minichmayr (“Die Goldfische”), Samuel Finzi (“Die Hochzeit”) and Rolf Lassgård (“Ein Mann namens Ove”).
