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Eddie Watkins's Reviews > Dream Story
Dream Story
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What a read! Before sticking my nose into this I had no idea how faithful Eyes Wide Shut is to this novella, almost scene for scene, but as usual the book outdoes the movie; though unfortunately I could not rid my mind of the movie's images as I was reading. I actually like Tom Cruise but I don't want him and his brilliant white choppers in my head when I'm reading. Begone shorty!
There's something very reminiscent of Chekhov in Schnitzler's writing - a kind of styleless style wedded to superb storytelling with an emphasis on mundane details that manage to bore deep into the characters' psyches. Literary pragmatism if you will. (Maybe these similarities have something to do with both being doctors roughly around the same time?) But Schnitzler is infected (in a darkly deliciously sinister way) with a viral sexuality that manifests as suppurating boil after boil in sentence after sentence in the dream narrative of this novella. This is a masterpiece unpeeling layer after layer of reality to show that there is no "core" reality (besides sex and death maybe), only illusion after illusion.
Something that helps create the dream atmosphere of this book are the inconsequential details that Schnitzler includes, such as when Fridolin (Tom Cruise) comments to himself on the smell of the costume as he's putting it on. There's no other mention of this, but it's just this kind of detail in one's own dreams that seems so pregnant with unspecified meaning and significance, and it works in the same way in the book.
The one thing I liked better about the movie was Nicole Kidman's line at the end.
And on a side note - I've come to think that most novels are simply too long and involved (if they're good) to adapt to movies, that short stories and novellas are more appropriate, and Dream Story helped prove this to me.
There's something very reminiscent of Chekhov in Schnitzler's writing - a kind of styleless style wedded to superb storytelling with an emphasis on mundane details that manage to bore deep into the characters' psyches. Literary pragmatism if you will. (Maybe these similarities have something to do with both being doctors roughly around the same time?) But Schnitzler is infected (in a darkly deliciously sinister way) with a viral sexuality that manifests as suppurating boil after boil in sentence after sentence in the dream narrative of this novella. This is a masterpiece unpeeling layer after layer of reality to show that there is no "core" reality (besides sex and death maybe), only illusion after illusion.
Something that helps create the dream atmosphere of this book are the inconsequential details that Schnitzler includes, such as when Fridolin (Tom Cruise) comments to himself on the smell of the costume as he's putting it on. There's no other mention of this, but it's just this kind of detail in one's own dreams that seems so pregnant with unspecified meaning and significance, and it works in the same way in the book.
The one thing I liked better about the movie was Nicole Kidman's line at the end.
And on a side note - I've come to think that most novels are simply too long and involved (if they're good) to adapt to movies, that short stories and novellas are more appropriate, and Dream Story helped prove this to me.
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Well I don't think Kubrick had much understanding of sex, for one. Maybe he was too much of a prude in that regard to do the book justice. The scenes with Cruise imagining Kidman with the officer were like stock footage from a soft porn movie. And then the sex scenes in the mystery house were bad too, like a teen fantasy.
The Kubrick version of the film is real let-down, yet the book is brilliant. When I read that he was doing a film version of "Dream Story' it made perfect sense to me. But seeing the film.... Oh no!But 'Dream Story' is really great.
It's so weird that you are on a Schnitzler kick. I just picked up "Road into the Open" from the library last week, thinking I should read some novels by these fin de siecle Viennese writers. (I also picked up a Zweig novel) Anyway, I wonder if the sex & death obssession was something in the air in Vienna at that time---it would be interesting to compare the themes of the two writers: Schitzler & Zweig.
When I read your "white choppers" I initially thought of white fuzzy mutton chops and I was trying to remember if Cruise has those chops- then I realized- TEETH!! of course, he does have freaking white teeth.Anyway, I meant Schnitzler above not Schitzler-egads, my typing!
I just love the term choppers for some reason. I use it every chance I get.Well there must be something in the air here and now, because I've gone on a Hugo von Hofmannsthal kick (who was in the Viennese circle) and when I posted a review I saw that Tosh had just put some Schnitzler books up, which led me to finally read him, which has now made me curious about Zweig, and now you! What is going on?
Zweig is fascinating as well. Also let's not forget the contemporary (but late) Thomas Bernhard. His style is different, but I feel there is a connection between his Vienna world and the old as well.
Yes, Schnitzler, Hofmannsthal, Zweig, Altenberg, Kraus, Meyrink, Musil & more more more. And contemporaries- Bernhard & Jelinek (who does write about sex, but not the kind of sex I would want to deal with.) It turns into a very crowded bookshelf.Actually, I'm very interested in this time amd place in history, but I thought I should read some of the novelists- to supplement the history books.
I think the sex & death aspects of some these works have to do with the Freud-factor. He was spinning out his theories at the time.
Speaking of the movie & book bent- has anyone read Zweig's "Letter from an Unknown Woman"?
I've seen the Max Ophuls movie, which was very beautiful and moving, but I think the short story is rather hard to find. I'm curious to how Ophuls interpreted Zweig.
I love Letter from an Unknown Woman, and I just did find out that Ophul's Le Ronde (sp?) was based on a Schnitzler story. I also read that Freud said something to Schnitzler to the effect that he (Schnitzler) had intuited through fiction everything that Freud discovered scientifically, so these things were "in the air" and not necessarily centered on one person. It might all have to do with them intuiting that their beautiful world was about to end, which could lead to an obsession with sex and death.
Hi l_ethanks to you I left the library this morning with a nice little stack, including Zweig's Fantastic Night & other stories by Pushkin Press which includes his Letter from an Unknown Woman.
Thanks!
Going to the library- music to my ears. Wow! you found Letter from...I look forward to your review. And thanks for reminding me that La Ronde was based on Schnitzler- I saw that movie the same night as Letter....That sex & death fixation was discussed a little in F. Morton's "A Nervous Splendor" -which is a pretty decent book about a year in Vienna of that time.
Anyway- thank you for inspiring the 2008 Fall fin de siecle Vienna writers, reading challenge. I will have to find Hofmannsthal next.
Thanks. I actually liked the movie, but then I hadn't read the book before I saw it so I had no expectations. It actually follows the book fairly closely, but is just too glossy or something, the production's too high.
I haven't read the book or seen Kubrick's film yet. I'm going to read it first and then watch. Which translation would you recommend?
I've only read this translation, so it's the only one I can recommend. It satisfied me.
Clockwork Orange wasn't made by an artist who doesn't understand sex and beastial impulses. Eyes is about very real death cults and is meant to not only judge but to condemn and damn to hell. This clear understanding of evil runs through most of his work.
To me the film had a strongly judgmental overtone that I didn't pick up on in the book at all. The movie seemed too set in reality while the book was much more "dreamlike".
I wonder how I would have reacted if I'd seen the film first and then read the book... It's exceedingly difficult for a film to live up to a beloved book.